Acre is one of the oldest continuously inhabited ports in the world, and for the followers of the Bahá'í faith it has another meaning. Bahá'u'lláh, the founder, was exiled to the Ottoman prison city of Acre in 1868 and spent the rest of his life there, and in the countryside a few kilometres north of the walls he lived in a mansion called Bahjí. He died there in 1892, and the room in the house next door became a shrine. The shrine is the holiest place in the Bahá'í world, a quiet building of white stone with a glass-roofed courtyard, surrounded by gardens with lawns, hedges and palms. It was listed by UNESCO in 2008, with the Bahá'í sites in Haifa.
Visitors are welcome, and entry is free, but there are rules. Modest dress is expected, and shoes are taken off at the door of the inner room. Photography is not allowed in some areas, and the gardens are open at certain times, so check before you go. The atmosphere is peaceful, with the sound of fountains and the scent of orange blossom.
Acre itself is worth a few hours. The old city, built by the Crusaders and rebuilt by the Ottomans, is a maze of stone vaults, harbour walls and markets. The Hospitaller halls, under the street, are a very fine piece of medieval architecture, and the Al-Jazzar mosque, from the eighteenth century, has a lovely courtyard. Restaurants in the old port serve fresh fish and the local hummus, which is famously good.
The roads here are the coastal ones, the main highway running north and south and quieter lanes through the orchards of the Western Galilee. The surface is good and traffic is heavy at rush hours, with fast drivers and sudden stops. Rosh HaNikra, a set of sea caves near the Lebanese border, is a short ride north. Fuel is easy to find in Acre, a city of forty-five thousand people. The weather is hot in summer and humid, while spring and autumn are pleasant.
Conditions in this region can change, so check current advice about travel and access before you set out.