Aliyah 114: Eilat Kosher Vacation

Introduction

The South is mostly new to me since making aliyah. Now I’ve been to Beersheva, Ramon Crater, the Dead Sea a bunch more times, and – Eilat. It’s long overdue.

The great thing about Eilat is that it feels like a “real” vacation with hours of driving and an arrival in the Caribbean, though still very much Israeli. Anything can be found in Israel from skiing (well, sometimes) to the most northern latitude coral reef. It’s like G_d wanted to put everything into this land so there’d be no reason to leave, and Google does so in their offices. (Liquor, massage chairs, restaurants, fresh fruit, game rooms …)

Beersheva, why don’t you like me?

Being a 3.5 to 4 hr drive for me without traffic, I pre-arranged a stop in Beersheva, the last city until you get to Eilat. While I had only known it from the Bible and some well digging, I am now 0 for 3 with my visits. Visit 1) Looking for kosher food after stargazing – the kosher restaurant was closing and surrounded by night clubs with interestingly dressed people; 2) archeological something something … it was closed, despite the listed hours, and there’s someone at the counter to tell you that. 3) This time – Airforce Museum – it was closed, despite the listed hours, and there’s someone womanning a ticket booth just to tell you that. ( – and you can’t use the bathroom).

So … there’s a sign on the road … some other museum. I only find a scent store in the middle of … office buildings or something. I’m so confused. So … next sign … sculpture garden. Through a gravel road in a farm are a few rusted pieces of metal far from each other. Now I have a running joke – “Hey kids, look at the sculpture garden!” whenever there’s pipes or construction materials on the side of the road.

Hotels, Restaurants, Kosher Living

Arriving in Eilat in the summer, hiking was out of the question though going down Route 12 along the border with Egypt is scenic. We stayed at an apartment rental because hotels are really, really, really expensive in Eilat and you can have food delivered three times a day for far less than it costs to stay in a hotel with meals. Most restaurants in Eilat don’t seem to be kosher, though there are still plenty to be found ranging from excellent to mediocre. The less fancy ones not on a beach were better, in my experience. Captain Burger was great. Tortilli (just tortillas) was great.

Eilat is the only city in Israel to have separate men’s and women’s beaches all the time – in other cities, the beach is switched between the sexes based on the day of the week. There are also synagogues which seem to be mostly sefardi, more tucked away in the city, and with one or two minyanim in the morning. There are no minyan factories or anything of the sort.

Beaches, Scuba diving, and Snorkeling

The hotels: beautiful. The beaches: beautiful. The people: beautiful … Israelis tend to eat well and keep in shape, at least compared to what I’m used to in the old country. There are obese people here, just far fewer of them and they’re not walking the streets of Eilat when it’s over 100 degrees.

You’ve got many different beaches, all beautiful. Colorful fish swim around you and the water is calm. There are rocks instead of sand so bring water shoes . . . or use your super feet if you’re my kids. You’ve got your parasailing, banana boats, and that sort of thing … and we did some scuba diving and snorkeling.

Scuba diving was insane – it was as good as the best VR goggles out there. You have to wear a wetsuit (right leg in, zip up around the left and thank G_d you’re had your children already), followed by the air tank on your back. Bonus: they have prescription goggles for you so no need to wear glasses (which would probably be a bad idea anyway).

What I didn’t know is that for an intro dive there’s one instructor per person and they hold your hand the whole time so, as a religious person, ask for a same gender instructor.

Alright, I’m under water for the first test … okay, still not ready for this – when are we peaking back about the surface to discuss how to breathe and so forth? Hmm… I’m still not comfortable. I’m looking up … holy what in the world … I’m about ten feet under! Now I’m … something in meters … under. Well, I guess we’re doing this.

The guide holds your hand the entire time (except for when he doesn’t) and directs you around the reef and it’s a real reef with coral and fish and all that stuff from Finding Nemo. There’s even turtles in here though what the movie gets wrong is that you can only talk by hand signals under water so Crush couldn’t actually say, “You’ve got serious thrill issues, dude.” He’d just have to say, “Something’s wrong and cool” because the only hand signals you have are: look, cool, okay, something’s wrong, and another 15 minutes.

The single most amazing thing I saw and will never forget (I’m not planning on Altheimer’s) is the view under a dock. Scores of fish were hanging out there of all different colors, packed near the pilings and in the middle were rows of ribbonfish – long, flat, metallic ribbons extending horizontally and spaced apart. I don’t have a picture so AI will have to do. So beautiful and amazing to see where all the fish hide out. There’s a whole additional world down there.

It was hard to do more than one activity per day because it’s so hot in the summer. When you’re in the water, it’s totally fine. Still, I learned why people take siestas in the afternoon … after the heat, it lends itself so well to an afternoon nap or shnatz in Hebrew.

The next day we did snorkeling where you hold hands with your group and follow the instructor around with the highlight being their two dolphins at Dolphin Reef which they bring right in front of you (or, at least, they did for us). Also a great experience.

