Originally Posted by
RedChili
Using Waze, I get 24 minutes to the King Solomon and 22 minutes from the hotel. Which is kind of strange, since the drive from the hotel is longer than the drive to the hotel because of the one-way streets around the hotel area. It should have been the other way around. And it's 3 minutes from ETH, and 6 minutes to ETH. Which means that Waze gives an added time of 21 minutes to the hotel, and 16 minutes from the hotel.
Me personally, I've never experienced any congestion on route 90 into Eilat, and I've never been stopped at the checkpoint. And that's with rental cars.
On my last visit to Eilat, I took the shuttle from Ovda to the city. According to Waze, it should have been 46 minutes, but it was actually just above 30 minutes. My guess is that a shuttle driver will make the trip from ETM to Eilat in around 15 minutes.
So, again just the drive itself will be on 20 minutes longer ( no congestion) and 30 minutes longer with congestion, contributing to the total extra 30-45 minutes time from landing to the hotel room.
Try to arrive in Eilat on a Thursday afternoon, or get out on Sat evening and you will see heavy congestion on route 90 at the checkpoint.
And your shuttle driver was highly likely speeding. Read some stats on lethal accidents on route 90. One of the reasons I never take a bus or a shuttle there.