North Beach Resorts and Promenade Hotels
The main strip along the lagoon and the promenade: large resort brands with pools, spas and beach access, plus mid-range hotels a street back. Live rates and filters for pool, breakfast and sea view.
Where to Stay in Eilat: Best Hotels by Zone 2026
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By The Visit Israel Editorial Team · Last updated
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Coral Beach and Reef-Side Stays
Hotels along the coast road south of the city, minutes from the Coral Beach Nature Reserve and the dive centres. Quieter than North Beach and the right base if you plan to snorkel every morning.
Petra Day Trip and Red Sea Activities
Once the hotel is sorted: the Petra day trip across the Jordanian border, snorkelling at the reef, glass-bottom boats and desert jeep tours, all with pickup from Eilat hotels.
Eilat sits at the southern tip of Israel on the Gulf of Aqaba, with Jordan visible across the water and Egypt a few kilometres down the coast. It is the country’s beach resort, with several hundred hotels and a climate that stays warm from November to March when the rest of Israel is in jackets. The hotels sit in three distinct zones, and choosing between them matters more than choosing between individual properties. This guide maps the zones, explains what each price tier buys, and sets out when to book and when to stay away.
For what to do once you have arrived, from the reef to Timna Park to the trip across the border, see the Eilat region guide.
The three hotel zones
North Beach: the resort strip
North Beach is where most of Eilat’s hotels stand: a two-kilometre arc from the marina and the lagoon in the north to the road junction near the Underwater Observatory in the south. The beach is public and free, the water is calm because the gulf has almost no wave action, and the promenade behind it holds the restaurants, bars, ice-cream counters and watersports rental. The large resort brands cluster at the lagoon end; mid-range hotels sit a street or two back.
Best for: first-time visitors, families, anyone who wants beach, restaurants and evening life on foot. The trade-off is scale: this is a busy strip, especially in Israeli school holidays.
Coral Beach: the reef zone
Three to five kilometres south of the centre on the coast road, a smaller group of hotels sits beside the Coral Beach Nature Reserve, the only place in Israel where you can walk in from the shore and be over living reef within minutes. The dive centres are here too, and so is the Dolphin Reef. It is quieter and less built up than North Beach, with the desert mountains close behind.
Best for: snorkellers, divers, families who want the reef every morning, travellers who prefer calm to promenade. The trade-off is distance: the North Beach restaurants are a bus or taxi ride away.
City centre: the budget zone
Behind the strip and around the central bus station, the city centre has the guesthouses, hostels, small hotels and holiday apartments. It is a 10 to 15 minute walk to North Beach and next to the malls and everyday shops, without sea views or promenade access.
Best for: budget travellers, anyone arriving by bus, and visitors who will spend their days on Petra, desert or diving trips rather than at the hotel.
Hotels by price tier
Prices below are 2026 ranges for a double room and vary a great deal with the season; check live rates for your dates.
Budget: roughly ₪350 to ₪600 per night
Genuine budget beds are almost entirely in the city centre. Amdar Hostel is the main backpacker address, with dorms and private rooms, clean and functional rather than atmospheric, and full of Israeli travellers in holiday periods. Small guesthouses such as the Manta Ray Inn offer private en-suite rooms a 12 to 15 minute walk from the beach. Along Sderot HaTmarim, the commercial road parallel to the strip, older mid-week hotels undercut the beachfront considerably. These are places to sleep and shower between activities, and they do that well.
Mid-range: roughly ₪600 to ₪1,200 per night
This tier buys a pool, a decent breakfast and either a sea view or a short walk to the beach. On the North Beach promenade, the Prima Music has a rooftop pool and direct promenade access without flagship prices. South of the centre towards Coral Beach, the Orchid is a large garden resort with its own pool complex, styled after a Southeast Asian resort and popular with families who do not need the strip. The U boutique properties sit at the upper end of this tier with smaller room counts and more individual service. Breakfast is usually included at this level; confirm before booking.
Luxury: roughly ₪1,200 to ₪3,000 and above
Eilat’s top tier is dominated by Israeli resort brands with the infrastructure to be self-contained. The Dan Eilat on the lagoon is the benchmark North Beach resort: direct water access, several restaurants and a full spa, at the most animated corner of the strip. The Isrotel Royal Beach occupies the central beachfront with large pools, spa and evening entertainment; its sister property Isrotel Yam Suf at the southern end near Coral Beach is quieter and better placed for divers. The top of the range applies to sea-view suites and peak weeks; outside July, August and the Jewish holidays the same rooms cost a good deal less.
Eilat is in the middle of a large hotel-building cycle on the land of the old city-centre airport, with several upscale properties opening in phases through 2026 and 2027. Check live availability rather than assuming a newly announced hotel is taking bookings.
