Arad itself is a small and very pretty town. It has an older town center with a grocery store, bakery, and independently owned convenience stores. It also has a mall, the "kanyon." It is a planned city. The center of the town has two long pedestrian walks separated by apartment buildings and playgrounds. Physically Arad is not far from Jerusalem. But because of the way the roads are laid out and the way the bus connections work it takes longer to get places than it should. On Fridays there are two direct buses to Tel Aviv. That saves us some time because then we don't have to take a bus to Beer Sheva and go from there to Tel Aviv.