Haifa: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
Mount Carmel is where the Bible sets Elijah's contest with the prophets of Baal, and every faith that came after left something on its slope: a cave of prayer, a Carmelite monastery, the gardens of the Bahá'í. This walk goes from the sea up the tip of the ridge by cable car, along the top, and down through the gardens to the German Colony. About three hours with the cable car; the gardens close to visitors on Bahá'í holy days and on one weekday, so check the hours before you go. Shoulders and knees covered for every stop.
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A short history of Haifa
People were already living on the shore of Haifa Bay in the Canaanite period, at Tel Shikmona in the south of today's city. The Crusaders took the place in 1100, and afterwards it declined into a small village. In 1761 Daher al-Omar destroyed the old settlement and built a walled town a little to the east, and in 1869 the German Templers founded their colony at the foot of Mount Carmel. In 1905 a branch of the Hejaz Railway reached Haifa, in 1924 the Technion opened, and in 1933 the British inaugurated the deep-water port. In April 1948 the city passed into the hands of the Haganah and most of its Arab residents left. On the slope above the German Colony stands the Bahá'í World Centre, with the Shrine of the Báb and the terraced gardens.
The ten best sights in Haifa
1Shrine of the BábThe golden dome in the middle of the gardens; shoulders and knees covered, free entry
2German ColonyStone Templer houses along Ben Gurion Boulevard, with the gardens rising at the top end
3Stella Maris MonasteryThe Carmelite church on the tip of the ridge; the cable car stops at its gate
4Elijah's CaveA place of prayer, with men and women entering on separate sides; modest dress
5Clandestine Immigration and Naval MuseumYou go on board a real immigrant ship; give it an hour and a half
6National Maritime MuseumAcross the road from the immigration museum; ancient anchors and ship models
7Tikotin Museum of Japanese ArtPrints, screens and a quiet room on the Carmel; a short walk from the gardens
8Mané-Katz MuseumThe painter's house on the ridge, with his work and his Judaica
9MadatechThe science museum in the first Technion building; hands-on and good for kids
10Hecht MuseumAt the University of Haifa: an ancient ship and archaeology, free entry
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What is an audio walk?
Tours in Haifa →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Haifa:
Free walking tours in Haifa
The mountain of Elijah
Mount Carmel is where the Bible sets Elijah's contest with the prophets of Baal, and every faith that came after left something on its slope: a cave of prayer, a Carmelite monastery, the gardens of the Bahá'í. This walk goes from the sea up the tip of the ridge by cable car, along the top, and down through the gardens to the German Colony. About three hours with the cable car; the gardens close to visitors on Bahá'í holy days and on one weekday, so check the hours before you go. Shoulders and knees covered for every stop.
- Elijah's Cave · By Jewish tradition the prophet Elijah lived and prayed in this cave at the foot of the Carmel. It is a place of prayer to this day, and Christians, Muslims and Druze revere it too.
- Bat Galim Cable Car · Opened in 1986, it lifts you from the promenade of Bat Galim to the Stella Maris ridge, a climb that takes a few minutes instead of a sweaty half hour on the path.
- Stella Maris Monastery · The Carmelite order took its name from this mountain, and the present church was built in 1836 over a grotto linked to Elijah. The small pyramid in front marks French soldiers of Napoleon who were nursed here, wounded, during the siege of Akko in 1799, and killed after his retreat.
- Louis Promenade · From this rail you see the whole bay in one look: the port and the refineries below, Akko across the water, and on a clear day the white cliffs of Rosh HaNikra on the Lebanese border.
- Shrine of the Báb · The Báb, the forerunner of the Bahá'í faith, was executed in Persia in 1850, and his remains were laid here in 1909; the golden dome was finished in 1953. The nineteen terraces around it and the Bahá'í holy places of Haifa and western Galilee have been a World Heritage site since 2008.
- German Colony · The Templers, a German Protestant movement that hoped to hasten redemption by settling the Holy Land, founded the colony in 1868. Many of their stone houses still carry Bible verses in German over the door; the British interned the Templers in the Second World War and deported most of them.
In spite of everything
For most Jews who reached the Land of Israel by sea, Haifa was the gate: the illegal immigrant ships of the 1930s and 40s aimed for its coast, and after 1948 the new state's immigrants came off the boats here. This walk starts on the deck of one of those ships and climbs through the port and the old Jewish centre of Hadar to the building where the Technion began. About three hours with the Carmelit; the market and some museums close early on Friday and all of Shabbat.
- Clandestine Immigration and Naval Museum · At its centre stands Af Al Pi Chen, "in spite of everything", a landing craft that carried Jewish refugees to this coast in 1947 and was caught by the British. Between 1946 and 1949 the British held more than fifty thousand such immigrants in camps on Cyprus.
- National Maritime Museum · Founded in 1953, it tells the story of sailing in the eastern Mediterranean through ship models, ancient anchors and coins with ships on them, many raised from wrecks off this coast.
- Dagon Museum · The silo by the port was built by Reuben Hecht's Dagon company, which stored the country's grain, and inside it is a small museum of how people have grown, ground and stored grain since ancient times. Hecht also founded the museum at the university that carries his name.
- Carmelit, Paris Square · Opened in 1959, the Carmelit was Israel's first underground railway: a cable-hauled train of six stations that climbs from the port to the top of the Carmel, with stepped carriages to fit the slope.
- Talpiot Market · The covered market of Hadar opened in 1940 in a modernist building of concrete and long windows, the work of the architect Moshe Gerstel, when Hadar was the busy heart of Jewish Haifa.
