Eilat - discovering the underwater beauty of Israel

Israel has recently become a very popular tourist destination thanks to cheap flights. The town of Eilat covers the entire Red Sea coastline of Israel, which stretches from the border with Jordan to the border with Egypt and is only 12 km long. So I decided to see if this small piece of coastline was worth a diver’s attention.

When choosing this direction, first of all you have to take into account the fact that, despite cheap flights, Israel itself is not cheap. Therefore, before leaving, it is good to plan accommodation and consider renting a car.

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Since it is possible to dive in Israel without a local guide, and almost all positions are accessible from the shore, having your own means of transport becomes an excellent solution. A car will come in handy not only for dives, but will also make it easier for us to see local attractions on our own.

In order to borrow diving equipment in local bases we have to present current diving insurance, certificate and logged last dive (period not longer than two weeks since last dive).

I chose the U-dive base because of Ofir’s very experienced and friendly owner, who gave me valuable tips on the most interesting dive sites.

From the centre of the U-dive, it is enough to walk about 100 m in a straight line to reach the shore where the wreck of the rocket ship “Satil” is located. Its superstructure is overgrown with soft corals, between which swim huge schools of small fish and wings that hunt them.

After diving, showers are waiting for us on the beach. Along the whole shore there are car parks, where we can leave the car, change, enter the water and explore the next sites.

Of all the positions I visited during my 15 dives, the best turned out to be the beach 200 m south of Dolphin Reef. It is there that every day at sunrise we have a chance to dive with dolphins, outside the nearby dolphinarium, without crowds of tourists. In the morning, the dolphins usually choose to swim in the wild, and around eight o’clock they come back “home”.

If you are considering this destination for your next trip, it is worth adding that the conditions there are very beginner-friendly – usually weak currents and low undulations.

Here you can find more pictures from Eilat by Michal Procajlo