Mazel Tov to Our Waldorf Astoria Jerusalem Family

I am so excited for the Waldorf I feel like I won! Waldorf Astoria Jerusalem was just named the best hotel in Israel for 2026 by Travel + Leisure, and on top of that, third best hotel in the entire Middle East and North Africa. I could not be prouder if I tried.

I have been coming to this hotel since the very first day it opened its doors 12 years ago. It is not an exaggeration to say it is my home away from home in Jerusalem. It has been the backdrop of birthdays, the site of more Shabbat tables than I can count, the place I bring guests when I want them to understand what it feels like when history and luxury and genuine warmth all live in the same building.

Let’s talk about what this award actually means. Over 207,000 readers of one of the most respected travel magazines in the world came out to vote, casting more than 661,000 votes across every category. That is real people, choosing with their hearts, not a panel behind closed doors. And Jerusalem itself, our Jerusalem, was voted the best tourist city in the Middle East and North Africa, and seventh best city in the entire world. Seventh. In the world.

Avner On is the General Manager of Waldorf Astoria Jerusalem, and also a dear friend. I have watched him and his team operate through every kind of season, the easy ones and the hard ones, and I have never once seen the standard drop. Not at the front desk, not in housekeeping, not from whoever answers the phone at 2am when a guest needs something. Not at the King’s Court restaurant, not at the Guerlain Spa. That is not an accident. That is fourteen years of a team deciding, over and over again, that excellence is not a slogan.

Hubby and I have gone there for every anniversary, every birthday, every family occasion, for fourteen years. And plenty of times when we had nothing to celebrate at all, just because. I have brought guests there celebrating milestones of their own, and they left telling me it was the best trip of their lives, partly because of what they saw in the Old City, and partly because of how they were cared for at the Waldorf.

So today, mazel tov, Avner. Mazel tov to the entire Waldorf Astoria Jerusalem team. You did not just win an award. You told the world, again, that Jerusalem is still Jerusalem. Still worth the trip. Still, even now, not matter what the headlines say, a place people vote for with their hearts and their travel dollars.

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I am so proud to call this hotel my home away from home in Jerusalem.

Here’s to the next twelve years.