Plopped on a small peninsula across the bay from Haifa, Akko simply oozes character—as long as you ignore the rather drab modern area in the north. The city’s jewel is its Arab Old City, tucked behind the Crusader walls that defend it from the Mediterranean on three sides. This side of town has been around for a good millennium, and those magnificent walls now contain a labyrinth of Crusader buttresses, towering minarets, and serpentine alleys packed with spice stalls and the usual falafel stands. From the Templars’ Tunnel burrowed underground to the church spires soaring overhead, the tiny area is packed with enough to keep you entertained for a few days. Tourists bewildered by the Gordian knot of alleys may not be an uncommon sight, but Akko is also a fully functioning Arab neighborhood, where the air is thick with wafting saffron and the cries of muezzins. It somehow manages to maintain the tough balance of being tourist-friendly while avoiding the inauthentic, and, while the area is certainly safe as a whole, Let’s Go does not advise walking through the alleys at night. There’ll be no reason to anyway—other than a few restaurants and argilah bars, the place essentially shuts down come sunset.