August is summer vacation for the kids. One of the most popular locations to take your vacation is Eilat, Israel's most southern city.
Sunday: We packed up our bags, made sure the hamster had enough food and water for 5 days, hopped into the car, started our engines, and left home.
It's about a four hour drive from the center to Eilat, and the view along the way is very pretty, all the way from the green of the center to the Arava desert.
If you don't like to drive, there are flights that can get you there. Flying or driving, each has its pros and cons. We prefer to drive.
Take note: If you're in Eilat with a car, many hotels do not have enough parking, and you need to park on nearby streets or car parks. In many cases you need to pay for the parking. There are meters, you can use the parking app Pango, and there are also Day parking tickets which you can buy at many local supermarkets and even some hotels sell them (ours didn't).
About two hours into the drive, we stopped at the Mitzpe Ramon Visitor's Center, which overlooks the Ramon Crater (one of the planet's few natural craters). The center has two exhibitions. The first is about the life and career of Ilan Ramon, Israel's first Astronaut, who tragically died on the Columbia space shuttle in 2004. The second is about the crater itself. You only need an hour for both.
We had lunch at a nearby restaurant, and then continued on down south.
After another couple of hours drive we reached Eilat. We stayed at the Fattal U Suites Hotel. For the most part, It was very nice. If you've read my blog about our trip to Rhodes, you would have read about our bad luck with noisy air conditioners. And here too we had a noisy one. At first it was just a hum, but in the middle of the night, it woke us up. So we changed rooms.
We took half board and the hotel dining room did not let us down. There's plenty to eat, and there's a large variety of foods, and it's tasty too. The hotel is Kosher.
The pool is pretty good, but you need to come early to get a good spot.
One disadvantage the hotel has is that when planes land at Eilat's airport, they fly right over the hotel and pretty low, so the noise is quite loud. BUT there is a new airport opening soon and it's further north, so I don't think there will be much noise, if any.
In the evening, the hotel provides entertainment for the whole family.
After dinner, we walked to the local mall and did some shopping.
Monday: In the morning, we drove down to the Dolphin Reef. It's a private beach that is also home to about four dolphins. It's a little pricey for swimming in the sea and looking at some dolphins, but it's clean, there are plenty of places to sit on the sand and the kids love the dolphins. For extra price, you can rent gear and dive with the dolphins. We stayed there for the morning and had lunch there too.
I recommend getting to the reef before 10:00, to get a good spot on the beach and also to find parking.
By the time we returned to the hotel it was late afternoon, so we just rested in the room, and after dinner, we watched a couple of the shows the hotel put on for the guests.
Tuesday: After breakfast, we went down to the pool. We got a good spot in the shade. In Eilat it gets very hot, but the pool water was quite cool, and even colder when a gust of wind came along. We spent the morning there.
After the pool, we went upstairs, got dry, and headed out for the Underwater Observatory. The problem was that it was already noon, and there was no where to park. So, we went back towards the hotel, and went to the mall to have some lunch. By the time we were done there, it was already afternoon. So we relaxed in our room until the evening.
We had an early dinner, and then caught a taxi to the U Coral Beach (it's part of the Fattal chain) where they had a show for all the guests from all their hotels.
Wednesday: We didn't want to miss the Underwater Observatory, so we had an early breakfast, and took a taxi there. We got there early, so naturally there was plenty of parking.
The Underwater observatory is very interesting and fun for the kids. There's the big shark tank where you can see the sharks being fed.
There are sea turtles, a section on rare fish, and another section called the Amazons. But the main attraction is the observatory itself, where you get to see the fish and corals in their natural habitat and not in an aquarium.
When we were done at the observatory, we caught a cab back to the hotel. We got into our swimming suits and walked to the beach next door. We didn't go to swim, but to ride the Crazy Shark, similar to what we did in Rhodes last year.
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| Rhodes |
Thursday: We slept well on our last night. Had our last breakfast and checked out of the hotel. We headed north towards home. But we weren't done yet.
Just over two hours on the ride, we stopped at Sde Boker to visit David Ben-Gurion's desert home. David Ben-Gurion was Israel's first prime minister and when he retired, he moved south to Sde Boker. Just before he died, he asked that his desert home be preserved.
It's interesting to see. There are a couple of huts with some activities for the kids, a few films about the man and his achievements, and his main quarters where he spent his last years.
From there we headed home.
Did you like the blog? Here are some links to other trips we've made:
