CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Acre it runs 309 km to Acre; allow about 5 h 20 of riding. The stops in between: Qalaat Chama’, Qalaat Chakra, Tyre and Qalaat al-Chakif. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,000 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Israel into Lebanon - carry ID and check the toll rules. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Acre has been a port for roughly four thousand years, but the city you walk through today is a layered one. Beneath the Ottoman streets lies the headquarters of the Crusader kingdom's last years, when Acre was the capital and a thriving trading harbour, with the Knights Hospitaller building a vast complex of vaulted halls that were buried and forgotten for centuries. In 1291 the Mamluks took the city, and with that the Crusader presence on the mainland ended. The tunnels and halls have been dug out and restored, and walking through the knights' halls is eerie and cool even in August.
Read the complete Old City of Acre write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Old City of Acre is where the day begins. Next is Qalaat Chama’.
Before anything else: this is one of the most sensitive places on any of these routes. Qalaat Chama, or Shamaa castle, stands on a hilltop in southern Lebanon, a few kilometres north of the border with Israel and inland from Naqoura, in an area that has seen repeated conflict, including heavy fighting in recent years, and that many governments advise against visiting under any circumstances. Damage to historic sites in the area has been reported, and conditions may have changed. Do not go without checking current official travel advice, and if in doubt, do not go at all.
Read the complete Qalaat Chama’ write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Qalaat Chama’ comes up about 38 km into the recorded legs. Next is Qalaat Chakra.
Before anything else, the honest part: this place lies in southern Lebanon, a few kilometres from the border with Israel, in an area that has seen repeated war, most recently in 2024, and that remains militarised and unpredictable. The listed neighbours on the route sheet, from Kiryat Shmona to Tyre, sit on opposite sides of a frontier that is closed to ordinary travel. Check your government's travel advice and local conditions very carefully before even thinking about a visit, and do not try to approach from the Israeli side.
Read the complete Qalaat Chakra write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 73 km into the recorded legs you reach Qalaat Chakra. Next is Tyre.
Tyre was already ancient when Alexander the Great arrived in 332 before Christ. Then it was an island city just off the coast of what is now southern Lebanon, famously rich and famously stubborn, and when its citizens refused to open their gates, Alexander built a causeway out to the island and besieged it for months. Sand piled up against that causeway over the centuries, and the island became the peninsula you see today, with the modern city of Tyre spreading across it and the old harbour still busy with fishing boats.
Read the complete Tyre write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tyre, about halfway. Next is Qalaat al-Chakif.
Perched on a cliff edge some three hundred metres above the gorge of the Litani river in southern Lebanon, Beaufort Castle, known in Arabic as Qalaat al-Chakif, has watched over the borderlands of the Levant for nearly a thousand years. The Crusaders took and fortified it in the twelfth century, and it was finally surrendered to Saladin in 1190 after a long siege. Later it was held by the Mamluks, rebuilt and repaired by local rulers, and in the twentieth century it became a fiercely contested military position, occupied by Palestinian fighters and then by the Israeli army from 1982 until its withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000. Its stones have been battered by everything from siege engines to modern artillery.
Read the complete Qalaat al-Chakif write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Qalaat al-Chakif sits at 155 km, about halfway. Next is back through Tyre.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tyre write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Tyre comes up about 197 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Qalaat Chakra.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Qalaat Chakra write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 235 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Qalaat Chakra. Next is back through Qalaat Chama’.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Qalaat Chama’ write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Qalaat Chama’, late in the day. Next is Old City of Acre.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Old City of Acre write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 309 km.
Old City of Acre → Qalaat Chama’ is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Qalaat Chama’ → Qalaat Chakra is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Qalaat Chakra → Tyre is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tyre → Qalaat al-Chakif is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Qalaat al-Chakif → back through Tyre is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tyre → back through Qalaat Chakra is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Qalaat Chakra → back through Qalaat Chama’ is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Qalaat Chama’ → Old City of Acre is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.