Chasing the Fionist Dream

Did you know that there were knights in Israel? And that you can visit their well-preserved, gorgeous and expansive fortress? All of this and more is in Akko and easily accessible by public transportation.

This past chol hamoed Pesach (2025), we took a day trip to visit Israel’s northern region and explore this gorgeous city by the sea. We woke up early and jumped on a train heading north, even further north than Haifa and its breathtaking cable cars (we waved at them from the window). Finally, the train pulled into Akko, where we got off, bought a well-deserved coffee for Fiona, and met up with Finn’s dad, who had come from another city to join us on our trip.

We left the station, crossed the street, and took a ten-minute bus ride to Akko’s Old City. There we entered the gorgeous grounds of the Hospitaller Fortress, also known as the Knights’ Halls.

At the entrance, we each received our own hand-held audio guide and map that would lead us through the site’s many rooms, floors, and courtyards.

When given the choice of audio guide, we selected the one geared toward children, and subsequently discovered that we were knights on a journey through the fortress and the Crusader Era on a quest to rescue a princess. At each stop along the way, we learned more about how the knights lived and enjoyed audio-visual presentations. Each explanation ended with a hint for where to find the next stage of our adventure.

It turned out that our eight-year-old was an absolute whiz at this and easily deciphered the clues at each stop. Once she concluded the location of the next clue, she hurried us all along with her, insisting that the princess was waiting for us. An hour and a half later, we successfully completed all 17 challenges and rescued her majesty 👸🏻, seated her upon one of our noble steeds, and watched her steal our horse and gallop off into the sunset. 😂 We had a lot of fun, but undoubtedly would have learned a lot more on the adult tour with its 40+ audio guide stops.

We walked out to the courtyard and checked out the artisans and their wares for sale. We found a shaded picnic table and sat down for lunch. We brought tons of food with us – including these cookies – since we didn’t know what the kosher for Pesach situation would be like in Akko. It turns out there was plenty and the on-site restaurant was open and kosher for Passover.

From there, we had a nice ten-minute stroll through the alleys of the Old City to our next destination.

Our next stop was the Templars’ Tunnel, a 150-meter-long secret underground tunnel that connected the main palace of the Crusader Templars to the sea.

While it included screens along the way that explained the history of the tunnel, some of us were a bit creeped out, so we walked through it fairly quickly. The whole thing was on an elevated platform over water, and the ceiling was low in a few sections.

When we got to the end, we climbed up the stairs and stepped out toward a gorgeous view of the sea and the lighthouse. By that point, we were all a bit tired from being on our feet for so long, so we took a break to relax and enjoy the view.

The weather was great and we enjoyed the breeze and sunshine while watching the boats, joggers, and paragliders. We pointed out all of the מיגוניות or stand-alone outdoor bomb shelters scattered every few hundred meters along the coast. This was the only real reminder of the recent war with Hezbollah and the missiles launched over the border from Lebanon. We saw signs for a ferry to Haifa and asked the kids if they’d like to take it since we needed to go south anyway to get home, but they weren’t interested, so we didn’t.

We walked along the boardwalk toward the Underground Prisoners Museum, where we could have learned all about the Akko Prison and the fate of Jewish underground fighters who fought for Israel’s independence. We hope to return when our kids are older. Instead, we boarded a bus for the short ride back to the train station and began our journey home.

We’re sure you’re wondering. How much did this day trip cost?

We bought four combo tickets that included entry to both the Knights’ Halls and the Templers’ Tunnel for 49 shekels each, totaling 196 shekels. We covered Sabba’s ticket and our four-year-old was free. These tickets also included entry to the Ramchal Synagogue and the Turkish Bathhouse, but due to the brief duration of our visit, we never made it there.

We also spent a total of 210 shekels on public transportation for ourselves and our daughter. Again, our four-year-old was free. Our public transportation apps maxed us each out at 77.5 shekels. In retrospect, we probably should have loaded a day pass onto our daughter’s Rav Kav to bring her costs down too — but we didn’t. Sabba covered his own transportation.

Fiona’s blessed train station coffee cost 16 shekels. We brought all of our other food with us.

In total, we spent 422 shekels on a fascinating and enjoyable day out in another city. Money well spent. 😊

Conclusion

If you live near Israel’s center, most places (aside from Eilat) can be visited either as a day trip or overnight, because the country is so small. Akko is an incredible city and we definitely could have spent a few days there. Had we stayed longer, we probably would have visited more sites in Akko’s Old City as well as the city’s Extreme Park, the Botanical Garden, and the beach if it was warm enough. This trip could also be paired with a trip to Haifa since the cities are close and travel between them is easy by train, bus, car, or ferry.

We were surprised to see that despite it being chol hamoed, nothing was crowded. We never had to stand in line. We’re not sure if things are always like that in Akko or if people were still hesitant to come that far north.

All in all, it was an enjoyable trip and a remarkable place to explore. Definitely recommended.

Have you ever been to Akko? What was it like? Where should we go next?

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