Fearless and Protected Wildlife
BIRD ISLAND
Seychelles
Bird Island belongs to beautiful tropical birds so isolated they know no fear of man, freely nesting, courting, and preening within arm’s length of curious visitors. The opportunity to observe birds at such close range in their natural habitat sets Bird Island in a class of its own. The most northerly of the Seychelles islands, a tiny 170-acre coral cay, it hosts more than 100 endemic and migratory bird species. At any one time, you should be able to spot 20 different species, including—from May to October—2 million sooty terns. Each year, the terns drop seawater on the island’s grass, causing it to go dry over the course of a few weeks. Then the nest building begins. Some birders consider Bird Island one of the best wildlife experiences in the world. The moment you touch down on the island, the pace of life stops and natural simplicity takes over.
The island is also home to the endangered green and hawksbill turtles, as well as Esmeralda, a giant tortoise who is more than 200 years old. Monitoring the fascinating turtles’ movements while they nest or lay their eggs can constitute a busy day, but there are also plenty of opportunities to snorkel or just take a dip in the gin-clear waters. The east and south sides of the island are protected by a reef that harbors many varieties of colorful tropical fish; the rest is wide swaths of white sand beaches and turquoise sea. A simple family-owned lodge with 24 chalets is the sole place to stay on the island, and its friendly Seychellois staffers are the only inhabitants. They prepare some of the freshest and most flavorful meals imaginable. There are no televisions, no air-conditioning, no telephones, no swimming pool, and no pretensions. Only the birds’ lively chatter interrupts the quiet.
WHERE: 60 miles/97 km north of Mahé. BIRD ISLAND LODGE: Tel 248/22-49-25; www.birdislandseychelles.com. Cost: from $600, all-inclusive. BEST TIMES: Oct–Apr for best snorkeling; Oct–Nov and Apr–May, winds bring in a greater variety of migrant seabirds; lodge website shows what to expect month-to-month, including the nesting and hatching schedules of terns and hawksbill turtles.
Crystalline Water, Talcum Sand, and Swaying Palms
MAHÉ
Seychelles
An archipelago of 115 coral and granite islands (only about 20 of them inhabited) in the middle of the Indian Ocean, the Seychelles islands are the idyllic destination for a honeymoon or post-safari R&R. Travelers come to relax (and for the most part, pay handsomely to do so) on the blindingly white beaches and enjoy the lush tropical flora. Most head to the resorts on Mahé, the country’s biggest island and home to 90 percent of its population and some of its loveliest shoreline.
Uberluxury prevails on the south end of the island, where the Maia Luxury Resort offers 30 butler-serviced pavilion villas, each with its own infinity pool; an open-air spa hidden in dense jungle; and sophisticated Creole-Mediterranean-French cuisine. It vies with the recently opened Four Seasons Seychelles for belle of the ball (the latter might win for its slightly less stratospheric prices). Nestled among boulders on a lush hillside, it has an indulgent spa and top-notch restaurant, 67 villas with wooden decks and plunge pools, and unbeatable views of palm-lined cliffs and the incredibly blue Indian Ocean.
Those who aren’t ready for such opulence gravitate toward the accommodations on the north end of the island. It’s a minute’s walk from the most popular (and still rarely crowded) beach, the palm-tree studded Beau Vallon, to the newly built Hanneman Holiday Residence. The Clef des Îles also beckons, with glorified beach huts overlooking the water, right next to an excellent dive center.
Break away from resort life for a visit to the energetic, colorful market in the capital city of Victoria. Enjoy a family-style feast (fish fritters, chicken curry, fried eggplant) at the Colonial house now turned restaurant Marie Antoinette, where you’ll soak in the still-vibrant culture of local Creoles, descendants of European colonists and African and Malagasy slaves. Victoria’s National Botanical Gardens protect endemic species, including the coco de mer, the famous national tree. You’ll see it everywhere, beginning with the stamp in your passport: Its massive seed takes the form of a woman’s buttocks. It’s a short boat ride to the six tiny islands that make up Sainte Anne Marine National Park, the Indian Ocean’s first, and arguably most beautiful, underwater park. To the delight of landlubbers, the abundant fish and corals can be viewed from a semisubmersible “sub-sea viewer”; snorkelers and divers will be thrilled by the warm, clear water.
It’s an easy island-hop to neighboring La Digue, where you’ll find one of the world’s most photographed (yet still blissfully empty) beaches, Anse Source d’Argent. Huge, artfully weathered pink and rust-colored granite boulders and pale pink sand are all that’s left of the peaks of the supercontinent Gondwanaland, submerged millions of years ago. Jump on an oxcart and have a guide take you into the forest in search of 12 endemic bird species, including the Seychelles paradise flycatcher, whose male has a long trailing tail.
