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Israelisches Tauchgesetz
Medizinisches Attest
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Tauchbedingen in Eilat
Was es sonst in Eilat gibt


Diese Seite enthält Informationen zum Tauchen in Eilat, zum Israelischen Tauchgesetz und dessen Auswirkungen aufs Tauchen und auf Kurse. Wir haben auch ein paar allgemeine Details zur Reiseplanung und allgemeine Aktitiväten in Eilat hinzugefügt.

 









Das israelische Tauchgesetz

Hier ist, was Sie über die israelischen Tauch Gesetze wissen müssen:

VERSICHERUNG: Tauchversicherung ist gesetzlich Pflicht. Wir dürfen keine zertifizierten Taucher ohne Versicherung tauchen lassen. Das Gesetz gilt nicht für Open Water Kurse und Discover Scuba Diving Programme. Wir versichern die Teilnehmer vor Kursantritt. Das Gesetz gilt aber für andere Kurse zum Beispiel Advanced Open Water or Spezialkurse.

nternational Tauchversicherungen sind anderkannt (zum Beispiel, DAN oder Aquamed) . Auch manche Reiseversicherungen decken Tauchen. Wer nicht nachweisen kann, dass die Reiseversicherung Tauchen deckt, kann eine 5 Tages Versicherung für etwa NIS 100 abschliessen. Hier ist der link. Um Verzögerungen vor dem Tauchen zu vermeiden, bitten wir, die Versicherung schon im Voraus zu kaufen. Es kann ja auch am abend vor dem Tauchgang sein.

MINDESTALTER: Das Mindestalter für Tauchen ist in Israel 12 Jahre. Das gilt auch für Discover Scuba Diving and andere Kurse. Tut uns leid für jüngere Taucher!

MAXIMALE TIEFEN: Wir können nur das Tiefenlimit der Zertifikation erlauben, ausgenommen sind natürlich Tauchschüler, die für weitergehende Kurse eingeschrieben sind.

Wer Open Water Diver ist und tiefer gehen will, kann sich in den ‘PADI Adventure Dives’ Kurs einschreiben. Da es ein Kurs ist, ist ein medischinischer Fragebogen und gegebenfalls ein ärztliches Attest nötig.

REFRESHER DIVES: Taucher, die in den letzten 6 Monaten keinen Tauchgang gemacht haben, müssen einen Refresher machen. Ausgenommen sind Master Scuba Diver, Divemaster und Instructor. Wir verlangen nichts extra und machen das am Anfang des ersten Tauchgangs.

Es kann sein, dass Taucher, die Boottauchgänge reserviert haben, aber einen ‘refresher dive’ brauchen, am ersten Tag nicht auf’s Boot können. Es hängt davon ab, ob das Boot zu einem der Stellen fährt, wo wir kurz zum Ufer schwimmen können, um den Refresher zu machen. Am zweiten Tag wird es dann sicher möglich sein.



Medizinisches Attest

Wer an einem Kurs teilnimmt oder an einem Discover Scuba Diver Programm, muss einen medizinischen Fragebogen ausfüllen. (Zertifizierte Taucher, die nur zum Tauchen kommen brauchen das nicht. Sie unterzeichnen nur, dass sie gesund sind.) Das ist PADI standard sowie vom israelischen Regelungen vorgeschrieben. Wer zu einer Antwort ‘ja’ schreiben muss, braucht ein ärztliches Attest. Wir raten sehr an, das im voraus beim Hausarzt oder einem Taucharzt zu machen. Wer bereits in Israel ist, braucht ein Attest von einen Taucharzt. Es gibt nur einen aktiven Taucharzt in Eilat.

Wer 45 Jahre und älter ist, braucht auf alle Fälle ein ärztliches Attest, auch wenn kein ‘Ja’ im Fragebogen steht, um an einem Tauchkurs teilzunehmen. Um das OK von einem israelischen Taucharzt zu bekommen, ist für Leute über 45 ein EKG nötig. Wer permanent in Israel lebt, braucht das auf alle Faelle. Bitte bringt euer Attest schon von zu Hause mit, um Probleme hier zu vermeiden. Der PADI Fragebogen kommt mit Erklärungen für den Arzt, welche physiologischen Auswirkeungen das Tauchen haben kann.

Der medizinische Fragebogen zum Herunterladen



About Eilat

Israel's southernmost city, on the shore of the Red Sea, modern Eilat was established shortly after the end of Israel's War of Independence in 1949 with the construction of the seaport and the opening of the copper mines in the Timna Valley. Today, Eilat is a city of over 50,000 residents and Israel's Red Sea resort, where visitors can enjoy the beautiful landscape of a deep blue sea surrounded by colorful mountains. Eilat boasts a coral reef with vibrant and exotic fish life and lots of other interesting creatures like crabs, octopuses and even occasional turtles. In fact, the Red Sea is renowned for the richness and variety of fish species and invertebrates. All of the photos on this site were taken by us in Eilat.

As a resort town, Eilat offers a variety of activities for visitors, with an emphasis on the natural world above and below the water's surface. There is a wide range of accommodations to suit most budgets, ranging from the fanciest full-service hotels to simple hostel-type accommodations and lots of private airbnb/booking.com type offers. You'll find plenty of restaurants, kosher and otherwise – something for every taste, and nightlife as well.

