24 HOURS IN ACRE
Arrival to Acre
Most travellers skip Acre, not going to this area or only stay at the larger city of Haifa. (We stopped by the UNESCO-listed Bahá’à gardens in Haifa, but that’s a different story). Other just visit on a day trip.
But we heard great things and it look more cosy on pictures than large Haifa. The old town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and you know I’m a sucker for it.
We arrive by car from Tel Aviv. It’s an easy trip with good roads, just notice road number 6 and 1 are toll roads. Just before arriving, we pass a great beach hoping to catch it before we leave. Wishing we had more time – as you always do on travels.
It’s illegal (and kind of impossible) to drive or park inside the old city were we are staying. Our host at the apartment hotel told us to there is a drop off parking lot a 100 meters away and a free parking lot 600 meters away.
We drive to the nearest and my sister and I carry the two large suitcases (not my usual backpack this time) up the stairs around corners and over the cobbled street to our apartment. My mom stays in the car to avoid a fine and decides to leave her cabin bag in the car and pack everything she needs in her backpack.
The parking lot is next to a school, there are a lot of other cars. My sister says something about if my mom is sure she wants to leave her bag here. I’m not really listening.
The harbour and city walls
Dinner at Uri Buri
The first thing we do is hurry to the legendary Uri Buri restaurant, you might have seen it on every foodie’s tv show like Feeding Phil. It has also been named one of the best restaurants in the world, and the best restaurant in the Middle East and in Israel by Trip Advisor. So not-to-be-missed?
You can’t make a reservation online and we didn’t get to call, but it’s worth a shot. My sister is usually pretty lucky, so they have at table about 45 minutes later if we can eat fast. Fast you say? You haven’t seen eaters like us… We run to the hotel for a quick shower and change and are back at the fish restaurant exactly on time.
Grilles octopus! Shrimps in garlic! Ceviche! Paired with Israeli white wine. Finishing with ice cream made on dates, cinnamon, cardamom and halva. All the good stuff.
For a hyped place, the atmosphere is relaxed and comfortable. I recommend the tasting menu – as in most top notch eateries. It was excellent and not to expensive – and that’s saying a lot in a country 10% more expensive than Denmark! We’re in and out in an hour.
Evening walk
One of the joys of Acre is simply getting lost in the narrow streets of the old market. After dinner, my sister wants to go to the room and escape our company for a while. I know my mom always wants to stay out as late as possible and I would like take some photographs so the two of us take an evening stroll.
When we walk out, a small square nearby is filling up with tables and lanterns and festively dressed people are arriving. Wedding? We don’t like to crash parties, so we meander on through the maze-like streets.
As always, I need to use the bathroom, so my mom agrees to buy a cup of coffee in Mina Café. (Otherwise Israel is the best country ever for someone with a small bladder. Free and mostly clean toilets everywhere.)
The inhabitants of Acre are mainly Muslims. We pass the El-Jazzar mosque known as the white mosque from 1781. Luckily, it’s open for visitors for a small fee. I usually carry a scarf for such an occasion, but didn’t this time. The friendly man at the gate lends me one (they do that most religious places in Israel).
“Shit!” My mom screams (she always does that, when she can’t find something). “Where is my scarf?” “Maybe you left the at the café?” I say. She runs back, while I go into the grounds and let her stress on her own. (Probably should have help her in hindsight…) I’m about to enter the mosque when someone yells “stop!”
A woman comes running towards me, telling me I can’t go inside in a not-friendly voice. She drags me towards a small side building. “That is for men. You must come with me.” I see the boring small closet-like prayer room for the women and then glance at the men’s beautifully decorated hall. This is not what I wanted to see. “I’m very sorry,” I say. “But the man said I could go…” She looks at me surprised. “If the man says fine, you can of course go, but if it was me I wouldn’t go. But sure if you want to be disrespectful!”
I do not want to be disrespectful, but when you pay to see a mosque and the man at the entrance says you can go and gives you a scarf, I’m clearly not trespassing.
I enter. No one is there. I sit down and enjoy the exquisite craftsmanship. I love the dimensions of the Islamic architecture. A man arrives to pray. The woman from before also enters but don’t enter the hall, but stay by the shoe rack to pray. I leave and think it was much ado about nothing. My mom now arrives with her scarf, but won’t pay to see the mosque.
