Fauzi Azar Inn is a hostel by Abraham Hostels, an Israeli hostel chain, which currently has three branches: Tel Aviv, Jerusalem andNazareth. The chain is growing and developing, with more branches planned in Eilat and at the Dead Sea. The chain’s first branch is the one in Nazareth, called Fauzi Azar Inn. It’s in the heart of the Old City of Nazareth, in the charming alleyways of the market. The hostel offers different types of accommodation: rooms for families, couples, dorms and singles. Beyond a place to stay, the hostel offers a wide range of tours and activities that are open to people who aren’t staying there too. Most of the activities and tours are in English, since they’re aimed at international travelers as well, a great option for anyone who wants to meet travelers from around the world.
Please note, I’ve arranged a 10% discount on stays at Fauzi Azar Inn for the blog’s followers with the coupon code CIO10!
A little about Fauzi Azar Inn
The impressive building that houses the hostel is over 200 years old.
The building was a large mansion owned by Fauzi Azar, where he lived with his family.
After his death and his wife’s death a fire broke out in the building, destroying most of it, and it was abandoned and unused for many years.
In 2004 along came Maoz Inon, a young man who missed traveling the world and the guesthouse experience of South America, and decided to import the guesthouse idea to Israel.
He decided to open the guesthouse in Nazareth, because there were no accommodation options of this kind in Nazareth.
He looked for a special building for the place, and that’s how he met Suraida, one of Fauzi Azar’s granddaughters, and after some persistence he managed to persuade Suraida to let him restore the building and open the hostel.
The building
The building that houses the guesthouse is an impressive stone building with a six-meter-high hand-painted ceiling, Turkish marble floors, a grand hall with a panoramic view and a courtyard decorated with stone arches.
From the first floor, the lobby, you step out into a beautiful inner courtyard with stone arches and pleasant seating areas.
On the second floor, where the dorm rooms are, there’s a seating area and a kitchen for guests, and rooms with high ceilings decorated with old paintings and impressive lamps.
Accommodation options at the hostel
The hostel has over 30 beds offered in several types of accommodation.
- Dorms: shared rooms with 10 or 6 beds per room. You can choose between mixed dorms and female-only or male-only rooms. This is the cheapest option and mainly suits young people, backpackers or anyone who just wants a bed at a good price.
- Private rooms: rooms with a private shower for singles, couples or families. In one of the private rooms the shower and toilet are next to the room rather than inside it.
The women's dorm
I visited the hostel on my own, so I chose to sleep in the women’s dorm.
The room is big and spacious, with 6 beds, fans and 6 lockers (don’t forget to bring a padlock).
Two other women slept in the room with me, one from Hong Kong and one from Mexico. Both had come for a trip in the Middle East.
It was fascinating to hear about their visit to Israel.
Good to know:
Small print worth knowing before your visit, so you won’t be disappointed:
- The dorm rooms have no air conditioning, but they are equipped with fans. I stayed at the hostel at the end of August and the room was comfortable.
- The nearest parking is 500 meters from the hostel (you can’t get any closer by car).
- There’s a 10% discount for the blog’s readers, coupon code CIO10.
Meals at the hostel
A stay at the hostel includes breakfast.
Breakfast includes: labneh, fresh bread, pita, local pastries (pita with za’atar), jam, butter, granola, honey, vegetables, fruit and soft drinks.
In addition, coffee, a selection of herbal teas and marble cake are offered all day long.
More activities at Fauzi Azar Inn
As I wrote in the title, Fauzi Azar Inn is much more than a hostel.
There are attractions and tours at the hostel every day.
Twice a week there are Arabic lessons in the evening, twice a week local cooking classes, once a week a performance by a local musician, and every morning except Sunday there’s a tour of the Old City of Nazareth.
I stayed on a Friday night and enjoyed a performance by an oud player, and on Saturday at noon a tour of the hidden, special places of Nazareth.
Local music on Friday evening
Every Friday evening a local artist comes to perform at the hostel.
On the weekend I was there, an oud player performed.
An intimate, pleasant performance held on the top floor in the common area, lasting about an hour.
A local tour of the Old City of Nazareth
In Nazareth there is no FREE TOUR, so I was very happy to discover that Fauzi Azar Inn runs tours every day.
The tour is led by the hostel staff and doesn’t go through Nazareth’s tourist sites, but rather through the places where locals go.
The tour starts with the story of Fauzi Azar Inn, its unique architecture and the process it went through until the guesthouse opened there.
We visited several stops during the tour:
- A spice shop that has been operating for over 100 years.
- Shops selling local produce, where we heard stories about local families, their food and their customs.
- A café that has been passed down for three generations, where we drank special drinks and played backgammon.
To the Fauzi Azar Inn hostel website click here.
Many thanks to Abraham Hostels for the fun, pampering hospitality!
The stay at the hostel was part of a collaboration.
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May we always travel,
Shir Yam
