Slumming it in Eilat
The drive to Eilat from the Dead Sea was long and dry. Desert, desert, and more desert. We stopped at a rest stop recommended to us by our Israeli relatives and really wished that we didn’t. Other than an ice cream bar everything looked a bit scary there, so we continued our drive to Eilat. Although the main reason we made a straight line to Eilat was to find a hospital for my wife’s toe, we were also a bit excited to spend two nights in this resort destination, rather than the one night we had originally planned. We drove up to our hotel, and were greeted by what we had come to know as the traditional hospitality for foreigners in Israel.
The porters in front of the hotel worked very hard to ignore us as we pulled our luggage from the car, pulled Nelya with her limping foot out, and kept the kids from killing each other after the long car ride. Eventually one of the porters was nice enough to approach us at this luxurious resort – considered the best in Eilat and by many as the best in all of Israel.
“You’ll need to move your car.”
“OK”, I responded. But I’ll be able to move it much quicker if you could take our baggage to our room. Sure enough, the baggage carts were there for a purpose!
I pulled my car over to the parking garage to park it.
“Room key”
“I don’t have a room key”, I responded. “We just pulled in and I was asked to park the car.”
The guard reluctantly opened the gate and I attempted to pull in. However just as I did several hotel workers pulled a supplies cart in front of my car, and by the time they had pulled it inside the gate had closed. Also gone was the guard. I sat, waiting there while I figured out what to do. Luckily another car came out, who quickly honked – irritated that I dared be in his way. I pulled back and the minute he was through I gunned it before the gate closed. The car now parked, I went inside.
“They don’t have our reservations!”, Nelya shrieked – visibly quite upset.
As I mentioned, we were only supposed to stay Sunday night there. However, due to the broken toe episode, we decided to stay there both Saturday and Sunday. To make sure the reservations were done properly, we had one of my wife’s cousins call the hotel to make the change. I then called the hotel to verify the change and also to inform them we had two children. On the phone they were quite rude – “well, there’ll be a surcharge!”. I agreed to the surcharge, as in some parts of the world it was common, and at the time I felt things were in order.
However, they were not in order – they now were insisting that we only had reservations for Saturday and not Sunday. I insisted that both my wife’s cousin and I had called to book both, and he insisted that his operator wouldn’t lie. He then turned and ignored us. The only saving grace for us was my wife’s cousin, who called the hotel infuriated that they had treated his guests of honor so rudely. After our cousin’s tirade, we were upgraded to a suite.
For those staying in Eilat, the name of the hotel was Sheraton Herod’s Palace and I wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole if I were staying in Eilat again.
Eilat is admittedly a very interesting place. It sits on a tiny slit of land on the Red Sea. From the beach, Jordan (above), Egypt, and Saudi Arabia are all visible. Although the towns and land are visible, the countries couldn’t be further apart. It is possible to cross into Egypt and Jordan from Eilat, but the citizens on both sides have very little to do with each other. Few travel between the borders other than tourists.
Eilat is a big travel destination for Israelis and the place is full of tourist traps. Most of them are not worth your time or money, though the aquarium was nice. It has an open viewing area where you climb a ladder down to the sea floor and can see the corals in the sea.
There’s also a lot of shopping there, including a mall where Eitan and Nathan had the chance to cool down a bit.
My biggest joy in Eilat was taking pictures of the sunset. At just the right moment the mountains turn dark red (hence the “Red” Sea) and the place is quite beautiful.
However, after our short stay in Eilat the area had become old – we were sick of tourist traps and Israeli customer service and wanted to see something real. Luckily, the next destination on our trip was to one of the new wonders of the world, as we prepared to go on our own “Indiana Jones” trip.