March 24th, 2016

We were going to rent a car to drive from Haifa to Eilat, but when I consulted the Tourism office in Haifa they suggested I check out local flights. When I checked flights that night it turned out the tickets would cost even less than what a suggested ‘true’ deal was on Arkia- and it was less than renting a car.

Not knowing how much time we should plan for traveling to the airport and pre-boarding, we arrived super early.  Arkia bumped us up for free to the earlier flight, which gave us more time to enjoy the 27 degree sun.  Bonus!

March 24th was Purim, which is essentially a day where everyone of all ages dresses up in costumes. There were a tonne of super heros, Wonder Women and Spider Men, and Minions. There were also some incredibly creative and elaborate costumes. My daughter took the opportunity to brainstorm for Halloween and chose a fun costume. (Can’t tell.) [Post Halloween: I can now reveal that she was a pineapple. So cute!]

The Low Down

Eilat is the southern most 12 Km stretch of Israel, situated between Jordan and Egypt on the North coast of the Red Sea. It is a modern resort city with some of the world’s best scuba diving and bird watching.

We spent the afternoon strolling the boardwalk, wading in the sea and lounging on the beach.  When you stand on the beach you can see Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt all at once. Sadly, we didn’t have time to go to Egypt, but at one point we were no more than 200 meters from the border.

We ate dinner alfresco, which seemed like an obvious choice at the time. Unaware were we of the cat herd waiting to descend upon us when dinner was served.

We perused the mall before returning to our humble hotel. Many stores were the same as what we have here in Canada, but they don’t charge tax in Eilat. Another bonus!

March 25th

We crossed the border to Jordan.

March 26th

The day we returned to Eilat it was quite rainy and a little windy. Though it wasn’t cold, we decided not to attempt snorkelling and went to the Underwater Observatory Marine Park instead.

When I was young, my Dad brought home one of the Jaws movies to watch after I went to bed. He had hyped it up so much that I wanted to know what all the fuss was about for myself. I snuck downstairs and peeked around the corner just in time to see the decapitated head in the glass tunnel. I had nightmares about it that night and couldn’t tell my parents because I knew they would know what I did.

Since then I’ve been slightly scared of the glass tunnel aquarium concept, not of sharks. But rest assured the glass water tunnel was pretty awesome and the under water observatory was very James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me.

Accommodations

The first night, we stayed at the Blue Hotel. the staff are friendly and it was affordable, but it isn’t a hotel. It is a motel and it is humble. The sheets were clean, but not much else and water ran brown when we turned on the tap.

We stayed at Club Inn on the second night. It is a resort slightly out of town. It is close to the Egyptian border, Dolphin Reef, the Aquarium and the Eilat Coral Reserve. Now I’ve never stayed at a resort before this, so I didn’t know what to expect. My expectations were low, because it was inexpensive. What the resort offered was a clean, self contained unit with a view of Red Sea. The staff were extremely friendly. The pool was gorgeous, but unheated, and because the room had a kitchenette there wasn’t restaurant.

If we return to Eilat we would stay at one of the resorts on the main beach in town.