A few days ago I went on a short trip to Acre with three friends of mine. Acre (Akko) is amazing! Beautiful alleys, historical buildings, and highly interesting human stories. After we found out that the place we wanted to stay at was fully booked, we booked our beds at Eco Akko Hostel. This hostel is about three months old, and it’s one of the best I’ve ever been to in Israel. If you want to stay in the heart of the Old City of Acre and enjoy some great, chilled out ambience, you should definitely check out this place. After one night at the hostel, here are the main things I have to say about it:
It has a superb location on the Old City’s main road! The hostel is located on Salah ad Din Street, a few steps away from the Old City walls, the marketplace and the Hospitaller Fortress. The green dome of the el-Jazzar Mosque can easily be seen from the hostel’s rooftop. Plenty of restaurants and grocery stores are just a few feet away.
Sleeping in a beehive gives you lots of privacy. At the moment, there’s only one dormitory in the hostel. It’s a huge space with over 20 beds. Most of the beds are enclosed bunk beds, designed like beehives. There are also enclosed double beds. Each bed has a private USB charging point and a small fan. The dorm itself is air conditioned all day long.
When we booked the beds, I was a bit sceptic about it – Will it be comfortable? Will it be scary to sleep in an enclosed space? Won’t it be hard to sleep in the same dorm with over 20 people? After this night, I can happily report that I was able to sleep very well. There’s a sign asking to be quiet in the dormitory and people did respect it. Though, at night, when people were coming into the dormitory to sleep, the dorm door was making lots of noise. You need to put in a code to enter, so the noise of the code machine was a bit disturbing, and the door was slamming hard when it closed. Other than that, the entire night was quiet.
If you’re claustrophobic, you can always sleep outside of the beehives. There’s a loft in the dormitory, where you can sleep on mattresses on the floor.
Lockers are not available, but I was told that they’re working on it. Meanwhile, you can keep your valuables in a locked box at the reception.
The dorm is very clean. The toilets and showers are also clean. The showers are lockable and there’s soap if you forgot to bring yours. Don’t forget to bring shampoo, though!
The dorm is located on the second floor and there’s no elevator.
You get sheets, towels and WiFi for free. WiFi doesn’t work too well, but I’ve discovered that the internet doesn’t work well in Acre in general. Just take in account that WiFi might be slow at times.
Reception only works from 8 AM to 11 PM. They can wait for you if you tell them you’re coming late. But, if you need something urgent, you’ll have to wake up the volunteer from 11 PM to 8 AM.
The kitchen is well equipped with everything you need. There’s a refrigerator, a toaster, a coffee maker, an electric cooking stove, a microwave, and plenty of cookware. There’s also free tea and coffee 24/7. Because the hostel is Eco(logical), there are some bins for recycling in the kitchen area, so don’t forget to recycle!
Hostel staff were super friendly and helpful. We got a chance to meet both Shaya (who worked evening shift) and Sahar (who worked morning shift). They were happy to answer all our questions, were super friendly and had great stories to tell. Hope you readers will also have a chance to meet them or other friendly staff members.
And… There’s an amazing rooftop! If you climb up to the top of the hostel you’ll find a beautiful rooftop, with a sofa and a huge table, which you can sit around with the new friends you’ll make here. We were up there only during the night, so couldn’t see too much of the view because of the dark, but it seemed promising. If it’s too cold on the rooftop, you can sit in the shared space next to the kitchen. Look in the wooden box and you’ll find some books you can read or games you can play with fellow travelers.
To sum it all up – I am extremely happy that I got a chance to stay in Eco Akko Hostel. The hostel is very cozy, clean and has a cool ambience, and I really liked sleeping in a “beehive”. The staff were super welcoming, and I can just hope that they will keep on the good work and expand their hostel so that more travelers will be able to enjoy it.
This review was written October 2018. If anything has changed, please update me.
Hope you have an amazing time in Acre!
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Yours,
Lior