What could be more fun than a guided tour of Isrotel’s exclusive chain of resorts in Eilat? Not much.
After a pleasant Arkia Israel flight, the first stop was the Royal Beach Hotel. Suitable most for a romantic getaway, all 364 of the rooms and suites face carefully crafted pools as well as the Red Sea, which is within walking distance. A spa, gym, and sauna await the guests’ use.
Another attraction that is affiliated with the Royal Beach is the Ranch House restaurant, a kosher steakhouse with a wealth of scrumptious culinary choices. Among some of the dishes that we sampled were the Caesar salad, the prime ribs, and the American brioche and asado, which were all excellent. The salad was dressed just right and was crunchy, light, and rich in flavor, while the meat was tender and juicy. It is not an easy feat, the head chef told us, to come up with a menu using limited resources, seeing as only kosher ingredients are used. Nevertheless, our palates did a little La Cucaracha when we sank our teeth into that butter-soft, succulent meat.
Vacationers can also easily access the promenade in the marina area nearby, where one can find plenty of attractions, from shopping in Eilat’s tax-exempt stores (watch out though, this author found that in some cases, prices did not reflect a discount. It depends on the store), through gazing at the majestic, gleaming Jordanian lights in the distance (recommended at night) to visiting the Three Monkeys, a pub linked to the Royal Beach. Once inside, our personable, eye-catching bartender, Martin, was most accommodating, mixing up popular cocktails to our hearts’ delight.
Next, we visited Agamim, a hotel that is part of the Isrotel Collection brand. Our bedroom was cozy and simultaneously, spacious. Perhaps this had to do with the walk-in, closet-sized beige-tiled shower. More likely, this was thanks to one of our walls being made up entirely of glass overlooking the magnificent, sizable, winding lagoon-shaped pool, which was decked with lavish greenery and lots of cute, plush corners to tuck into.
For dinner, we went to Nini Kai, a new Asian fusion restaurant located in Isrotel’s Royal Garden that was opened in cooperation with the Nini Hachi chain. The cuisine is an interesting blend of traditional Asian food, such as sushi, together with a twist. It is worth checking out. We recommend the red tuna dish, which was surprisingly refreshing.
The Royal Garden, which is a family-oriented hotel, is also home to Isrotel’s Wow Celebration, this summer’s family-friendly, bedazzling theater performance, which will include an array of visiting acrobats and dancers.
Renowned Israeli actor and director Hanoch Rosen introduced the show, explaining that this summer, it carries particular significance.
“We have Ukrainian acrobats in the show. Imagine what that means. These young women left one warzone to enter another one voluntarily. All of our performers who are currently training here for the show in Eilat are here willingly. Most have never experienced any type of war before. Despite everything that is going on, they are here. We should give them all the support they deserve,” he said.
Amenities and experiences for families with kids included
ANOTHER GREAT option for families with kids is Isrotel’s King Solomon. It offers its unique Kids’ Kingdom, a large, air-conditioned space where your children can engage – supervised by trained hotel staff – in an assortment of activities designed to keep them busy for hours as their parents enjoy some alone time. This here author was hard-pressed not to join the fun, playing video games, crawling up the cushioned indoor playground, or getting into a cart and driving around the cute little mock streets.
We made one last stop before our departure – the Yam Suf, Isrotel’s least formal hotel in the city, which is located quite a distance away from, well, everything else – on Eilat’s Coral Beach. Perhaps this was due to the recency effect, but we liked this one the most. It felt tranquil and comfy with its lounge that was colored in golden shades of soft browns, whites, and beiges, surrounded on three sides by enormous glass windows that let a gentle sun in as calm palm trees peeked through and a rippling pool flowed idly by.
Manta Isrotel Diving Center is also at Yam Suf. The scuba diving club supplies everything from a one-time beginner’s experience to full training courses to become a certified scuba diver instructor. Gal Mor, the head of the center, discussed his and his staff’s experience over the past months.
“We were the first hotel to receive the evacuees on October 8, 2023. Busloads of people seeking shelter from Kerem Shalom and Nir Oz arrived. Humans smelling of smoke, arriving with nothing, barefoot, some wounded, piled off. Injured dogs, too,” Mor detailed.
“Once we got them settled, they refused to come out of their rooms. It took us a while to understand that they were terrified, the children too, that if they came out, they’d be shot at. So, we came up with the idea, all of us, all of the diving clubs in Eilat, that maybe being underwater would do these people some good,” he continued.
Mor concluded, “So, we put our differences aside and instead of competing with one another over clientele, we worked together to encourage the evacuees to snorkel. I believe that there is something therapeutic about being underwater. All the terrifying noises die down; all that remains is peace. It took time, but people slowly began coming out of their shells. Maybe scuba diving helped. I hope that in some small way – it did.”
Lior Raviv, Isrotel’s managing director, pointed out that due to the war, there is no incoming tourism, nor is this expected to change anytime soon. Meanwhile, most of the refugees from the South have moved on with their lives, leaving the hotels and striking out on their own elsewhere.
“We are living through a very complex reality. Moreover, we realize that we are nowhere near its end,” Raviv apprised.
Beyond the lack of tourists coming in from abroad, many of the staff members have been called to reserve army duty, which is another challenge that the hotels that are still operational face. Currently, 30% of the staff at Agamim is Jordanian.
When asked if there is some silver lining to all of this, the Royal Garden’s CEO, Shani Azulay, needed to take a moment and think.
“Whole families cooped up in small hotel rooms; dogs and dog fur everywhere; entire communities from the South receiving word day after day after day that another loved one was dead; attending funeral after funeral after funeral; seeing those people coming off those buses with nothing, nothing… a scene that seemed to be taken out of the Holocaust. Can I say that we became a sort of a family? I don’t know if that’s what you want to hear,” Azulay said, thinking out loud, her eyes glazed over, processing.
“You know what? I think I do have a love story for you. It is a love story between two opposite communities: The North and the South. They could not be more different from each other. Kibbutzim are tightly-knit communities. Cities like Kiryat Shmona conduct their lives as any city dweller – it’s each to their own.
“Also, the South watched its homes burn and its people taken. It knew everything was gone. Not the North. People from Kiryat Shmona who arrived here later were people with a future that was still unknown. They understood that they had to run away too. But as far as they were, and still are, concerned, they still have their homes and their lives to get back to, someday. The North is not lost yet. Still, they do not have the certainty that the southerners have. The South knows what they had is gone. The northerners live in a perpetual state of limbo.
“When the North and South met here, matters did not go well at first. But then each realized that they had something to contribute to the other. How to survive without a community or how to build one. There’s a silver lining for you,” Azulay smiled.
Isrotel’s hotels in Eilat have much to offer, and they are certainly worth checking out. Just remember to use plenty of sunscreen if you are planning a summer trip, and don’t forget to hydrate regularly if you don’t want to get scraped off the pavement.
For more information, visit: https://www.isrotel.com/
The writer was a guest of Isrotel.