Anse Source d’Argent’s seclusion and sculpturelike boulders make it one of the world’s most alluring and picturesque beaches.
VISITOR INFO: www.seychelles.travel. MAIA LUXURY RESORT: Tel 248/390-000; www.maia.com.sc. Cost: villas from $2,200. FOUR SEASONS RESORT SEYCHELLES: Tel 248/393-000; www.fourseasons.com/seychelles. Cost: villas from $980 (off-peak), from $1,200 (peak). HANNEMAN HOLIDAY RESIDENCE: Tel 248/425-000; www.hanneman-seychelles.com. Cost: from $180. CLEF DES ÎLES: Tel 248/527-100; www.clefdesiles.com. Cost: from $350. MARIE ANTOINETTE: Tel 248/266-222. Cost: dinner $20. BEST TIMES: Mar–May and Sep–Nov for clear waters and less rain; late Oct for food, art, and music at Victoria’s Festival Kreol.
THE MIDDLE EAST
Crusader Stronghold on the Sea
ACRE
Israel
Surrounded by Ottoman-era walls, Acre (also known as Akko) has been visited by everyone from Marco Polo to St. Francis during its more than 4,000 years of existence. As with Caesarea (see next page), the Crusaders left their imprint, establishing this ancient port as the maritime center and largest city of their Christian empire. They built a citadel and monumental fortifications, seawalls, and the Knights’ Hall, a subterranean network of vaulted corridors that held 50,000 soldiers during their 12th-century heyday.
Greatly overlooked in recent centuries, Acre is a well-preserved historic city, still displaying its Ottoman and Crusader influences in its mosaic-adorned mosques with towering minarets and churches with similarly soaring steeples. There’s a teeming souk (be sure to sample the hummus at Said’s, said to be the best), Turkish baths, traditional coffeehouses, and charming seafood restaurants on the streets leading to the port.
With its Ottoman-era setting and views of the waterfront, the cozy Uri Buri restaurant is easily one of the most atmospheric in town, featuring imaginative cuisine and wines exclusively from Israel. Owner Uri Yirmias’s mango-spiked creole shrimp and calamari with kumquats are inventive takes on Israeli classics. The menu at Abu Christo hasn’t changed much in 6 decades, where just-caught fish is simply prepared, either grilled or deep fried, and served on a waterfront patio where guests enjoy the sunset free of charge.
Acre’s population is proud to be the country’s greatest ethnic mix, with Christian, Muslim, Druze, and Baha’i minorities. The Baha’i, whose little-known monotheistic religion was established in 19th-century Persia, revere Acre as the sacred burial place of a prophet of their faith, Bahᾱ’ Allᾱh. The faith’s headquarters is in nearby Haifa, which delights with its own unique charm. The magical gardens at the Baha’i World Centre are the city’s centerpiece, spanning the face of Mount Carmel and cascading down it in a profusion of manicured lawns, reflecting pools, statues, and marble temples.
The area surrounding the base of Mount Carmel has been transformed into a casual, car-free promenade lined with outdoor restaurants and cafés. This is also where you’ll find the Villa Carmel, a 16-room hotel housed in a restored Bauhaus-era building and featuring a Mediterranean garden restaurant.
Crusader
s used the Knights’ Hall for resting and eating.
WHERE: 70 miles/112 km north of Tel Aviv. URI BURI: Tel 972/4-955-2212. Cost: lunch $45. ABU CHRISTO: Tel: 972/4-991-0065; www.abu-christo.co.il. Cost: lunch $30. BAHA’I GARDENS: Tel 972/4-835-8358. VILLA CARMEL: Tel 972/4-835-7777; www.villacarmel.co.il. Cost: from $200 (off-peak), from $350 (peak). BEST TIMES: early Oct for Akko Fringe Theater Festival; Sats in Dec for Holiday of Holidays Festival in Haifa.
Roman Fortress by the Mediterranean
CAESAREA
Israel
Caesarea is the kind of multilayered historic site that results from conquests and reconquests over millennia, and is the location of some of the Levant’s most important Roman ruins. Built some 2,000 years ago by emperor Herod the Great, who dedicated it to Caesar Augustus, Caesarea was once a thriving metropolis with a population over 125,000, the largest in the eastern Mediterranean.
Caesarea’s archaeological gems, now expertly excavated, serve to evoke daily life during the time of Jesus. A double aqueduct and one of the largest and best-preserved hippodromes in the classical world, as well as Herod’s palace and columned pool, have all survived the ages. An easily navigable trail passes among restored Roman arches, roads, baths, and granaries. But the grand Roman theater with the Mediterranean as a backdrop is perhaps Caesarea’s greatest highlight, a mostly re-created venue that seats 3,600 and is popular for summertime concerts and performances.
