I had always imagined Israel to be a bit like the North African countries that I'd visited so I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived in Eilat. It is a very modern resort but it also has lots of little market stalls down by the beach promenade which gives a kind of seventies, hippy feel to it. It tends to attract a wide age group as well.
My husband and I stayed at the Moon Valley Hotel near the centre of the town. Our main reason for going to Eilat was to dive in the Red Sea. We had surfed the internet prior to leaving to find ourselves a dive school and we decided that Lucky Divers seemed the friendliest and best value for money.
The Red Sea is spectacular to dive in. As soon as you enter the water you are surrounded by fish. Near the end of our week's holiday we did a 'dolphin dive'. This consisted of diving in an enclosure where wild dolphins are able to go in and out as they please, so it is not guaranteed that you will actually get to see any. However, we were lucky. We sat at the bottom of the sea bed and waited for the dolphins to arrive. The dolphins have an incentive to come into the enclosure as they are fed around the time the tourists are taken down for their dive. I felt very tense as I sat waiting and while I was looking up to see if they had arrived I felt a nudge at my side and realised there was this enormous dolphin trying to squeeze itself in between me and my husband. It allowed us to clap it and tickle its stomach. I was on a real high after that. They're such beautiful creatures.
My husband's a real music fan and was delighted to discover that the CDs in Israel are much cheaper than in the UK. The average price is about £7 each. We bought 15 CDs back with us.
Eating out tends to be expensive but we found a great little cafe that sold the most delicious falafel I'd ever tasted for about £2 and that included either a pint of beer or a glass of wine. The local pubs were good as well. We kept going back to the Underground Bar which is about 5 minutes walk from the town's main shopping mall. If you bought 3 pints of beer your 4th was free and the prices were very reasonable.
Drinking in the hotel was expensive, though, at approximately £4 per drink but there was always some kind of entertainment such as cabaret acts or quizzes. We thoroughly enjoyed Eilat and we are looking forward to going back at some stage. We only paid £199 for our holiday because we went at the end of January but it tends to be pretty expensive to go on a package otherwise. Nevertheless, I would highly recommend Eilat as a holiday resort.
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