Chasing the Fionist Dream

If you’ve been following our blog, you know that we love to travel and that we had planned a trip to Bulgaria for October 2023. You also know that God had other plans and that trip never happened. Fortunately, we were able to recoup just about all of the 4,000 shekels we had laid out on flights and accommodations and put it right back into our vacation slush fund. We spent the past two months daydreaming, brainstorming, and fantasizing about a replacement family vacation. We wanted something fun, toddler-friendly, and not too far away. And for various war-related reasons, we didn’t want to leave Israel.

We considered our options. We don’t have a car and would rather not rent one for several days, so we wanted a place we could get to by public transportation. Said place should have little-kid-friendly things to do, nice weather, and preferably, a low chance of missile fire.

And then it hit us. If we’re staying in Israel, we wanted to go somewhere where our shekels make a difference. Since the war started, we’ve been making an effort to increase our donations as well as support Israeli businesses and farms that have been negatively impacted by the current crisis. (Our kids love that we have a near constant stock of farm-fresh cherry tomatoes around – something we rarely buy in “normal” times since regular tomatoes cost less.)

Which Israeli city has warm weather, fun things to do, and could really use our money? All signs seemed to point to Eilat. The city’s hotels are full of evacuees from border towns near Gaza and Lebanon, but they don’t spend the money that tourists do, so the city’s tourism sector – its biggest sector – is suffering. Add to that the Houthi missiles being occasionally shot at the city and the “Israeli” ships being assaulted in the Red Sea, Eilat’s port – Israel’s only link to the Suez Canal and the Far East – is in crisis as well. An ad playing every hour on Galgaltz (which Fiona often listens to while working) encouraging people to visit Eilat and inject money into its struggling economy sealed the deal.

While Chanukah in Eilat is usually bustling and overpriced, a little bit of Googling demonstrated that that was not the case this year. Many attractions were half price – even cheaper than the discount vouchers we found on Groo and our credit card’s website. A week before the holiday, we decided to take the leap. As most of the hotels are still full of evacuees, we booked ourselves three nights of Chanukah at a lovely two-bedroom Airbnb (with a bomb shelter – we checked in advance with the host) and roundtrip bus tickets to Eilat.

We decided that this would be the Chanukah of Yes. Anything we had been meaning to buy anyway would be bought in Eilat. Any treat or activity our kids asked for would be granted in Eilat. We were going to have an adventure and support southern Israeli businesses at the same time. For this reason, Finn got to try his skill as a human claw machine and Fiona found herself unexpectedly ziplining around the circumference of the large, flashy Ice Mall with our second grader – but more on that later. 😉

So, what did we do? What did we buy? And how much did it all cost us?

Day 1 – Arrival and shopping

We arrived in Eilat in the early afternoon. It had rained in Eilat and the Arava region that morning and our bus had to change its route to avoid flooding. We saw water flowing in the usually dry riverbeds and even had to drive though a very large puddle right outside of the city.

Our first stop was a toy store right next to the bus station, where we granted our children’s first wishes. We had been meaning to buy our daughter a scooter for some time now and decided to buy it in Eilat. We brought our son’s balance bike along so he wouldn’t feel left out. In addition to the scooter, our son chose a pack of toy cars and our daughter picked out gifts for two upcoming birthday parties. We then checked into our accommodations and headed to a nearby supermarket where we picked up fixings for our DIY daily breakfast buffet (including fresh juice, frozen waffles, cheeses, pastries, milky puddings, lox, lox and more lox), the makings of picnic lunches and every single snack or treat our kids asked for. Our original plan was to scooter and bike around the city after that and see some of the sights, but Eilat isn’t built for rain and the ground was muddy and full of puddles. Instead, we settled into our apartment, while the kids played with their new toys and blew bubbles on the enclosed patio. We ate hotdogs and french fries for dinner (our kids’ choice) and lit the Chanukah candles.

Day 2 – Sharks, turtles, fish, and arcade games

By the next morning, the puddles and mud were gone. We packed up snacks and lunch and bused over to the Underwater Observatory Park, which not only was half price, admission included a repeat visit within a few days of the first one. We love this aquarium and had been there on multiple visits before, so we let our kids take the lead. The star of the show is an underwater tank – if you will – in the depths of the Red Sea, where humans are the ones in the enclosure while the sea life swims free in its natural habitat – almost like scuba diving without getting wet 🙂 For five hours, we followed our kids from the underwater observatory to the turtles, sharks, stingrays, a sea animal themed playground, and a 3D IMAX movie about the lives of whales in Hawaii. “Can we get popsicles?” “Yes.” “Can we buy fish food to feed the koi fish?” “Yes.” “Can you pick me up again so I can see the turtles?” “Yes.” On our way out, we stopped at the photobooth to get a souvenir magnet of ourselves made.

