We were supposed to go to Greece. For the autumn of 2017, Lea and I had been planning a two-week Aegean odyssey: Athens, Delphi, Santorini, Crete. We were going to snorkel, visit a volcano, and see enough ancient ruins to make my wife want to club me in the head.
Then life happened and we couldn’t go during our optimum vacation window. We could travel later in the year – maybe – but by then the Aegean would be too cold to enjoy. I don’t remember the exact sequence of decisions that led us to Israel instead, but I’m sure it ran along the lines of Lea reading a travel article (like this one!) and both of us hoping that since the Red Sea is farther south, it might be warm enough to swim at that time of year.
Thus and therefore, we went to Israel in November 2017. By this point we’d already decided to quit our jobs in 2018 and trek around South America, so in addition to this being a much-needed escape, it also served (as would our later trip to Guatemala) as a test-run for our career break. We would carry everything in our backpacks, use public transport when possible, walk across borders twice, and not plan everything ahead. When we left the Atlanta airport, we didn’t even have hotel reservations for the last few days of our trip. Let me tell you, this freaked the 2017 version of me out.
In the Indiana Jones-style travel map in your mind, picture the big red arrow representing our flight crossing the Atlantic and Mediterranean to Istanbul, then turning south to Tel Aviv, where after a very short night’s stay we flew a quick morning hop to Eilat.
You’ve never heard of Eilat. Here it is:
Eilat is a Red Sea resort town at Israel’s southernmost tip that’s very, very close to the borders with Jordan and Egypt (though not the part where Moses went for a swim). When we got there, the air was still warm but the water was definitely cold. We wouldn’t learn how cold until we were in it and committed to snorkeling, but the crystal-clear views and beautiful fish made it worth the chill.
We were there at the end of the season, so nothing was exactly crowded. We stayed at the Orchid Eilat Hotel, in which you have to be taxied up to your cabin in a golf cart unless you’re from the Andes and love that kind of climb. The Orchid had the advantage of being right across the street from the Underwater Observatory and just a little way down the road from the Coral Beach Nature Reserve. It was there that we did our snorkeling, and it was also there that we bought our Israel Parks Pass. This ended up being a money-saving move, and if you go to Israel you should do it too.
The Israel Parks Pass allows you entry into national parks and reserves all over the country. We each bought the 6-park “Classic Pass,” which today sells for ₪110 ILS (about $31 USD at the current exchange). For that, we gained admission to six of the many parks and historic sites on the face of the card. I believe we ended up visiting seven or eight, but we used the pass to get into those with the highest admission fees.
(Traveler’s note: the unit of currency in Israel is the “shekel,” symbol: ₪ )
Anyway, if you’re into snorkeling, the Coral Beach Nature Reserve is a great place to do it. Don’t get me wrong, the water in November will wake you up, but it’s clear and the views are gorgeous. The current is also pretty fierce. It flows along the coast from north to south, so you’ll get into the water on the northern pier and fight it the whole way until it takes you to the southern pier where I advise you to get out. Otherwise: next stop, Egypt.
The Underwater Observatory is also well worth your time. It’s very much a family attraction, and was pretty busy on the day we went. There are small and large aquariums, including the obligatory shark tank, but the main draw is the observatory itself which you access via a pier before taking the spiral steps down for a Captain Nemo-style view of the sea bottom and the surrounding coral.
Everything we did in Eilat in those first days, we did by foot or by taxi. The airport is in the middle of town, so you can get a cab or a rental car right there to go where you will. When it was time to cross the border into Jordan, we took a cab north to the Wadi Araba Border Crossing (a wadi being a dried-up river bed) and, backpacks loaded for bear, we walked from Israel to its Arab neighbor and flagged the first taxi driver we saw to take us into Aqaba.
Aqaba’s not quite the tourist spot that Eilat is. We took the night bus around the town (with two or three other passengers, I believe) but there wasn’t really much to see. It has a few beach hotels, but Aqaba’s main reason for existence is as Jordan’s only sea port. It’s a working town, not a tourist trap. It is, however, the launching point for excursions to the ancient city of Petra.
(Cue Indiana Jones music again; make note to re-watch The Last Crusade.)