So tired and excited for tomorrow.
Exploring the Crusader city
We wake up not knowing that the night has brought about something unpleasant.
Have a small breakfast which for me is just a cup of mint tea.
Acre: A UNESCO Crusader City by the Sea
Acre (or Akko) is not just another pretty old town. The entire Old City is a UNESCO World Heritage Site because it preserves one of the best examples of a fortified medieval Crusader city in the Eastern Mediterranean. This is reason enough to go.
The city has been inhabited for thousands of years – from the Phoenicians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Islamic rulers and the Crusaders. What makes Acre special is that these different periods are not hidden in a museum—they are literally built into the streets beneath your feet.
Unlike many historical cities where the old centre has become mainly a tourist attraction, Acre still feels like a living city. You walk past markets, homes and cafés while discovering remains of one of the most important ports of the medieval world.
The citadel
I always recommend to go first for the attraction at the top of your list. You never know what might happen, so waste no time (and this time it proved me right sadly). We stand before the crusaders citadel as it opens.
Acre was the Crusaders’ last great stronghold in the Holy Land. After Jerusalem fell, this fortified port became their capital until the Mamluks captured it in 1291, bringing two centuries of Crusader rule to an end. Walking through the halls, hospital and underground passages, it’s easy to imagine knights, pilgrims and merchants passing through these same rooms.
The citadel and the surrounding area has everything you imagine from a real fortress. Especially thrilling is the enormous pillared dining hall, where the knights enjoyed a meal far from home. You can easily imagine Richard Lionheart being here.
The Templar Tunnel
One sight I unfortunately missed was the Templars’ Tunnel, one of Acre’s most famous underground attractions.
Built by the Knights Templar in the 12th century, the tunnel connected their fortress near the harbour with the sea. It was used as a strategic passage and escape route, allowing the knights to move between their headquarters and the port without crossing the city streets.
The tunnel is one of the best examples of how much of Acre’s Crusader history remains hidden beneath the modern city. Next time I return, it will be high on my list, whcih I probaly wont. Arrgh, it annoys me I missed it.
The theft
We opened the boot to load our luggage.
“Where’s Mum’s cabin bag?”
We searched every corner of the car before the reality sank in. Someone had broken in during the night.
And it’s off to the police station. We can’t park anywhere nearby for free and neither my sister or I want to leave our bags in the car. We drive to the parking lot of the police station and after looking really sad and confused, a nice man let’s us park inside with the police cars.
Apparently, it’s not uncommon for this to happen. An hour later, we leave with a police report in Hebrew. Wonder what my mom’s insurance company will do.
We buy lunch from one of the best hummus places in the world Hummus Said. Being all flustered, we forgot cash. So my sister has to run around the entire city to find an ATM. Meanwhile I sit and look pretty. The very nice staff offered me both water and coffee. After 15 minutes, she came back. Turns out the ATM was right next to the hummus shop.
We are so we park the car next to a bench so we can enjoy our lunch on a parking lot looking at the car. what an experience…
What we needed was some delicious hummus. They make it with and without tahini and pickled vegetables and egg.
After discussing and recovering from the chock, we decide to go to the beach. We almost give up on doing anything fun today. I try to lift my sister’s spirit and suggests we skip the Templar tunnel (she sighs) and the UNESCO site on my list and head for the beach (we have different ideas of fun).
Leaving
Just south of Acre we head for the beach we passed on our way into town. But we can’t get the parking app to work so we have to run down for a quick swim one by one, so it’s not really a beach day.
To top this day off, the traffic gods don’t like us. When we leave Acre, the GPS says the 1,5 hour drive to Jerusalem will take 3 hours due to a traffic accident. It did!
Why Stay Overnight in Acre?
My honest opinion on Acre
Now you might think being robbed would ruin our trip to Acre and Israel, but when I travel I have different expectations than when I’m on a holiday. Everything that happens is part of the journey (as long as you are safe obviously) – even the cancelled train, the bad hotel and the yelling when you dress wrongly in a religious country.
Strange as it sounds, the theft isn’t what I remember most about Acre.