From there, we bused to the Ice Mall, which in addition to all of the stores and restaurants that any mall would have, boasts dozens of attractions, including a full-size ice skating rink in the center of the mall (hence its name), theme park rides, arcade games, a human claw game and a Zipcoaster (see above) that zips you around the circumference of the mall in about 90 seconds and costs over a hundred shekels – something we never would have done on our own. But… our daughter saw it, asked for it, and so we said yes. In addition to that, we gave the kids 200 shekels to spend at the arcade, however they chose, in the hope of recreating some of our own childhood memories. We enjoyed some Dance Dance Revolution, several attempts at the claw game, basketball hoops, bean bag toss, bumper cars, a carousel, air hockey, and several other games, followed by cashing out our tickets for some cheapy prizes – of course. 🙂 We left the arcade and got pizza for dinner, filled a prescription we’d been meaning to fill, and replaced a watch battery. If you’re looking for a place in Eilat to spend a lot of money in a short time, this is it. 🙂

Day 3 – Camels, boats, and other forms of transportation

Like many three-year-olds, our son is obsessed with all forms of transportation. He shrieks their names out in delight every time he sees a bus, bike, cab, airplane, ambulance, fire truck, garbage truck, or excavator (thank you, Blippi). Lucky boy got to add two to his list that day. Thanks to his sister’s love of animals and request to ride a camel (“Yes, precious girl.”), we started our day by cabbing to a camel ranch in the boondocks of Eilat (since no bus goes there). We had been here years ago to ride donkey carts and like that the animals seem to be well taken care of by the dedicated and friendly staff. We joined an hour long camel ride in the desert followed by pita making on the taboon, which we got to enjoy with lebane, olives, and tea. Quite the aruchat eser (morning snack). While the price of this activity is quite steep, we were able to find discounted tickets through our credit card to bring the price down a bit.

We cabbed back to the city and walked around the marina and boardwalk. We passed an area with coin-operated arcade games and rides (“Can we play air hockey again?” “Yes.”) and made our way to our glass bottomed boat cruise, which was also half-priced due to the war. For two hours we made our way up and down the stairs from the deck to the middle floor to the underwater glass section to ogle at fish and coral. “Can we please get barad (slurpees) from the ship’s cafeteria?” “Yes. Ima’s going to buy herself some coffee too.”

After the cruise, we bused back to our accommodations, ate dinner, and took the kids out for ice cream on their scooter and balance bike. (All told, seven types of transportation in one day – including walking. 💪)

Day 4 – Bye Eilat. See you next time!

As we had exhausted most of Eilat’s toddler-friendly non-swimming (as it was a couple degrees too cool to get wet) activities by this point, we decided to return to the aquarium and make use of our free repeat ticket. To our dismay, the kids decided they had had enough of the underwater observatory and decided instead to buy fish food first thing and run back to their friends, the koi. Since we got there right as the park opened, one of the aquarium employees showed up a few minutes later to feed the fish breakfast. He appointed the kids his helpers and kept refilling their cups, joking that it was the Chanukah miracle – the jug that kept on giving. From there, we visited the sharks again, followed by the playground and the stingrays. We then packed ourselves up and caught the bus back to our apartment.

We checked out of our Airbnb and headed over to a nearby playground where we let the kids burn out the rest of their energy. We then bused to the central bus station and got burgers for lunch across the street. We were tired when we boarded the bus and all four of us fell asleep for the first hour or so of the ride. (Good thing we weren’t driving.) It was a long ride, but we made it. Thank you, Eilat, for hosting us.

Costs

Our gorgeous, modern two-bedroom rental apartment was 1,666 shekels for 3 nights.

We paid 563 shekels on transportation including roundtrip tickets to Eilat and all cabs and buses on our trip. This does not include the boat or camels, which were technically transportation, but were done as activities.

We paid 504 shekels on groceries and 438 shekels on eating out. The latter number includes the assorted popsicles, coffees, and barad we picked up along the way.

Despite all of the half-off and discounted deals, we spent a whopping 1,171 shekels on activities. Apparently that’s what you get for saying yes to everything. 😂 We’re proud to help support all those Eilati small businesses.

Thanks to our wonderful friends, dogsitting was free.

In total, we spent 4,342 shekels on a four day family trip to Eilat on Chanukah. This does not include the 400 shekels for the watch battery, prescriptions, scooter, and other things we would have bought anyway and chose to purchase in Eilat.

Conclusion

While we have traveled a good amount as a family and been to Eilat in the past, this vacation was different than any other. Just like at home, Eilat was plastered with #bringthemhomenow posters with the names and faces Israeli hostages held in Gaza and others with slogans of עם ישראל חי (The nation of Israel lives) and אנחנו ננצח (We will win). We met people from Sderot and other shellshocked towns and saw with our own eyes how the city lovingly embraces its guests – both tourists like us and their more long-term visitors (who they call אורחי חרבות ברזל, Iron Swords Guests).

Instead of looking for ways to maximize our experiences for the least amount of money, the goal of this trip was two-fold: to enjoy Chanukah together as a family while supporting hard-hit Israeli businesses. By being habitually intentional with our spending, we cut back on things that are less important to us in order to allow us to spend more on things that bring us joy and align with our values. This trip definitely checked both boxes.

How was your Chanukah? Have you ever had a “Just Say Yes” trip?

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