Things to do in Haifa

Landmark · German Colony up to Yefe Nof, Carmel

Nineteen terraced garden levels climbing a kilometre of mountainside to a gold-domed shrine, and a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Local tip: The free guided tour is the only way to walk the terraces top to bottom, and it books out. Otherwise view from the Louis Promenade at the top for the panorama, or from Ben Gurion Boulevard at the bottom for the axis.

Neighborhood · Between downtown and Hadar

The historic Arab quarter — a working market of spice shops, bakeries and butchers, with street art threaded through the lanes.

Local tip: Come for the hummus and the knafeh on an ordinary weekday morning rather than during the December festival, when it is at its most itself. This is also where much of the city stays open on Shabbat.

Nature · Top of the Carmel ridge

The upper city's centre, with a cliff-edge promenade looking down over the whole bay, the port and, on a clear day, the Lebanese coast.

Local tip: Walk it at dusk when the bay lights come on. The temperature difference from downtown is the fastest way to understand why the ridge costs more.

Culture · Downtown, below the gardens

A 19th-century Templer settlement of stone houses turned into the city's main restaurant strip, aligned exactly on the axis of the Baháʼí terraces.

Local tip: Eat here and then look uphill — the boulevard was laid out long before the gardens, and the alignment is the single best-composed view in the city.

Landmark · Paris Square up to Gan HaEm

Israel's only underground railway: a six-station funicular whose carriages and platforms are built on a slope, running since 1959.

Local tip: Ride it once for the novelty of standing on a stepped platform, then treat it as transport. It has had repeated extended closures for tunnel works, so never make it your only route home from the ridge.

Culture · North-western tip of the Carmel

A Carmelite monastery on the headland above the sea, beside the cave traditionally associated with the prophet Elijah, reachable by an old cable car from Bat Galim.

Local tip: The short Bat Galim cable car up the cliff is one of the city's oddest and least-used rides, and the view back over the bay from the monastery terrace justifies the trip on its own.