GETTING HERE: Planes, automobiles, buses and land crossings; no trains.

Domestic flights land at the Eilat Airport in the center of town, taking off from either Ben Gurion International Airport or Tel Aviv's Sde Dov Airport, on Israel’s ‘other’ airlines, Arkia and Israir. There are also a couple of daily flights from Haifa. Direct, scheduled international flights land at no-frills Ovda Airport (45 minutes north of Eilat) from a rapidly growing list of more than 20 European cities, mostly operating only from late October to March, on a once- or twice-weekly schedule. Buses and private shuttles are synchronized with incoming and outgoing flights. Email us if you need help finding Eilat flight information. Sometime in 2018, the operations of both current airports are supposed to move to a brand new international airport 20 minutes from Eilat, just south of Timna.

Renting a car, either in Tel Aviv or in Eilat, can be a good option for getting here as well as for getting around; the large international car rental agencies are here along with one or two Israeli companies. Note that a one-way rental to or from Eilat carries a large extra charge for rentals under three days. Also note that all car rental agencies in Eilat close early on Friday afternoons and remain closed all day Saturday.

The cheapest way to Eilat if you're already in the country is usually via buses run by the Egged bus cooperative. Buses to Eilat leave Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Beer Sheva. Reservations are highly recommended; if you don't read Hebrew you can't reserve online, but you can still reserve a seat in English by phone. Here is the link to the relevant information in English. Buses are comfortable, air-conditioned and wifi-equipped, but can be crowded and noisy. 

For information on procedures and opening hours for the two border crossings near Eilat, click here for Taba (Egypt) and here for Aqaba (Jordan).

GETTING AROUND: If you don't rent a car, taxis are a relatively inexpensive option. Except for intercity trips with published tariffs, never agree to a price if the driver offers you one in advance – instead, ask the driver to run the meter, and at your destination ask for a receipt. Most taxi drivers are honest but there are bad apples in any group. There's a 25% surcharge at night from 9pm and on weekends, and there are surcharges for extra passengers beyond two, and for luggage. One need not tip taxi drivers in Israel. If you prefer to take a bus, the bus lines most likely to be of interest will be No. 15, which travels the South Beach Road all the way to the Taba crossing (No. 16 is the return trip), and No. 5 can take you from the North Beach hotel area to the popular “Big” Shopping Center (No. 6 is the return trip).



Diving Conditions in Eilat

CLIMATE: Eilat has a long, hot and dry summer and a short, cool winter. As befits our location at the edge of the desert, we get very little rainful: A typical winter includes a few brief showers and a few scattered hours of heavy rain. We have no more than a handful of days every year when we can't dive, either because of flash flooding in the dry riverbeds above the town that run off into the sea, or because of strong winds from the south making entry into the sea dangerous. 

This table, using data from Weather Spark, shows the monthly averages for high and low air temperatures in Eilat.

AVERAGE DAILY HIGH AND LOW AIR TEMPERATURES IN EILAT
  Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
High °C 21 22 26 30 34 38 39 39 37 33 27 22
Low °C 10 12 14 18 22 24 27 27 25 22 16 12
High °F 69 72 78 86 94 100 103 102 98 91 81 72
Low °F 50 53 58 65 71 76 80 80 77 71 61 53

WATER TEMPS: If you've done any ‘internet research’ about Eilat, you may have read somewhere that water temperatures here are a constant 20°C or 21°C year-round. This is completely wrong! As you can see in the table below, seawater temperatures here have an annual cycle bottoming out in late winter at about 21°C and peaking in late summer at about 27°C. This temperature cycle is pretty reliable, as shown on the Weather Spark site: even with year-to-year variability, water temperatures fall within ±1°C (2°F) of the mean at least 90% of the time. In any case, we have a range of wetsuits appropriate for every season.

AVERAGE SEAWATER TEMPERATURES IN EILAT
  Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
°C High 22 21 21 22 23 25 27 27 27 26 24 23
°F 72 70 70 71 74 77 80 81 80 78 76 73

SURFACE CONDITIONS AND CURRENTS: The prevailing underwater currents in the Gulf of Eilat are counter-clockwise, that is, on the Jordanian side they run from south to north and on the Israeli side they run from north to south. However, most of the time underwater currents are very weak, and even the rare strong current can be finned against. As a rule, currents in Eilat cannot be predicted with great reliability. The maximum tidal range in Eilat is a mere 0.99m (3.3 ft) from low tide to high tide, and therefore tides have only a small impact on water movement. 

The prevailing winds in Eilat are from the north (bringing hot desert air!) and as a result surface currents are generally north-to-south.
Stronger winds, more prevalent in summer, can raise small whitecaps on the sea and even generate some serious surface currents at our southern boat moorings. We do take waves and surface currents into account to ensure that we bring boat divers safely back to the boat. Most of the year we'll see waves of less than 0.6m (2 ft), but on windier days the waves can reach 1m (3 ft) or more. The good news for shore divers is that these waves don't reach the mostly east-southeast-facing shore entry/exit points, and anyway the waves are mostly dissipated over the shallow reef table. 



