Eilat is a free-trade port with no VAT, so groceries, snacks and gear price well under mainland Israel. The best coral sits on unfenced public beach, the desert trails have no gate, and local buses cross the whole city for a few shekels.
The International Birding and Research Centre sits on reclaimed salt marsh by the Jordan border, right on the Africa–Eurasia migration funnel. Trails, hides and salt pools are open dawn to dusk and entry runs on a suggested donation.
A free municipal beach on the eastern shore with the Jordanian port of Aqaba a few kilometres across the water. Shade huts, cold showers and toilets cost nothing, and the shallow sand shelf makes for easy swimming without any gear.
Eilat levies no VAT, so shops here price roughly 17% under mainland Israel. Walking in, using the toilets and sitting in the air conditioning through a 40°C afternoon costs nothing — only the ice rink and the food court take money.
The free stretch of reef shore just north of the ticketed Coral Beach reserve. Wade out about 20 metres and the same coral heads, butterflyfish and parrotfish turn up, with no gate fee and no queue for the entry bridge.
The palm-lined boulevard running from the old airport site down to the central bus station is Eilat's cheap-food spine: falafel in pita, shawarma plates, sabich and trays of bourekas from stands that feed hotel staff, not tourists.
Eilat's free-port status removes VAT from groceries too. Stock a beach picnic here — pita, hummus tubs, halloumi, medjool dates and cold drinks — for roughly the price of a single promenade sandwich. Closes early on Friday.
A seafront mall sitting directly on the North Beach promenade, with a ground-floor food court doing shawarma, pizza slices, noodle boxes and cold sachlav. Entry is free, the seating is indoors and cooled, and it opens onto the lagoon walk.
The municipal stretch of North Beach beside the lagoon bridge is public and unfenced — no sunbed charge, no minimum spend at a bar. Families arrive with supermarket bags at dusk and the last light turns the Edom mountains behind Aqaba pink.
A free marked ascent from the Coral Beach road up granite ridges to a 278 m summit where Israel, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia are all visible at once. The loop back down the wadi takes about two hours on rough, unshaded ground.
A narrow sandstone gorge 20 km north on Route 12, cut into rock the colour of rust. Metal handholds and short ladders drop you into a slot barely two metres wide. No gate, no ticket booth — just a dirt parking area off the road.
The world's oldest copper mines lie 25 km north: Solomon's Pillars, a 3,000-year-old Egyptian rock temple to Hathor, and the Mushroom formation. One entry fee covers a full day, and every walking route between the formations is included.
A drive-up lookout at 730 m on Route 12 above the Eilat Mountains, with no fee and no facilities at all. From the concrete platform the Gulf of Aqaba, the Sinai ranges and the Saudi coastline line up as the sun drops behind Egypt.