Akko

• 🌍 Acre railway station. Israel Railways trains run to Akko every 30 minutes or less during the day, and hourly all night. Some trains go only until Haifa, while others travel southbound to Tel Aviv and even many to Ben Gurion Airport. ₪39 from Tel Aviv, ₪15.50 from Haifa. 

🌍 Nateev Express has a slow (especially at rush hour) connection to Akko for ₪11.7 from Haifa and from Carmiel. Take lines 271/361/500 from Haifa (Merkazit Hamifratz - the eastern bus station in Haifa Bay), 361 from Safed, and 500 from Kiryat Shmona. There are also some less frequent routes you can take, so whenever an intercity bus comes, ask if it goes where you need.

Note, buses from Haifa to Akko start outside of Haifa at the Merkazit Hamifratz (Bay Central) bus station. To get there, you have to take a local bus for ₪5.90. Considering this, it is mostly always better to take the train directly.

Between Akko and Nazareth take bus 353, going about every hour but ending early in the afternoon. Bus 343 also travels this route, but it's extremely slow, visiting each of the small villages along the way. If bus 353 is not available, take a bus/train to Haifa and then another bus to Nazareth.

• A "service taxi" (Hebrew: מונית שרות; moNEET sheROOT) is an interurban van carrying 10 passengers. These travel frequently from the Hadar neighborhood of Haifa to Akko. They cost about the same as the bus. Look for a Hebrew-only sign saying "Akko Nahariya" or "Akko Karmiel" in the front windshield of the service taxi. If you don't know Hebrew, go to Herzl Street in Haifa, point an index finger at a 45 degree angle with the ground (the Israeli hitchhiking signal) when a service taxi drives by, and ask where it's going. They pick up and offload passengers at bus stops. Unlike public transportation (bus and train) which cease service during the Jewish Sabbath, this line runs up to midnight on Fridays and during the day on Saturday.
• Private taxis are available but are very costly. This is an option if you're traveling in a group of up to 4 passengers and/or have a lot of luggage.

A foot-passenger ferry plies between Haifa and Akko on four days a week. It sails M Tu W from Akko at 10:00 and 15:00, returning from Haifa at 11:00 and 16:00. Saturday it sails from Akko at 09:30, 12:30 and 16:30, returning at 11:00, 13:30 and 17:30. This means a day trip is possible in either direction. It's only a small boat so sailings are cancelled in bad weather. The departure point from Akko is the new terminal within the Old Port. Fares are ₪30 one way and ₪55 round trip. Online booking is only possible in Hebrew, otherwise call 04-9913890 or just go to the terminal ticket office.

Akko has a marina but is not a port of entry into Israel. Vessels from abroad must first head for Haifa port where there are 24 hour facilities for immigration and customs clearance.

Many historic sites require an entrance fee. There is a combined (adult) ticket for all sights (mostly Citadel, Knights Hall and Templar Tunnel) for ₪62 including the Turkish bath and ₪40 without it available. Students, disabled people or children pay between 20-40% less.

• 🌍 The city wall. The wall is picturesque and fun to walk along, especially the part bordering the sea. In 1750, Daher El-Omar, the ruler of Acre, utilized the remnants of the Crusader walls as a foundation for his walls. Two gates were set in the wall, the "land gate" in the eastern wall, and the "sea gate" in the southern wall. In 1912 the Acre lighthouse was built on the south-western corner of the walls. 
• 🌍 Hall of the Crusader Knights. Under the citadel and prison of Acre, archaeological excavations revealed a complex of halls, which was built and used by the Hospitallers Knights. This complex was a part of the Hospitallers' citadel, which was combined in the northern wall of Acre. The complex includes six semi-joined halls, one large hall, a dungeon, a dining room and remains of an ancient Gothic church. Medieval European remains include the Church of Saint George and adjacent houses at the Genovese Square . There were also residential quarters and marketplaces run by merchants from Pisa and Amalfi in Crusader and medieval Acre. ₪37. 
• 🌍 Tunnel of the Templars. An underground tunnel carved in stone by the Templar Crusaders to connect their fortress on the west side of Akko to the port on the east side. Discovered in 1994, it has been restored and you can walk through it. The location shown on the map here is the western entrance. ₪15. 
• 🌍 The Pisan Port. No longer active, you can see the remains of a port here. The adjacent area was populated by Pisans during the Crusader area. The remains are not too exciting, but you'll see them as part of a walk along the city wall. 
• 🌍 Khan el Umdan. Old Akko has several large khans (an inn enclosing a courtyard, used by caravans for accommodation) which once served the camel caravans bringing in grain from the hinterland. The grandest is the Khan al-Umdan. Its name means 'Inn of the Pillars', and it was built by Al-Jazzar in 1785. The pillars that give the khan its name were looted from the Caesarea ruins. It is a two-story structure and the ground floor would have housed the animals, while their merchant owners would have slept upstairs. 
• 🌍 Hammam al-Basha. Built in 1795 by Jezzar Pasha, Acre's hammam has a series of hot rooms and a hexagonal steam room with a marble fountain. It was used by the Irgun as a bridge to break into the citadel's prison. The bathhouse kept functioning until 1950. Now it is a museum with a humorous retelling of Akko's history and the bathhouse experience. ₪25. 
• 🌍 Tel Akko (Napoleon's Hill). Site of the ancient city of Akko, until the Hellenistic period. Later on, Napoleon used the hill as a lookout point while besieging Akko. Now, there are walking trails around the hill, and it has a nice view in all directions. 

• 🌍 The Shrine of Baha'u'llah. The holiest place for the Baha'is; they face towards here for their daily prayers and are buried with their feet pointing here. The Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh is composed of a central room that has a small garden at its centre, which has trees growing in it and there are layers of carpets around the walls. In the right hand corner of the central room there is a small room where Bahá'u'lláh's remains are laid to rest. 
• 🌍 Ramchal synagogue. A synagogue used by the Ramchal (Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, a 1700s kabbalist) 
• 🌍 Or Torah, ☏ +972 50-682-2781. A Tunisian synagogue, a meticulously handcrafted spectacle of stained glass and tile mosaic entirely unique to Akko. 
• 🌍 Great Mosque of al-Jezzar. Built in 1781, it is one of the largest mosques in Israel. Jezzar Pasha and his successor Suleiman Pasha are buried in a small graveyard adjacent to the mosque. In a shrine on the second level of the mosque, a single hair from the prophet Mohammed's beard is kept and shown on special ceremonial occasions. 

• 🌍 Akko port. Interesting to walk around here for a few minutes, see the boats, and maybe take one. 
• 🌍 The market. An urban market, best known as place to buy fish. The market spreads along Marco Polo, Binyamin Metudela, and Fakhr-al-Din streets. 
• 🌍 Oukashi Art Museum. Around the corner from the Hamman al-Pasha is a gallery devoted to the works of Avshalom Okashi (1916-80), an influential Israeli painter and a resident of Akko for the last half of his life. 
• 🌍 Akko botanical garden. Su-Th 15:00-21:00, F 14:00-18:00, Sa 09:00-20:00, closed when raining. (updated Apr 2018)