The central bus station in nearly every Israeli town or city is a major landmark. In addition to being the terminal for all intercity routes passing through that location, the central bus station is almost always a major hub for the local buses in that city as well, with many routes stopping or terminating there. The new Tel Aviv Central Bus Station, which opened in August of 1993, has a built area of 2,475,699 square feet (230,000 square meters) and is the largest bus station in the world. Some of the other terminals, such as in Jerusalem or in Haifa, are quite large as well.

The basic layout of most of the bus stations is similar. Generally, there is an area where buses drop off arriving passengers, and a separate area where buses pull into designated platforms and pick up passengers. Some of the stations have large shopping concourses, and even the smaller ones have some food vendors. The larger stations have airport style security, with passengers entering the terminal from the street and also passengers entering from arriving buses being required to pass through metal detectors and having their bags inspected either by hand or on an x-ray machine.