Chasing the Fionist Dream

Anyone who knows us knows that we love to travel. Not only that, but we derive immense joy from planning affordable trips. Since Finn’s mom passed last year, we have been making an effort to spend more time with his dad and the rest of their family. Sabba likes to travel too, but he doesn’t like to plan trips. He and Savta used to travel the world on group tours, but he hadn’t traveled since her passing. He wanted to start seeing the world again. During a visit to our home back in June, the idea of a three-day family trip started to take shape. Sabba would invite his children and grandchildren and we would be responsible for all planning, booking, and logistics. He generously bestowed us with a 12,000 shekel budget to work with. (Read to the end to find out how much we actually spent!) We jumped at the chance.

One of Finn’s siblings excitedly joined the trip with her family. The other couldn’t make it. We needed a place that was easily accessible by public transportation from central Israel (preferably by train since it has bathrooms) and was easy to get around, had non-water activities (as our nephew was in a cast), and had plenty of fun kid-friendly stuff to do.

All signs pointed to Haifa. It truly is a fabulous city.

And who better to enjoy it with than our extended family. Thank you, Sabba. ❤

So, what did we do? What was it like? And how much did it all cost us?

Day 1 – Animals, cousins, and climbing

We got off the train at the Haifa Bat Galim station around 11 am. There we met Finn’s dad and sister and her family, who had all come by train from other cities. From there, we hopped on a bus and made our way to the Carmel Boutique Apartments, where we checked into two apartments across the hall from each other and dropped off our suitcases. From there we walked 12 minutes to Gan Ha’em and the Haifa Zoo, where we commenced our visit with a picnic lunch.

Despite it being August, the zoo wasn’t packed and we had a great time walking around visiting its assorted creatures. Unlike the sprawling Jerusalem Biblical Zoo or the expansive Ramat Gan Safari, where you can spend a full day and still not see everything, we were able to loop around the entire campus and take our time at each exhibit in just under three hours.

While some facilities at the zoo seemed a bit run down, the animals seemed well taken care of. Additionally, the zoo is built on the side of a mountain, giving us the bonus of a fantastic cardio workout. Despite this, all four kids had a blast visiting the animals and ranked the zoo as one of their favorite parts of the trip.

After completing the full circle at the zoo, we returned to our apartments, ordered pizza and salads, and welcomed Fiona’s brother and his family who came to visit us from their home in northern Israel. It was great catching up with them and watching our kids play with cousins from both sides. After we finished eating, we headed to a local playground where the kids all got to climb, spin, and burn the last of their energy together before bedtime. That evening, our supermarket delivery also arrived, providing us with fixings for our DIY breakfast buffets and other food for the rest of our trip.

Day 2 – Science, screens, subways, and flying cars

Our second day was an iconic Haifa day. After our DIY breakfast buffet, we set out and swiped our Rav Kavs or public transportation app to hop on the Carmelit. With only one four-car train going back and forth between its six stops on a 1.8 km track, it is the world’s shortest subway system. It’s also the only subway we’ve ever seen that operates on a slant, going up and down a mountain. Pretty cool.

We rode the train two stops and got off by the Madatech, Israel’s largest and most renowned science museum. There we followed the kids from room to room and learned all about bubbles, light, water, how cars work, and a bunch of other science. We also enjoyed a packed picnic lunch.

From there we continued to their temporary “Behind the Screens” exhibit, all about social media. We scanned our faces and created profiles on the way in. Throughout the exhibit, we used our avatars to learn all about internet anonymity, catfishing, bullying, internet addiction, viral content, AI, and the way “likes” and “comments” get to our head. It went over most – if not all four – of the kids heads, but was sobering to see all of that as an adult who uses social media every day.

After three enlightening hours, we left the museum and bused back to our apartments. We were hot and tired, so we rested up and enjoyed the A/C during the hottest hours of the day. In the afternoon, we headed out again and bused over to Haifa University.

Why Haifa University? Because it is the first stop for the Rachbalit – Israel’s absolute coolest form of public transportation. As of 2022, a cable car system connects Haifa’s two universities – Haifa University and the Technion with the Merkazit Hamifratz bus and train stations. This way, students from out of town can just fly from campus to their bus or train home. How cool is that? And the best part is, it was essentially free. Since we paid for the bus there, the cable car itself was considered a free transfer. We took the cable car all the way from Haifa University to the Technion to the train station – and back. On the way there, we had our car to ourselves. On the way back our niece and nephew joined us. This meant that we got to fly through the air in a bubble for about twenty minutes with four kids raising their arms up as if they were on a roller coaster and shrieking with delight, while the other adults enjoyed a serene return up the mountain. (If you’re reading this, you’re welcome.) After walking around all morning, this was a wonderful afternoon activity – sitting and enjoying the view. From there, we returned back to our apartments, had dinner, and settled in for the night.

