Last year, I had the pleasure of spending a few nights in the northern city of Haifa. Although I have written posts reviewing the hotel and restaurants, I thought it would be helpful to combine it all into one post as a guide of things to do during a short visit to Haifa.

As soon as we arrived, we headed straight for a food tour of Downtown Haifa with Jessica Halfin of Haifa Street Food Tours. She warned us to come hungry and the tour included delicious Turkish burekas, Arabic sweets, arak, wine, creamy hummus and vegan malabi. Click here to read the full post of our street food tour.

My friends stayed at the Carmella Boutique Hotel, a charming hotel at the top of Mount Carmel, close to the Louis Promenade. The restored historic building has just 19 beautifully decorated and spacious rooms. I particularly liked the separate shower and bath, with natural sunlight and nice toiletry products. The rooms also included a complimentary mini bar with soft drinks and beers, a Nespresso machine and small jars with biscuits, nuts and dried fruits.

I stayed at the Bay Club Hotel (Kosher) located in central Haifa. Although the hotel itself is in a business area, it is a short walk to both the German Colony and Downtown Haifa. The hotel offered a free happy hour buffet at 6pm, as well as a delicious breakfast, in a tranquil conservatory. I thoroughly enjoyed my stay and would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a place in Haifa, here is a full review of the hotel.

Despite having already eaten all day on the food tour and hotel happy hour, we still managed to get through a tasting menu at Hanamal 24 (Not Kosher) in Downtown Haifa. Both the setting and menu have a European style and although we really enjoyed our meal, I don’t think it is ideal for tourists looking for a local experience, a full review of the restaurant is here.

The next morning, after a delicious breakfast, we headed for a walk on the Louis Promenade, with breathtaking views over the Bahai Gardens and Haifa Bay. You can visit parts of the Bahai Gardens on your own but in order to learn about the Bahai faith and to get the full impact of the 19 terraces, I would recommend a guided tour.  The free guided tours run at various times throughout the day in English, Hebrew and Russan (except Wednesdays) – check here for a timetable.

After a long day walking around the city, we went for an early dinner at Chang Ba (Not Kosher), a wonderfully authentic Thai food restaurant. The only challenge was deciding what to order, we wanted it all! After dinner, we wandered around the Downtown area, stopping at a few bars to soak in the atmosphere.

Chang Ba (Credit Avi Shumacher)

On our third day, we chose to explore some of the country-side around Haifa. We headed to Bet Lechem Haglilit where we first stopped at Derech Hatavlinim, an incredible spice factory surrounded by fields of herbs. Our next stop was Galili Olive Oil, a family-run olive oil business that uses a special ecological system from Tuscany to make olive oil without water. Finally, we went to Café Louise (Not Kosher) in Tivon for a fresh healthy meal before heading home.

Here is my first attempt at a travel vlog – it is very amateur and took me a year to edit but it gives an overview of the places we went.

There are so many other things to do in the area like The Clandestine Immigration and Naval Museum or a Druze cooking workshop in Daliat El Carmel with Galileat, both of which I am planning for my next visit in the area.

I hope this post is helpful for those planning a few nights in Haifa. If you like this post, please like, share and leave comments below.

Here is a list of posts about Haifa: