As an advanced diver (tzolelan - צוֹלֵלָן), who dived around the world:
New-Zealand's Milford Sound, Vietnam Nha Trang, Thailand Koh Tao and Galapagos Islands (that have the best wildlife I've ever seen before).
But underwater, none of these places matched the beauty (yofi - יוֹפִי) of some of the diving sites in the Red Sea (Yam Suf - יָם סוּף) of Eilat (אֵילָת).
At least once a year I'm taking the long drive to Eilat (located at the south-most part of Israel, 5 hours driving from Tel-Aviv).
Going to one of the diving clubs (moadonei tzlila - מוֹעֲדוֹנֵי צְלִילָה) to hire some Oxygen tanks and dive in one of the gorgeous diving sites of Eilat, in this post I would like to share with you my top 3 diving sites while teaching you some new Hebrew words (as always) :)
Satil (סָטִיל) is an Israeli warship, and as much as I would like to tell an heroic story of how this wreck (tviaa - טְבִיעָה) got there, it was actually sunk on purpose on a beautiful Spring day in 1994 to become a diving site.
This is a must dive if you are visiting Eilat, to watch the wreck full with reefs and amazing colourful fish is an amazing site no matter how many dives you experienced before!
This dive (tzlila - צְלִילָה) is going as deep as 24m and therefore isn't suitable for beginners (matchilim - מַתְחִילִים) or 1 star divers.
here are some pictures (tmunot - תְמוּנוֹת) I took over the years (shanim - שָׁנִים) from this diving site:
Although the maximum depth (omek - עוֹמֵק) is only 5m, this diving site is just beautiful and full with wildlife.
If you are a beginner this is a must dive for you, a great intro to the many diving sites of Eilat.
In fact, one of my first (rishon - רִאשׁוֹן) dives was here, and I would like to share with you some the photos my diving instructor (madrich - מָדְרִיך) took there:
Also suitable for beginners, the maximum depth is 8m, Moses Rock (Sela Moshe - סֵלָע מֹשׁה) is a meeting spot for most kinds of fish (dagim - דָגִים) you can see in Eilat diving sites.
No need to get tired, I recommend floating all around the rock until you are almost out of Oxygen (chamtzan - חָמְצַן), let the wildlife come to you, watch the eels hiding in the cracks of the rock and waiting for prey or the huge corals with the clown fish among them, on rare occasions you can even see octopus (tamnun - תָמְנוּן) or sting rays!
Here are some of the amazing moments I experienced there:
Some Notes:
Relatively, diving in Eilat isn't cheap, expect to spend ~45$ for a fun dive if you rent diving gear, or ~30$ if you already have gear.
Full diving course, including sleeping arrangements, will cost ~650$.
Many of these photos were taken by my friend Shachar Levin, an amazing diving instructor with more than 1k dives.
If you are going, feel free to contact us for more tips, I might even join you, diving partners are rare these days! :)
Thank you for reading, and good luck both with diving and learning Hebrew!