Father's Day in Old Town Akko

After spending most of our time in my mother's hometown of Haifa, we were able to do a day trip this Father's Day to the seaside town of Akko (pronounced as you'd expect, but oddly also spelled "Acre" in many places).

You can read about Akko and its tourist sites here, but we really came to just meander about the old town streets, see the local vendors selling spices and wares, and have a nice seafood lunch in one of the world's most ancient cities. As far as my father was concerned, this was a perfect way to spend his Father's Day Sunday.

It was only a 30 minute drive north from Haifa to Akko. We arrived around 10AM and beat the tourist rush. We walked into the souk area past the Turkish Bazaar that hadn't yet opened yet.

In case you get lost in narrow streets and long passageways, just trust your sense of direction and use the placards that have vague directions to notable places and buildings. Aside from a few random alleys, most of the paths are either (a) towards the port/water area or (b) away from it. Not that complicated.

Inside the Old Town, we saw the variety of vendors. Some where selling brightly colored fruits and vegetables.

Others fresh fish from the day's catch.

Others selling spices and desserts.

And still others selling local craft goods that you'd expect from an Arabic community.

But then you had the vendors selling cheap garbage products you'd find in Chinatown.

Eventually, we reached the Port area where you'd find all the boats and a restaurant on the corner of the harbor where you could dine overlooking the water. Unfortunately, it didn't seem there was a way past that restaurant to get to the western waterfront of the Old City.

But my father had been to Akko in 2008 as a part of an organized tour, so he knew there was more to the city than the main path that my grandfather took us on. So we backtracked a bit and eventually found the path that ran parallel to the water. Then remembering there was a rooftop walkway, he again discovered the staircase that would allow us to walk along the top of the wall giving us a nice view of the Mediterranean.

Eventually, we climbed back down and found our way back into the middle of the Old City. Passing the Turkish Bath, we located the hallway for the Turkish Bazaar where the restaurant Savida Seafood was located.

Happy father's day to all you dads out there!