- Madatech · This is the first building of the Technion. In 1913 its founders decided to teach in German, and the protest of teachers and students across the country, the War of the Languages, ended with Hebrew as the language of the school; studies began here in 1924.
The mountain behind the city
Behind Haifa the Carmel rolls on for twenty kilometres of pine and oak, with Druze towns along the ridge and the coast plain below. This loop by car leaves from the university, follows the ridge past the forest and the Druze villages to the place of Elijah's sacrifice, and comes down to the sea at Ein Hod and Atlit. About 80 kilometres and a full day; the Atlit camp is visited by guided tour, so book it, and on Shabbat the Druze towns are open and busy.
- Hecht Museum · The museum keeps the Ma'agan Michael ship, a merchant vessel of about 400 BCE found on the seabed off the kibbutz of that name in 1985, one of the best-preserved ancient ships in the world.
- Little Switzerland · A picnic forest of pines over a deep wadi. In December 2010 the Carmel fire burned tens of thousands of dunams here and killed 44 people, most of them cadets of the prison service whose bus was trapped by the flames; the forest has since grown back.
- Daliyat al-Karmel · A Druze town on the ridge of the Carmel. Laurence Oliphant, a British writer who backed Jewish settlement, built a summer house here in the 1880s, and his secretary was Naftali Herz Imber, the poet who wrote the words of Hatikvah.
- Muhraka · The Carmelite monastery on this summit marks the place where tradition sets Elijah's contest with the prophets of Baal in the First Book of Kings, when fire came down on his altar. From the roof you see the whole Jezreel Valley.
- Ein Hod · The Dada artist Marcel Janco, one of the founders of the movement in Zurich, settled in this abandoned Arab village with a group of artists in 1953, and it has been an artists' village ever since; his work hangs in the Janco Dada Museum here.
- Atlit Detainee Camp · The British held Jewish immigrants caught at sea in this barbed-wire camp. On the night of 10 October 1945 the Palmach broke in and led some two hundred detainees out over the Carmel; inside you see the huts, the disinfection hall and an immigrant ship.
Getting to Haifa and getting around
- Haifa Hof HaCarmel Station · Trains to Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion airport, with the intercity bus terminal next door
- Carmelit, Paris Square · The underground funicular from downtown up to the Carmel centre; it saves a steep climb
- Haifa Airport · Small airport by the bay with domestic flights to Eilat; useful only if you split the trip
Cheap eats in Haifa
Haifa's cheap food is Arab Haifa's food: falafel, shawarma and hummus in Wadi Nisnas and downtown, eaten standing or at a plastic table. Unlike much of the country, a good part of it stays open on Shabbat, because the Arab neighbourhoods do not close. Lunch for two at a stand costs less than one main course on the Carmel.
- Falafel HaZkenim · Falafel in pita with salads, about 20 ₪
- Falafel Michel · The rival stand in Wadi Nisnas; falafel in pita, about 20 ₪
- Shawarma Emil · Shawarma in pita or laffa off the spit, about 45 ₪
- Falafel Kikar Paris · Falafel by the bottom station of the Carmelit, about 20 ₪
- Talpiot Market · Bourekas and fresh juice from the stalls, about 15 ₪
- Baklava, Wadi Nisnas · A tray of sweets by weight, about 15 ₪ for a few pieces
Museums in Haifa
- Clandestine Immigration and Naval Museum · An immigrant ship on land; an hour and a half
- Madatech · Science for kids in the old Technion; half a day with children
- Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art · Japanese prints and screens; quiet, an hour
- Hecht Museum · An ancient ship and archaeology at the university; free
- National Maritime Museum · Anchors, models and coins of the sea; combine with the immigration museum
- Mané-Katz Museum · Paintings and Judaica in the artist's house; small, half an hour
Holy places in Haifa
- Shrine of the Báb · Free guided walks down the terraces from the top; check the days
- Elijah's Cave · Modest dress; separate entrances for men and women
- Stella Maris Monastery · Painted dome and a grotto under the altar; free
- Great Synagogue of Haifa · The main synagogue of Hadar; modest dress, not on Shabbat for visits
- Muhraka · Monastery on the summit of the Carmel; a view of the whole valley from the roof
Nature and day trips near Haifa
- Little Switzerland · Shaded trails and picnic tables in the Carmel forest
- Rosh HaNikra · Sea grottoes under the white cliff on the Lebanese border; check it is open
- Dado Beach · The long city beach; named after the chief of staff David Elazar
- Bat Galim Promenade · A short seafront walk under the cable car; sunset over the water
- Gan HaEm · Old trees, a small zoo and playgrounds on the Carmel
Where to eat in Haifa
- Douzan · Arab and French cooking in a Templer house on Ben Gurion Boulevard
- Fattoush · A garden of tables on the boulevard; salads, mezze and a long evening
- Mimino · Georgian food, khachapuri and khinkali, by the German Colony
- Ein El Wadi · Near the bottom of Ben Gurion Boulevard; book at weekends
- Ma'ayan HaBira · Downtown: sausages, chopped liver, kishke and beer, the food of Romanian and Polish Haifa; busy at lunch
Frequently asked questions about Haifa
What is there to see in Haifa?
The top sights in Haifa are Shrine of the Báb, German Colony and Stella Maris Monastery. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Haifa?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Haifa without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Haifa?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Haifa, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The mountain of Elijah.
How do you get to Haifa and get around?
The main ways are Haifa Hof HaCarmel Station, Carmelit, Paris Square and Haifa Airport. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Haifa, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Haifa that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Haifa for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.