Eilat Israel

Welcome to Eilat, Israel’s № 1 holiday resort. Hot and sexy, one-of-a-kind, pampering and exciting. Summer or winter, Eilat offers a large selection of hotels, great restaurants, exotic entertainment, tourist attractions and, of course, tax-free shopping. Jerusalem

Eilat offers tourist who come to vacation in the city no less that 12000 hotel rooms at different chains are represented here: Hilton, Holiday Inn, Dan Hotels, Isrotel, Fattal, Leonardo, Club Hotel, Rimonim and others, but there are also other smaller, less fancy hotels and even very modest hostel rooms. In addition you can find rooms to rent in private homes, something to suit very budget.

Eilat is famous for its prestigious, luxury hotels that maintain the very highest level of service, and for the creative ideas underlying their establishment. All year round these hotels offer spectacular swimming pools, gourmet restaurants, fitness rooms and spas, kid’s clubs with their excellent entertainment staff who devote all their energy to giving the kids a fun time, letting the parents have a worry-free vacation.

Almost all the hotels have shopping areas that provide guests with everything they could ask for without having to leave the hotel premises. Along with an equally stunning location, Eilat also shares a similar history to Aqaba. Now separated by political boundaries however, it is Eilat that has prospered the most. With the United Nations partition of Palestine in 1947, Israel was ceded this small stretch of coastline, and Eilat has since developed rapidly, both as a port and as a popular holiday resort, with excellent tourist facilities.

The bottom of the Red Sea is the main attraction here. If you don’t want to dive to admire this multicoloured ecosystem, there are glassbottomed boats as well as the “Yellow Submarine”. This large 23-m (75-ft) long submersible leaves from Coral World, and cruises out over the reef, descending to a depth of around 60 m (200 ft). The large Coral World Underwater Observatory is an oceanographic complex where you can get a closeup view of the marvelous marine life here. It contains 25 tanks with more than 500 species of fish, sponges, corals and invertebrates. The most interesting displays are those with the larger creatures such as sharks and sea turtles.

The main spectacle though is at the underwater observatory itself, which is 6 m (20 ft) underwater and gives a spectacular live view of the local marine life through its large glass windows. Divers and expert swimmers will be delighted at Dolphin Reef, where small groups led by an instructor can actually swim with the dolphins and observe their behavior as they play, swim and hunt. 

The salt marshes just north of Eilat are the feeding grounds of many species of migratory birds travelling between Africa and Eurasia every spring and autumn. The International Birdwatching Centre, at Kibbutz Eilot, has an interpretation centre, and organizes guided birdwatching tours. In season, the skies are filled with thousands of flamingos, storks and herons, as well as eagles, hawks and buzzards.

By boat you can go to the fabulous reefs off Coral Island (or Pharaoh’s Island), which lies just across the Egyptian border. Regular trips are run for divers, but those wishing to land and visit the 12th-century Crusader fortress that dominates the island will need to find a tour that can arrange a group visa.