A soft landing in Eilat at the Adam Boutique Hotel - review

It’s located next to the mammoth Ice Mall, which used to always seem to be on the far outskirts of the city, but today is a short walk to the bridges that take you to the main drag. The Adam is also a short walk from the Queen of Sheba hotel and some of the other edifices to hedonism that have come to characterize Eilat.

In contrast, Adam is subdued and family-friendly. Rather than focusing on the chandeliers and pillars, it stresses comfortable homeyness. As such, it was filled with Israeli families and couples, rather than the foreign tourists who used to converge en masse at the vacation destination before October 7.

The rooms are light-filled and inviting, and ours featured a balcony with a jacuzzi, overlooking the breathtaking Eilat mountains to the west.

The pool, open until 6 p.m., is conveniently located off the lobby. After a day of being out and about in the 30-plus-degree heat (my go-to places every time are the Almogim Nature Reserve for some snorkeling with the fish and Hof Shel Mosh, the bohemian café/beach where the spirit of the 1960s lives on), there’s nothing better than a refreshing dip and a drink from the poolside snack bar.

Of course, the highlight of most hotel stays in Israel is the breakfast, and the Adam doesn’t disappoint. You can generally divide the level of breakfast buffets by whether, among the salted fish, smoked salmon is served. In this case, there were various types of herring but no lox. But aside from that, it wasn’t lacking for anything. Egg courses are chosen from a menu, and everything else is laid out in front of you, including a number of lunch-like hot dishes, such as quiche and mac and cheese.

The big surprise of the stay at the Adam, though, wasn’t breakfast, but dinner. In the evening, the breakfast section of the lobby area is transformed into Bianca, a kosher dairy Italian restaurant. To be honest, it was some of the best Italian dishes I’ve ever tried in Israel.

A tabun oven stands at the center of the restaurant, churning out focaccia, pizza, and roasted vegetables with a tantalizing aroma.

The extensive, moderately priced menu offers a wide variety of appetizers, specialty salads, and fish dishes alongside special pasta creations.

We chose two dishes – the Truffles Alfredo (NIS 74), a delicious mix of cream, portobello mushrooms, wine, garlic, truffle paste, and caciocavallo cheese, and the Chestnut Ravioli & Sea Bass Fillet (NIS 89), made with cream, butter, garlic, sage, red chili, and oregano. Neither could have possibly been any better.

Along with another six pasta dishes, including inventive gnocchi and risotto offerings, and five different pizza options, as well as a plethora of starters, there’s something for every appetite. The restaurant is open to the general public as well as hotel guests.

The only downside I found to the Adam was access to the rooms on the hotel’s five floors. There’s only one elevator, which, for guests who were on one of the higher floors and didn’t want to walk, sometimes resulted in a five-minute wait for the lift.

Parking could have been an issue, but it wasn’t. There’s a lot for hotel guests on a first-come basis that was always full. Luckily, the Ice Mall parking lot is only a few meters away, and thanks to the far-sighted tourist-minded Eilat Municipality, turning on Pango at 9 a.m. and leaving it on until 9 p.m. costs only NIS 30 and enables motorists to park at any blue spot on the streets or in a lot. So you can leave your car at the lot, or take it to the city or Dolphin Reef Beach, and not have to worry about extra payments or restarting the app.