Acre sits at the northern tip of Haifa Bay, on a small peninsula that has been a port since the Bronze Age, and the House of Abbud is one of the Ottoman-era buildings of its old town, in a maze of stone lanes about a kilometre from the walls.
Two layers of history are stacked here. The Crusaders held Acre from 1104 and made it their main port after losing Jerusalem, and the halls of the Knights Hospitaller, vast vaulted spaces half buried under later buildings, are among the most atmospheric rooms in the country. Visitors can also walk through a tunnel dug by the Templars. The city fell to the Mamluks in 1291, ending the Crusader presence on the mainland. Centuries later, in the late eighteenth century, the Ottoman governor Ahmad al-Jazzar rebuilt it, with the great mosque that bears his name, the caravanserai called Khan al-Umdan and the massive sea walls that stopped Napoleon in 1799. Today the old city is a living, mostly Arab neighbourhood with fishermen, markets, and children playing among the stones.
Not far to the north, at Bahji, the Baha'i Faith has its holiest shrine and a garden, which UNESCO inscribed together with the shrines of Haifa in 2008. The coast road, Route 4, runs from Haifa through Acre to Nahariya and the border at Rosh Hanikra, with white cliffs and sea caves, and the fast roads are busy with traffic. Inland, the hills of the western Galilee have good riding with bends, olive groves and villages, though you should check local conditions before choosing routes, since the situation in the region can change.
The old town is meant to be walked. Park outside the walls, near the harbour or at the car park by the land gate, because the lanes are narrow and some are steps. Acre has a hot, humid summer, with the best weather in spring and October. The fish restaurants on the harbour, the hummus places in the souk and the sweet shops with kunafa are the real draw. Fuel is on the main roads around Acre and in the nearby towns of Kiryat Yam and Nahariya.