Well over a millennium after it was founded, Caesarea began its second incarnation: as an important Crusader stronghold. These medieval Christians built important fortifications in their quest to rescue the Holy Land from the armies of Saladin. Eight hundred years later, the remnants of these 12th-century citadels loom just steps from the Mediterranean, most of them surrounded by a stone wall and moat.
Today, Caesarea is an important tourist destination, home to Israel’s only golf course, and—just minutes outside of Tel Aviv (see p. 454)—one of its wealthiest residential communities. The city has redeveloped its Mediterranean waterfront, which features sandy beaches within sight of the ruins, and has built what bills itself as the world’s first underwater archaeological museum. Intended for divers of all skill levels using waterproof maps and spread over nearly 165 square miles of the sea floor, the site offers four trails to view sunken anchors, statues, and Roman shipwrecks.
Considering its impressive natural and historical setting, Caesarea would seem like a logical resort location. Although an inviting café and restaurant scene has emerged along the beachfront, there is only one hotel of note, the Dan Caesarea, a modern, 114-room 1980s property spread across 15 manicured acres of gardens and lush landscaping.
The city’s ruins survived periods of Roman, Byzantine, and Muslim rule.
WHERE: 36 miles/58 km north of Tel Aviv. OLD CAESAREA DIVING CLUB: Tel 972/4-626-5898; www.caesarea-diving.com/en/. DAN CAESAREA HOTEL: Tel 972/3-520-2552; www.danhotels.com. Cost: from $240 (off-peak), from $370 (peak). BEST TIMES: Mar–May for balmy yet bearable temperatures; early Jun for Caesarea Jazz Festival.
Rolling Hills, Wildflowers, a Freshwater Sea, and a Holy Town
THE GALILEE
Israel
A fertile region blanketed in spring by seas of wildflowers and blossoming trees, few places have as much resonance for Christians and Jews as the Galilee. With constant appearances in ancient scriptures, it is home to some of Israel’s most important pilgrimage sites, from the holy town of Nazareth to the shores of the harp-shaped Sea of Galilee. This rich earth is also where Jewish pioneers set up the country’s first kibbutz and where Israelis today come for beaches and outdoor fun.
The Sea of Galilee is actually a 62-square-mile freshwater lake that is almost completely ringed by cliffs and high hills. For millennia the main city on its shores has been Tiberias, built by the son of Herod the Great in A.D. 20. No hotel in the region outshines the shorefront Scots Hotel, a former 19th-century church hospital that opened as a resort in 2004 with 69 spacious guest rooms. Owned by the Church of Scotland, the stylish hotel claims one of the Galilee’s only private beaches and is conveniently close to Decks, an elegant restaurant set on piles jutting out over the water.
Nazareth, a short drive north, is the home of Israel’s largest Arab community, which makes up two-thirds of the city’s population of 65,000; the rest is a multicultural mix of Jews, Druze, Muslims, and Christians. In this hilltop town hewn from marblelike stone and anchored by its teaming souk, the Basilica of the Annunciation—the largest church in the Middle East—was built on the site where the Bible claims Jesus’s birth was heralded by the angel Gabriel. Make time to stroll along Paul VI Street to snack on Israel’s best Arab sweets, but save room for lunch at Diana, where simple yet exquisite local dishes—kebabs, grilled meats, and Middle Eastern mezze (small-dish) salads—are prepared right before your eyes.
Nazareth was also the boyhood home of Jesus, who returned here to teach; a newly organized Jesus Trail begins here and follows the 40-mile terrain that he would have walked during his ministry. It connects such spots as Canaan, the Sea of Galilee, Tabgha (and its Byzantine-style Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes), and the Mount of Beatitudes, where the Sermon on the Mount took place. You’ll shift from the Biblical era to the early Middle Ages with a trek up to Safed (Zefat), Israel’s highest town and the historic home of Jewish mysticism known as Kabbala. A stroll through the 1,000-year-old city’s mazelike Synagogue Quarter remains one of Judaism’s most enchanting experiences, while the art galleries that fill the old Arab Quarter lend a slightly bohemian air. If you’re spending the night, you have two very different options: the exclusive hilltop Mizpe-Hayamim (Sea View) outside town, known for its spa and its farm-to-table restaurant, or the family-run Vered HaGalil, which affords a dose of the American West at a hillside horse ranch with modest rooms and sweeping views.
