Daliat el Carmel

Last weekend my brother Rafi came to visit his little sister in Israel. As a veteran traveler to this country he went back to his favorite places and caught up with friends he hadn’t seen in years, but I also wanted to give him a new experience. I decided to take him to a Druze village called Daliat el-Carmel. This place may be called a “village” but 50,000 people really sounds like a town or city to me. It is located about 1 hour northeast of Tel Aviv, very close to Haifa.

The Druze people (in Hebrew “Druzim”) are one of the better-off minorities in Israel. They have their own religion, which is secret to all those who are not religious Druzim. The biggest Druze communities are in Israel, Lebanon and Syria and they only marry within their religion. The Druzim in Israel serve in the Israeli army and are very loyal citizens.

Rafi, Ariel, a good friend Elyse and I drove up Friday evening and were greeted with a great dinner of traditional Druzi food. Through the internet I found us a guest house, which ended up being massive and was much more than the 4 of us needed. After eating dinner and watching a DVD that I had brought with us we headed for bed, only to be awoken by the turkeys the next morning. I can’t remember the last time farm animals woke me up. We had a lavish Druzi breakfast with various pastries that were all hand made, fresh salads and great labaneh goat’s cheese.

After we were sufficiently nourished we headed off to the village’s main attraction- the market. This market is a small strip of street with about a dozen shops on either side selling everything from general tourist trinkets to pieces of art work. I have not figured out why yet, but Daliat el Carmel is known as a place to buy cheap art. Since Ariel and I moved to our place last April, more than one person has commented about our bare walls so we decided to make a purchase or two to liven up our place.

By 1 pm the market was getting very crowded and we escaped back to our Bed & Breakfast to pack up our things and head for an afternoon hike. We drove about 20 minutes along the scenic route of the Carmel and arrived at our hiking destination. For the next two hours we climbed up to a lookout point over the Mediterranean, ate fresh strawberries and explored a cave (which was the hike’s main attraction). By 4:00 pm we were back in the car and started on our trek home. While it is only supposed to take about an hour, Saturday afternoon traffic turned into a 2.5 hour ride through bumped to bumper traffic most of the way.

Despite the long ride home, we all had a great weekend, a true Fischer (mini) vacation. I would recommend this place to anyone, tourist or native, for a nice weekend and change of pace.