Things to Do in Eilat

Other than eating and sleeping, there's lots to do in Eilat when you or your traveling companions are not diving.
Here's a brief overview of our recommendations.

Beaches and Snorkeling

There is a wide variety of beaches in Eilat, and with a little bit of planning you can find the kind of beach you want. There are only four manned lifeguard stations in town, and swimming at all other beaches is ‘at your own risk’. There are no dangerous inshore currents in Eilat and most swimming areas are bordered by buoys within 100-200m (300-600 ft) from shore, but if you're interested, the city lifeguards will keep an eye on you along the North Beach from 9Beach to Hanania Beach (parallel to the Rimonim and Leonardo Plaza hotels), at the Dan Hotel - Herods Hotel beach area, and east of Herods towards the religious (segregated-gender) beach. Look for the lifeguard towers.

Most beaches provide services ranging from snack bars to bars and full-service restaurants (and if so, will have public bathrooms) as well as sunbed rental, but with all that comes music, sometimes loud. You can find some peace and quiet at Katza Beach next to the Dolphin Reef attraction, where loud music is specifically prohibited but where parking can be a real problem, and at the beach opposite the former Princess hotel just before the border crossing to Taba; you'll need to bring something to sit on or lie on at these two beaches. Both have city-provided shade structures and bathrooms. All beaches (except for the Dolphin Reef and Coral Beach Nature Reserve) are open to all and access is free, as is use of public restrooms and showers. 

For snorkeling you'll want to head south, although you can see a few corals at Kisuski Beach (also called Tarshish Beach on city maps), at Dekel (Palm) Beach and Katza Beach. The best snorkeling is at various places along the South Beach, especially (from south to north) at Lighthouse Beach (migdalor in Hebrew), opposite and north of Snuba, or opposite the former Princess Hotel. You can also snorkel in the Coral Beach Nature Reserve (with NIS 33 admission fee not including sunbed rental, or free from the fence at Ben-Harush Beach opposite Isrotel Yam Suf if you don't mind finning the 400 meters/yards each way to Moses Rock). Be sure to use sun protection – a lycra shirt (rash guard) is best. In the winter months you might want a light wetsuit.

Hiking:

The area around Eilat is blessed with stark natural beauty that isn't found in many places in the world, as evidenced by photos at the top of this page. Colorful hills and rock formations, canyons, and marked hiking and walking trails make for a wonderful hourlong, half-day or full-day excursion from November to April, when the weather is good for walking. In May or October you may be able to go hiking in the early morning, but it is simply too hot from June to September, even at dawn.

Even if you don't have a car, there is magnificent hiking right opposite the South Beach, leading up to Mt. Tzfahot with fantastic views – ask us for directions. You can also hire a car or a guide to take you to the amazing Timna Park only half an hour north of Eilat. Some nearby popular short hikes are appropriate for the entire family, such as the Red Canyon and Amram's Pillars. You can get there by car or with a guide, and enjoy outworldly scenery without too much effort.

Other Activities:

ATTRACTIONS: Besides the natural attactions such as Timna Park and the other hiking and snorkeling sites mentioned above, the most popular tourist attractions in Eilat are the Coral World Observatory and the Dolphin Reef. The Coral World Observatory is an Eilat landmark and features a look out on the coral reef through underwater windows. The facility also includes aquarium exhibits, including a new shark exhibit and live feeding shows. It may not be the ideal daytime activity in the summer, as much of your time will be out of doors, but otherwise it can be an enjoyable experience, especially for the non-divers in your group. The Dolphin Reef houses a pod of captive Black Sea bottlenose dolphins in an underwater enclosure and offers guided snorkeling and diving experiences in the presence of dolphins. Their beach is very nice but has a very expensive entrance fee. Dolphin Reef is a private enterprise and only their own personnel can conduct diving and snorkeling there. Snorkeling with the dolphins generally gets higher ratings among our customers than diving with dolphins.

ACTIVITIES: Other activities in Eilat include ice skating at the fabulous Ice Mall, which is just a short walk from our dive center. For those who have never experienced a camel ride, you can do that at the Eilat Camel Ranch. They take you out into an adjacent wadi (Nahal Shlomo) where you can have a great desert experience. It is a well run outfit where getting on and off the camel can be done easily and safely. A variety of half-day and sunset desert jeep tours can take you into the colorful desert and mountain scenery. Desert Eco Tours is a popular, reliable company for jeep tours as well as out-of-town tours (next paragraph). Windsurfing and kite-surfing are also popular here – on mild days you can take an introductory lesson, while windier days are mostly for more experienced surfers. Non-divers can also find tourboats and glass-bottomed boats to take them out onto the water of the Gulf.  

GETTING AWAY: Many people enjoy taking a day-trip over the border to visit the famous Nabatean city of Petra, but be aware that Jordanians have increased entrance fees to the World Heritage Site and a day trip will cost you $250-300 per peson. If Eilat is your only stop in Israel, then a day trip to the Dead Sea or even to Jerusalem can give you a look at more of the beauty and history of Israel.