WHERE: Tiberias is 81 miles/131 km northeast of Tel Aviv. VISITOR INFO: www.gogalilee.org. SCOTS HOTEL: Tel 972/4-671-0710; www.scotshotels.co.il. Cost: from $285. DECKS: Tel 972/4-672-1538. Cost: dinner $35. DIANA: Tel 972/4-657-2919. Cost: lunch $25. JESUS TRAIL: www.jesustrail.com. MIZPE-HAYAMIM: Tel 972/4-699-4555; www.mizpe-hayamim.com. Cost: from $390 (off-peak), from $550 (peak). VERED HAGALIL: Tel 972/4-693-5785; www.veredhagalil.com. Cost: from $135 (off-peak), from $210 (peak). BEST TIMES: Feb–Mar for wildflowers; May and Dec for Jacob’s Ladder Festival in Ginosar; early Jul for folk dancing festival in Karmiel; Jul or Aug for Klezmer Festival in Safed; Christmastime in Nazareth.
Remote and Nature-Filled: Israel’s Wild North
THE GOLAN HEIGHTS
Israel
This mountainous and sparsely populated outcrop is unexpected in a land of the unexpected—where snow falls in the winter and nights remain cool in the summer even as the rest of Israel bakes. Rising over 3,500 feet, the Golan Heights is known to outsiders more for being captured from Syria by Israel following the 1967 Six-Day War than as the recreational destination Israelis have come to treasure.
Surrounded by lush volcanic hills and bordering much of the Sea of Galilee (see previous page), the Golan is Israel at its “frontier” best: a land of cattle ranches, ski resorts, and boutique wineries; olive groves and orchards; nature reserves; organic restaurants and Druze villages. Most of all, the Golan is Israel untouched—a quiet corner that has for the most part avoided being overrun by tourists.
While the Golan may lack the archaeological richness of the neighboring Galilee, history buffs will not be disappointed. The settlement of Gamla, which dates back 5,000 years, is known as the “Masada of the North” (see p. 452); it is where some 9,000 Jews revolted against Roman rule in A.D. 67 and ultimately chose to end their lives rather than be conquered by the empire (Masada would fall to the Romans 6 years later). Today, the ruins of much of their original settlement remain, lorded over by a colony of rare and majestic griffon vultures that breed in the surrounding hills.
Farther on is the deer reserve in the dense Odem forest, whose name means “
red” in Hebrew and refers to the rust-colored soil of the surrounding countryside. Here, trickling streams and cooling cascades run along Mount Bental, while the torrents of the nearby Banyas River are mighty enough for whitewater rafting.
All are close to Katzrin, the Golan’s de facto capital, known for its small-scale inns and Israel’s top microbrewery, the German-style Golan Brewery, founded in 2006. Pop in for a tour and a pint, or sample what many consider Israel’s best wine at the Golan Heights Winery, a short drive away.
WHERE: Katzrin is 135 miles/200 km north of Tel Aviv. GOLAN BREWERY: Tel 972/4-696-3625; www.golanbeer.co.il. GOLAN HEIGHTS WINERY: Tel 972/4-696-8420; www.golanwines.co.il. BEST TIME: May for cooler temperatures.
Spiritual Enclave of Ancient Sites and Sacred Places
HISTORIC JERUSALEM
Jerusalem, Israel
Within the 16th-century walls built by Suleiman the Magnificent and accessed via eight fortified gates, ancient Jerusalem is a place that transcends time, place, and faith. It’s here that you’ll find the capital city’s spiritual heart, where more than 200 historic sites—the most sacred of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—commingle. View it all from the Tower of David before strolling through the Jewish Quarter en route to the Western Wall. It is Judaism’s holiest site, where worshippers come to pray and leave handwritten notes in its stone crevices.
In the city’s ancient Muslim Quarter, merchant stalls are heavy with sweets and embroidered tunics, while the smells of sizzling shashlik (shish kebab) waft through the air. It’s all a prelude to the gold-topped Dome of the Rock (Qubbat as-Sakhrah in Arabic), the oldest existing Islamic shrine and the third holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina (see p. 467). Built in A.D. 690, the resplendent mosque rests upon the location where the prophet Mohammed is said to have ascended to heaven. Jews revere it as the site of the altar where Abraham was called upon by God to sacrifice his son Isaac. You’ll also find the holiest place in Christianity here. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was completed in A.D. 335 on the site, known as Calvary, where Jesus is believed to have been crucified, buried, and resurrected. Pilgrims approach the church by the mile-long Via Dolorosa (the Way of the Cross; literally, the Road of Pain), whose 14 stations mark the path Jesus took as he carried his cross to his execution.
1,000 Places to See Before You Die Page 71