Petra is exactly as amazing as the pictures you see on Instagram or National Geographic. In truth, it’s even more so, because the photos are dominated almost entirely by the giant façade known as the Treasury. While that’s certainly the grandest and best preserved of the city’s cliff-carved buildings, it’s not by any means the only one. The structures go on and on through a long, sand-strewn valley (packed with as many tourists as any place I’ve been except for Machu Picchu). It’s astounding to think that this fantastic site was lost to all knowledge for over 1400 years.
While you can get to Petra from the park entrance in a horse-drawn buggy, that’s mean to the horses. The best way is to walk… and walk and walk… through a narrow canyon as it descends toward the city. Along the way are small outbuildings and carvings to clue you in as to what’s to come. At one point, there are the remains of a sculpture of an entire caravan carved into the canyon wall. This was, after all, the same route that desert traders would have taken. If only one could go back and glimpse ancient cities such as Petra in their full splendor.
At one point along the descent, your guide will tell you exactly which side of the canyon wall to stand against for the “oh wow” moment of seeing the Treasury for the first time. And I don’t care if you have watched Indiana Jones 3, you will not be prepared for seeing the real thing in person, lit by the blazing sun through a crack in the giant sandstone walls.
What follows will be at least half an hour standing in the wide plaza in front of the Treasury with your mouth stuck in a permanent “O” and realizing that the widest angle on your camera lens still isn’t wide enough.
Beyond the Treasury, there is still a lot of Petra to explore; more than is really possible and still make it back to your bus in time. There are options for staying in the area if you’d really like to explore the complex and hike to some of its higher, harder-to-reach features, but we had a flight out of Eilat the next evening. It was back on the bus for us.
The next morning, we taxied to the border and trudged under our heavy packs back into Israel. Going that direction wasn’t as hassle-free as it was when entering Jordan, and while there had been taxis waiting on the Jordanian side, there were none on the Israeli side of the border. Since most people make the crossing in tour buses, we had to wait until a taxi happened by with other passengers in tow.
We had one day left to spend in Eilat, and while it would’ve been great to hang out on the beach we didn’t have anywhere to store our belongings. Thankfully, there is more that the area has to offer. From downtown Eilat we rented a car for the day and drove north to Timna Park.
The Timna Valley is home to many geological features carved by wind and sand: pillars, arches, and mushroom-shaped formations. It was also the site of ancient Egyptian copper mines, and relics from mining operations have been found that date back to the 5th millennium BCE. (That’s millennium, not century.) The park is accessible for hikers and bikers, but be smart: come in a car and bring lots of water.
Our last evening in Eilat was itself something of an adventure. We dropped off the car in the center of town and then – silly us – decided we’d look around for a restaurant where we could hang out and, I dunno, use the bathroom. A few outdoor restaurants could be found, but toilet facilities? Nada.
We hiked in the direction of a McDonald’s sign and, after what Google Maps tells me was less than a kilometer, but which felt an awful lot longer under the weight of our packs, we made it to the Mall Hayam Eilat. The mall was a decent place to wait for our late night flight, but we made another discovery – you can’t get into a shopping mall in Israel without showing your passport and passing all your luggage through an x-ray scanner. Which, given where we were and the relationship Israel has with its next-door neighbors, is completely understandable.
Once it was time to check in for our flight, we taxied to the airport (no more hiking!) and were met with another new experience – the thorough airport security grilling. Now, at this point I’d traveled overseas enough to get used to the full-backpack, take off your belt and shoes and stand still for the pat-down search. (I seem to be a magnet for the “random search” lucky dice.) However, as soon as the airport staff spotted the Jordanian stamps in our passports, Lea and I had the pleasure of a protracted interview about everything we’d done in the neighboring country.
Don’t get me wrong. The Israeli security personnel were nothing but professional and very polite. So were we – after all, our travel plans were in their hands. We were asked repeatedly about where we’d gone in Jordan, who we’d spoken to, how we’d gotten about. Did we arrange our taxi before-hand? What was our taxi driver’s name? Did we have friends or family in Jordan? Had we brought anything back? Where had we stayed? Where had we gone?
In the end, it was a relief to be handed our passports back and allowed into the boarding area. Also, I’m sure anyone but middle-to-upper class American whiteys who may be reading this are probably rolling their eyes by now. “Oh, you were questioned by the police? Poor you.” Still, it’s a thing that happens, and if you travel in and out of Israel, just be aware.
Next time: We drive to Galilee and are eaten by fish.