apirchik
Mar 18, 07, 3:28 am
Back from a 3 night stay at the Herods Vitalis on a "mini-honeymoon".
The Vitalis is a part of a 3 hotel complex - the Herods Forum which is more of a convention hotel, the Herods Palace which is a Sheraton Resort - much like other resort hotels in Eilat and the Herods Vitalis which is a "Luxury Collection" spa hotel.
The Vitalis is restricted to 18 year old and above and is a completely smoke free and cellular phone free (cell phone usage is limited to the rooms only). Vitalis guests are entitled to use all the Herods Palace facilities including the great pool they have.
We were on a "Moon light love" package - offered by Sheraton Israel (not sure if it is mentioned in the starwood website that includes transfers to/from the airport, a royal 50 minute couples massage, one dinner at the Lawrence restaurant, one private in-room breakfast and breakfast at the lounge at other days (or breakfast at the Palace which is a larger buffett - typical to Eilat hotels). This in addition to all the amenities of the hotel including the Lawrence lounge which has free sweet refreshments between noon and 4PM and light meals between 4 and 6PM.
Check-in is not a typical counter but next to a normal desk which gives a luxury feeling. We mentioned that we are on honeymoon and got a nice suite which was a large room with a king bed connected to a small room with a sofa(room 652 connected to room 651). Bed was very comfortable and the bathroom was large and great looking including a jacuzzi bath. Although it has a room number, I can't believe they sell room 651 as a room as it has no real bed.
Overall, the stay at the hotel was great - the hotel facilities are great. They have a great gym, small but nice heated swimming pool which is 1/2 indoor and 1/2 outdoor. They have indoor and outdoor Jacuzzi spas (the indoor one is special and can hold more than 10 people comfortably). They also have 2 massage waterfalls - one warm and one cold - it was too cold outside to use the cold ones but the warm ones were great. I'm sure the cold ones are great when it's warm outside. Other features are 2 saunas - dry and wet. Last but not least, they have bikes you can take outside and tour Eilat.
The Lawrence restaurant is a dairy chef restaurant - with menu made of fish and vegetarian dishes - quite expensive but really great (especially great for a kosher restaurant).
A few bad things - the Massage my wife got was quite disappointing as the room was cold and the lady that have the massage refused to turn the heater on. I would expect better from a spa hotel. Also, when trying to figure out what kind of in-room breakfast we were supposed to get it took 5 phone calls to front desk, customer service, back to front desk, back to customer service and then to room service. After all this mess, the sum for the breakfast appeared on our check-out bill and was removed only after my remarks.
Overall, our first goal of the "mini honeymoon" was to relax and this was fulfilled to the max thanks to this great hotel. There are a few things to improve there but It's a great hotel and I would recommend it to anyone who can afford it.
The Vitalis is a part of a 3 hotel complex - the Herods Forum which is more of a convention hotel, the Herods Palace which is a Sheraton Resort - much like other resort hotels in Eilat and the Herods Vitalis which is a "Luxury Collection" spa hotel.
The Vitalis is restricted to 18 year old and above and is a completely smoke free and cellular phone free (cell phone usage is limited to the rooms only). Vitalis guests are entitled to use all the Herods Palace facilities including the great pool they have.
We were on a "Moon light love" package - offered by Sheraton Israel (not sure if it is mentioned in the starwood website that includes transfers to/from the airport, a royal 50 minute couples massage, one dinner at the Lawrence restaurant, one private in-room breakfast and breakfast at the lounge at other days (or breakfast at the Palace which is a larger buffett - typical to Eilat hotels). This in addition to all the amenities of the hotel including the Lawrence lounge which has free sweet refreshments between noon and 4PM and light meals between 4 and 6PM.
Check-in is not a typical counter but next to a normal desk which gives a luxury feeling. We mentioned that we are on honeymoon and got a nice suite which was a large room with a king bed connected to a small room with a sofa(room 652 connected to room 651). Bed was very comfortable and the bathroom was large and great looking including a jacuzzi bath. Although it has a room number, I can't believe they sell room 651 as a room as it has no real bed.
Overall, the stay at the hotel was great - the hotel facilities are great. They have a great gym, small but nice heated swimming pool which is 1/2 indoor and 1/2 outdoor. They have indoor and outdoor Jacuzzi spas (the indoor one is special and can hold more than 10 people comfortably). They also have 2 massage waterfalls - one warm and one cold - it was too cold outside to use the cold ones but the warm ones were great. I'm sure the cold ones are great when it's warm outside. Other features are 2 saunas - dry and wet. Last but not least, they have bikes you can take outside and tour Eilat.
The Lawrence restaurant is a dairy chef restaurant - with menu made of fish and vegetarian dishes - quite expensive but really great (especially great for a kosher restaurant).
A few bad things - the Massage my wife got was quite disappointing as the room was cold and the lady that have the massage refused to turn the heater on. I would expect better from a spa hotel. Also, when trying to figure out what kind of in-room breakfast we were supposed to get it took 5 phone calls to front desk, customer service, back to front desk, back to customer service and then to room service. After all this mess, the sum for the breakfast appeared on our check-out bill and was removed only after my remarks.
Overall, our first goal of the "mini honeymoon" was to relax and this was fulfilled to the max thanks to this great hotel. There are a few things to improve there but It's a great hotel and I would recommend it to anyone who can afford it.