I jumped on a plane at Tel Aviv's smaller domestic airport, Sde Dov, which is on the coast just north of the city and headed the short journey about 1 hour down to Eilat on the southernmost tip on the Red sea. I can actually say I have now down the Med, the Dead and the Red seas all in 1 week!
Even the airport security at Dov is super strict and I got grilled because my passport had Arab stamps in from my trips to Dubai. Once they realised that I posed no risk I was let into the tiny lounge ready to board my flight with Arkia airlines, who were actually ok, like a budget Easyjet in Europe.
The airport in Eilat is right in the middle of the town and the town itself is literally built around it. My hotel, the Soleil Boutique was within walking distance so it was a great base to go and explore. I definitely noticed the difference in temperature from Tel Aviv's 28 degrees to Eilat's 38 degrees!
I was only in Eilat for 3 days as I used it as a base to travel across the border in to Jordan and onto Petra. Eilat is literally a few miles from the Jordanian and Egyptian borders so it's useful if you want to explore either countries. I spent one day walking around Eilat town, sunbathing on the beach and the other full day I caught one of the local buses a few miles south to Coral beach reserve, a few miles from the Egyptian crossing. Here you have great snorkelling opportunities, you pay about £10 to have a locker and entry and off you go, jumping off the jetty and swimming amongst the fish and coral.
It was a welcome relief from the heat!
Check out my Eilat video here or on my Vlog page, particularly for the snorkelling bits:
