CAESAREA

Once a proud Roman port-city and Crusader bastion, Caesarea has assumed a dreamy, faraway character amid thick sand dunes in the shelter of huge banana plantations.

The monumental amphitheatre and hippodrome where Roman legionnaires frolicked, and the powerfully constructed Crusader fortifications, are in a good state of repair.

The romantic spell is so strong in this wonderfully quiet place that the very rich and the illustrious, Baron James de Rothschild among them, have in recent years built themselves luxurious villas next to the tapering Roman aqueduct.
Sportsmen and picnickers are in their element in this balmy Mediterranean resort. The country's only golf course, adjoining the five-star Dan Caesarea Hotel, has no water hazards but the rough is dotted with pistachio bushes and carob trees.

The sandy beaches are all the more enticing for the buried treasure they hold and many an Israeli has felt cock-a-hoop on discovering ancient coins and pottery below the sand wastes or beneath the shallow waters. There is an entrance fee to the beach. The bathing facilities are excellent, though swimming when there isn't a lifeguard can be dangerous. There is also a harbour for sailing boats.

It is worth timing your visit to Caesarea to coincide with lunch for epicurean delights await you at several restaurants behind the Crusader moat. Then, sated with Mediterranean fish and Oriental salads, you can meander along the harbour and drop in at a number of art galleries, studios, jewellery and curio shops.