I remember eating extraordinary seafood overlooking the harbour. Wandering medieval streets after sunset. Exploring one of the best Crusader fortresses I’ve ever visited.
The stolen bag became part of the story—not the reason to avoid the city.
Just don’t leave anything visible in your car.
Sometimes the dumb things make great stories. Like the time a Ha Long Bay trip in Vietnam became a Monkey Island prison! or the time I accidentally embarrassed myself (almost) in front of the pope in Rome.
Have you been robbed on a trip?
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Your writing style is engaging.
Thank you so much.
Why is Israel not one of your favorite countries?
Hello, thank you for writing.
There’s a complex answer to that question. Obviously, everyone has their own experience and even 2 visits to the same country are not the same. With the abundance of history in Israel and the fantastic food, it should be a favourite. But first of all, out of all my 52 countries, this is the first time we got robbed. Secondly, we had huge problems with the infrastructure almost missing our flight home due to a Jewish holiday closing ALL public transportation and joined with the fact, that we had to give up visiting the Dead Sea because of border issues. Furthermore, we had unpleasant encounters with both religious tourists groups as well as some locals, which happens everywhere, but was just this more intense here. Not to mention, the extremely high prices.
All that being said, I’m happy to have been, and it’s not my least favourite country at all, and when the frustration of all the practical difficulties slowly are forgotten, I will probably be more positive.
In short, I do not plan to revisit Israel, because there’s just so many incredible places out there.
Hope this answers your question.
Best regards Sara
I appreciated this helpful blog post, as an English speaking expat living in Israel for some years, I am planning a trip to Akko and you had both an interesting story and some helpful info. Though I was a bit taken aback by your need to specify that Israel (or any country) is not one of your favorite countries. I was robbed in America, and had some almost incidents (robbed or assaulted) in America, and some other locations (Europe, Mayalsia..) but I like to think i have a good sense of my surroundings and am always on the lookout for everything from serious crime to pickpockets whether in Paris, Barcelona, USA or anywhere else. That said nobody will tell you this because it’s not politically correct, nor does it represent most of the people there but Akko is a mixed city, with the old city being mostly Arab and the newer areas more mixed, and there have been some issues with political violence (on extremely rare occasions) and slightly more common, crime including theft, there that are not common in Israel. The closing of Public Transport is incredibly inconvenient to both tourists and most Israelis, but is in place due to demands of the Ultra Orthodox who wield a disproportionate amount of power in Israel. Though things are changing…Until it changes, it’s ideal to be aware of the holidays and plan ahead. I’m curious to know about the dead sea issue as you don’t have to pass any borders to get there. (you do pass near Jericho which is probably worth visiting if you go the shorter way from Jerusalem, but you can go the longer way if you prefer). By religious tourists I’m guessing you meant the Ultra Orthodox? They seem to have a way of their own. I know I grew up in that world… But that’s too bad and I’m saddened that you had to deal with this, the prices indeed are high, especially compared to the states, less compared to Western Europe from what I’ve seen. (Actually I just looked it up and places like Switzerland and Denmark rank as more expensive, but Israel is still pretty high up on the list). Hope you find your way back to this lovely country and many other countries that you wish to visit and have a great experience in all of them.
Thank you for your comment. I’m glad if you found any valuable information.
To answer some of your questions:
I am always very honest and Israel is not one of my favourite countries to travel due to several experiences. The same goes for Vietnam, where I’ve had numerous bad encounters with locals and also Estonia, since there’s not too much to see. I do however would like to go back to Mexico and Central Asia.
By religious tourists it was all kind of religions, but the ones I found most annoying was the large Christian groups. Just groups in general can be a bother. But as a tourist myself I’m probably part of the problem.
Concerning the dead sea, we might have found wrong information, but many places just said that it could be difficult. We thought about going to Jordan, but gave up because of time.
It’s true Denmark is expensive as well and Switzerland is just crazy expensive, and it affects the overall experience – also for anyone visiting my home country. But it’s of course not the most important when you have some means like I do.
Thank you, but with all the world to see I might not get too many re-visits. The dead sea will probably be from Jordan side, since that’s also a country I would like to re-visit. But you never know. Safe travels.