At a Glance
This hilltop property, about fifteen minutes from Haifa, is a nice retreat for a night or two.
Review
From the back, where guests will spend the majority of their days here, sunning and relaxing by the pool, the four-story Carmel Forest Spa Resort resembles a long, low ship sailing across a mountainside. That’s fitting for this former convalescent home turned luxury hotel, because the property, about 30 minutes from Haifa, runs something like a cruise ship. With a roster of daily classes and lectures on offer, an array of exercise and spa treatments to choose from and, three times a day, plentiful chance to overindulge in huge buffet meals, the hotel can be a touch impersonal; more a conference center than a cozy country retreat.
But the Carmel Forest Spa’s location is one of the keys to its appeal. In a country where only 7% of the land is forested, it’s fairly miraculous to behold greenery as far as the eye can see, all the way to the Mediterranean beyond. Since 1901 the Jewish National Fund has rooted 250 million seedlings in Israel’s bare and rocky hills, in an effort to transform them into an appropriately verdant homeland. Even if they take in some of what was originally a natural forest, the views from the Carmel Forest Spa represent a vision fulfilled, which make a stay here while touring the north coast satisfying in way that is about more than just hospitality.
Who Should Stay
Those looking to explore the northern coast from a forested hilltop property.
Written by John Cantrell