At Dolphin Reef they also have a beach, hot pools of some kind, boat tours, and some animals – you have to pay to get in unless you’re also reserving for one of their activities.

The Outdoors – on Land

Other activities … going up to the “observatory” which was a dirt path into another dirt path into a circular clearing on a mountain a few miles away from the city. Even the website gives this exact locatioon to go to, in latitude and longitude. I didn’t see any big telescopes … just a lot of gravel/dirt/rock to lie down on, clearly purpose “built”. The cool 90 degree breeze at night is refreshing. (It’s all a matter of what you’re used to.)

We also signed up for an after-hours car tour at Park Timna, North of the city. Expecting to be in the car almost the whole time … hey, we’re following a line of cars for a while though how is there going to be any communication? A radio station to tune into? A conference call to join? Signal out here can’t be great. Oh. Actually, we’re getting out and hearing about ancient copper mines in Hebrew and we walked through some tunnels in the rock and whatnot. I think the temperature had dropped from triple digits to double digits around that time – 99 doesn’t feel so bad after 106 (just stay in the shade) though the air is really dry so you can function, et al.

Shopping

Disappointing.

Eilat is a VAT-free city to attract tourists. Just about everything in Israel, elsewhere, has 18% tax built into the price. I’m not sure Eilat prices are always a lot better. There are two malls, a complex of outdoor strip malls and individual stores called “Big Eilat” and a bunch of other little stores around. The “Ice Mall” turns out to be made of no more ice than the American streets are paved with gold. Two floors of stores circle around a central ice-skating rink.

Every home appliance store sells robot vacuums. I don’t want a robot vacuum. It’s like there’s one importer that imports lots of the same product and it’s sold everywhere even if Israelis rarely have carpets. Cellular phone stores – you have your choice of Chinese spyware phones made in part by slave labor (I refuse to buy them) or a Samsung S25 or S26. Should you want a OneNote or Google phone … not to be found in Israel. Should you bring one to Israel, it will work, though you won’t find accessories or a repair place that will touch it. It just so happens I live by Samsung phones, though I don’t want a choice of only the newest and most expensive one. Every store – same phones. No variety.

Alright … enough with the mall shopping. Let’s go to “Big Eilat” where all the retailers have their larger stores. “Bug”, an electronics store, has this:

It’s tiny.

The strip mall is about mid-level compared to New Jersey, and this is supposed to be –the– place to shop in Eilat. The sporting goods store was decent … large … on par with maybe a mid-range sporting goods store in the US if they weren’t all out of business. Not much else going on there except for chain clothing stores.

Alright, well, let’s explore more: Ah – Supersol Deal – it’s a large supermarket chain with all sorts of housewares and the like at good prices. We’ve got one of those in Modiin. The one in Eilat – disappointing. Very little there.

I’m in the market for a good sound system – I find some between the Samsung S25 and S26 phones and pipe fittings in a hardware store. They’ve got pile of soundbars with dust on them. I say what I want to spend and the salesman says, “this Kitsch soundbar is in your price range and you don’t need a subwoofer because it has big speakers”. I’m not convinced though let’s have a listen. He can’t get it to connect to his phone for Bluetooth, and they have nothing else to test it.

Perhaps I just didn’t hit the right store (Machson Chashmal perhaps?) though this city is ripe for a disruptor. Shopping in Modiin is so much better – though still not nearly on par with a Home Depot, Costco, or even Target and Bed Bath and Beyond which is out of business. Try finding a curtain for a half-length window. Curtains in every store are only full length so, lacking finding them in Israel, they’re coming from either Amazon or AliExpress.

Gas is cheaper in Eilat. Get gas when you’re there. Go to New Jersey for good shopping.

Other activities

The musical fountain is dry – completely non-functional – except three nights a week for 1.5 hrs when the lights go to music programmed by someone with ADHD as rarely does a song finish before jumping to the next one. It’s cute for younger kids. Nearby is a small museum – that’s for next time as is the indoor rope climbing, obstacle course, sort of place and the outdoor camel ride place. You can take a boat ride into the sea with a glass bottom boat to see reefs though having done that in Key West, I highly recommend snorkeling or scuba diving instead. The water’s warm.

The aquarium was decent – no kosher food except for a few snacks and barad (Italian ices) that has kosher syrup. I’m so used to finding kosher food wherever I go in Israel. They have a 3D show in a very small Imax type theater that oooed and wowed kids there. Their main attraction is animal feedings and an underwater observation area which I thought would be like the Bahamas in a glass tunnel. It’s a circular room with windows to the sea. It’s fine except after scuba diving and snorkeling, there are only so many fish you can see.

We’ll be going back – just not in the summer! As long as you’re doing water activities or indoors, it’s fine though returning to my house where it rises to about the 90s in July, I feel so comfortable outside. It’s all perspective.