Some compare Haifa, beautifully situated on a hill overlooking a broad bay, to San Francisco or Naples. Israel’s third-largest metropolitan area (population 300,000) and the capital of the north, Haifa is like a triple-decker sandwichthe industrial area that comprises Israel’s most important port is the lowest tier; the business district (Hadar), higher up, is the second; and the Carmel district, with its panoramic vistas, nestled even higher on the upper pine slopes, constitutes the third. Just to the south of Haifa are magnificent beaches that locals flock to, but few tourists know about. Plans are now in progress to convert these unspoiled beach areas into Haifa’s’ own "Riviera"; you’ll see a great deal of hotel, apartment, and marina construction underway along the shoreline during the next few years. Like much of the intensive development going on along Israel’s Mediterranean coast, this project is controversial, with environmentalists and beach lovers who had wanted to turn the area into a national park opposing the loss of Israel’s most accessible stretch of natural shoreline.

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