Seasonal pricing
| Period | Weather | Demand and rates |
|---|---|---|
| January to early March | Warm days, cool sea, best visibility | Cheapest window; excellent for diving |
| Late March to May | Warm, building | Passover week is a peak; otherwise good value |
| June to August | Very hot, 40°C and above by day | Israeli summer holiday; highest rates of the year |
| September | Hot, sea at its warmest | Good shoulder month; fewer families |
| October | Warm | Sukkot week is a peak; the rest of the month is calm |
| November to mid-December | Warm days, mild evenings | Low rates; ideal for a winter-sun week |
| Late December | Mild | Christmas and New Year push prices up |
Booking rules of thumb. Three to four months ahead for July, August, Passover and Sukkot. Two to four weeks for most of November to March. Many hotels require two nights on weekends. See best time to visit Israel for how Eilat’s calendar fits the rest of the country.
Choosing between zones
| Your priority | Where to stay |
|---|---|
| Beach, promenade and evenings on foot | North Beach |
| Reef snorkelling or diving daily | Coral Beach |
| Lowest cost | City centre |
| Pool infrastructure for children | North Beach lagoon end |
| Quiet, desert backdrop | Coral Beach |
| Petra and desert trips, hotel just for sleeping | City centre or a mid-range North Beach hotel |
Getting there and around
Eilat’s Ramon Airport is 20 minutes north of the city, with domestic flights from Tel Aviv and some seasonal European services; taxis and a bus connect it to the hotels. By road, Eilat is about four hours from Tel Aviv and three and a half from Jerusalem via the Dead Sea and the Arava, or via the Negev and Mitzpe Ramon, which is the more scenic route. Our car rental guide covers the drive. Within the city, a local bus runs along the coast road to Coral Beach; North Beach and the centre are walkable.
Combining Eilat with Petra
Half the reason international visitors come to Eilat is the Petra trip: the Jordanian border is ten minutes from the hotel strip and tours collect from every hotel. If Petra is the point, book two nights in Eilat around a one-day tour, or three nights around the two-day Petra and Wadi Rum version, and use the remaining time for the reef. That combination is also the usual final leg of our 10-day itinerary.
How Eilat compares
Eilat is a beach town with a resort strip; Ein Bokek on the Dead Sea is a resort strip with nothing behind it. If you want floating, spas and silence, read the Dead Sea hotels guide. If you want a city with sea, Tel Aviv has better restaurants and a cooler summer. Eilat wins on winter sun, on the reef, and on being the gateway to Jordan.
Frequently asked questions
Which area of Eilat is best to stay in? +
North Beach is the default for first-time visitors: the largest concentration of hotels, the promenade with its restaurants and watersports, and a calm, free public beach. Coral Beach, 3 to 5 km south on the coast road, is for snorkellers and divers who want to walk from the hotel to the reef. The city centre, a 10 to 15 minute walk behind the strip, is where the guesthouses and budget hotels are. Choose by what you plan to do each morning.
How much do Eilat hotels cost per night? +
As of 2026, budget guesthouses and hostels in the city centre generally run between ₪350 and ₪600 per room mid-week off-season; mid-range hotels with a pool between ₪600 and ₪1,200; and the large resort hotels on North Beach from around ₪1,200 up to ₪3,000 and beyond for suites in peak weeks. Rates roughly double in July, August and during Passover and Sukkot, and drop sharply from November to March outside the holidays.
When is the cheapest time to visit Eilat? +
January to early March, and November to mid-December. The weather is still warm, around 22 to 26°C by day, the Red Sea is cool but swimmable, and diving visibility is at its best. The most expensive periods are the Israeli school summer holiday from late June to August, Passover in spring, Sukkot in autumn and the week around New Year. Weekends, meaning Thursday to Saturday nights, cost more than mid-week all year.
Do I need a car in Eilat? +
Not if you stay on North Beach: the promenade, the marina, the malls and the bus station are walkable. A car is useful if you stay at Coral Beach, want to reach Timna Park or the Red Canyon in the desert north of the city, or are driving down from the centre of the country via the Dead Sea or the Negev. Petra tours collect from all Eilat hotels, so no car is needed for Jordan.
How far ahead should I book? +
Three to four months for July, August, Passover week and Sukkot week, when Israeli families fill the resorts and many hotels require minimum stays. Two to four weeks is usually enough for November to March outside holidays. Note that many Eilat hotels apply a two-night minimum on weekends year-round.
Is Eilat better than the Dead Sea for a resort stay? +
They are different products. Eilat is a beach and reef resort with a real town behind it, nightlife, watersports and Petra across the border; the Dead Sea strip at Ein Bokek is a wellness destination built around floating and spas, with nothing to do in the evenings. Families and divers choose Eilat; travellers after a quiet spa break choose Ein Bokek. Our Dead Sea hotels guide compares the options there.
Are all-inclusive hotels common in Eilat? +
Half-board, meaning breakfast and dinner, is the most common package at the large resorts, and several offer all-inclusive for Israeli holiday weeks. For international visitors, bed and breakfast is usually the better deal, because the promenade restaurants are a short walk away and lunch is often taken at the beach. Check what the quoted rate includes before comparing hotels; a half-board rate can look expensive against a room-only one.