Day 3 – Trains, hamburgers, and more trains

This was our last day in Haifa. We ate breakfast, packed up, and checked out of our apartments. We left our suitcases at Carmel Boutique’s office (in the same building) and jumped on a bus to the Israel Railway Museum. There we got to learn all about the routes and train cars that existed in this region since the late 19th century. Did you know that it once was possible to travel from Jerusalem to Beirut by train? Or Haifa to Damascus? And there was a train from Beersheva to Gaza and the Sinai?

In addition to all of the historical relics and facts, the museum also had dozens of old train engines and cars from different eras there were open to be explored, with many, many buttons to be pressed and levers to be pulled. The kids got to lay on the triple stretcher bunk beds in an old Egyptian hospital train car, explore private residential train cars (whose bathroom boasts a toilet that drops waste directly onto the tracks), visit different generations of Israel Railways trains (the tables tend to get smaller as the trains get newer), and of course – pretend to drive the trains.

After we finished climbing on or in every single train, we cabbed to Ruben Carmel, a kosher out-of-the-box burger place that also has a children’s menu, for lunch. We walked back to our accommodations, picked up our luggage, and bussed back to the Haifa Bat Galim train station. We all got on the same train heading south and those of us who needed to switched in Tel Aviv to reach our home cities.

Costs

We rented one two-bedroom apartment (Grand City) and one three-bedroom apartment (Grand Urban) that were across the hall from each other at Carmel Boutique’s main building for a total of 5,176 shekels for two nights. We loved our stay there and it was perfect in terms of location, housing all 9 of us in one place, and the free option of leaving our bags in their main office before check-in and after check-out. If we were doing this trip on our own, we would have likely chosen something in the less expensive range. That said, this option had tons of room, lots of privacy, and was cheaper than most Haifa hotels at the end of August. Very recommended.

We estimate that we spent about 830 shekels on transportation for all 9 of us (our three year old rode free). It’s hard to know for sure since everyone paid on their own Rav Kav or app, so we can’t see who maxed out on what. This includes the cabs and all public transportation – including the shortest subway in the world and the cable cars.

We spent 966 shekels on activities. This includes the zoo, the science museum, and the train museum for nine people (though our son had free entry to two of them). We ordered discounted zoo and science museum tickets through our credit cards. We find it remarkable that we spent significantly less on activities for nine people in Haifa than we did for four people in Eilat.

We spent 698 shekels on a supermarket order and 1,231 shekels on eating out (including the pizzas, the burgers, and assorted snacks picked up here and there), totaling 1,929 shekels on food.

In total, this trip cost 8,901 shekels (not including the additional 250 we spent for a dogsitter). Not bad for 9 people vacationing for three days in the second half of August. While we booked and arranged it all, Finn’s dad reimbursed us for the vast majority of it. Thank you again, Sabba. ❤

So, what’s it like in Haifa these days?

While things can change at any minute (anywhere in Israel), as of the writing of this post (August 22, 2024), Haifa is fine and people are living their lives as normal. In fact, the greater Haifa area has had fewer rocket attacks than we have in our own city – and some areas in Haifa have had zero sirens at all. That said, this is the end of August. Everything should have been packed and teeming with families – but it wasn’t. The train heading north had plenty of empty seats. The longest line we had to stand in was at the zoo with one family ahead of us. Everything was open – business as usual. And nothing was empty. It just wasn’t crowded, which was made things nicer and more comfortable for us.

The most unexpected thing we had to deal with on our trip was that due to the war and the city’s proximity to Lebanon, GPS doesn’t work in Haifa. This means that GPS-based apps don’t work and buses don’t know where they are on the route and don’t announce the stops. As millennials with a terrible sense of direction, this proved incredibly challenging for us – especially on the first day when it caught us by surprise. Fortunately for us, the locals have grown accustomed to their return to the early 2000s and are very friendly when it comes to giving directions. We became skilled at planning routes in advance and reading off the names of every bus stop as we passed to keep track of where we were.

There were also plenty of military planes overhead. We hear them in our own city too, but Haifa had lots more.

Conclusion

This was an incredible trip and was an enjoyable end to summer. We made precious memories with loved ones and had a much needed break from our regular summer routine. There are so many inexpensive or free child-friendly activities in Haifa. We look forward to going back again to experience the ones we didn’t have time to do.

Traveling with extended family turned out to be wonderful and we can’t wait to do it again. We’re already starting to fantasize and price out possibilities for next year.

Did you do any traveling this summer? If so, where did you go?

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