Ben Gurion to Eilat

Assuming it isn't 2:30 on a Saturday morning, when there is no public transport (until Saturday night)...

There is no railway to Eilat. It's been in the planning stage for 40 years and is likely to be for another 40 years! There is also nothing direct from the airport; you have to go via Tel Aviv.

OPTION 1:
Trains from airport to Tel Aviv Merkaz at 2:53, 3:53, 4:53, 5:16. Journey time to TA Merkaz (Central, but it isn’t anywhere near the city centre) is 14 minutes. However, there is nowhere to eat or do anything at that hour in the railway station or the adjacent bus terminal (which is NOT the central bus station) until the first bus to Beersheba leaves at 6:15 (route 380), arriving Beersheba at 7:46. There are fairly frequent buses from Beersheba to Eilat, the next one out being at 8:15, arriving Eilat 12:48.

OPTION 2:
The 5:16 train from the airport is the first one of the day that stops also at Tel Aviv Hagana station, journey time 10 minutes. This station is five minutes’ walk from the central bus station. The first bus to Eilat is at 6:30 a.m. from platform 601 on the 6th floor, route 790, arrives Eilat 11:30.

I would go for option 2. There are places to eat and drink in the airport that will be open even at 3 a.m.

Note, Friday times may be different. If you are travelling on a Friday, let me know and I’ll look them up for you.

Also let me know which option you will choose, and I’ll give you more precise directions.
Alternatively, there are flights from Tel Aviv to Eilat.

Another possibility:
OPTION 3
There are trains to Beersheva, but only from Tel Aviv. The first one is from Tel Aviv Merkaz at 6:09, stopping also at Hagana at 6:16, arriving Beersheva Merkaz at 7:43. This railway station in Beersheva is adjacent to the city's central bus station.

I suggested the first option (bus from the terminal next to Merkaz railway station) because, although there are of course buses to Beersheva from the Tel Aviv central bus station as well, if you're going to take a bus to Beersheva (and not all the way to Eilat), you might want to avoid the TA central bus station, which is nobody's favourite place. Buses to Eilat go ONLY from the CBS.

I still think option 2 is the best.

Eilat is far if you plan on driving with young kids, and the landscape is pretty boring. I'd strongly recommend you fly from Ben Gurion to Eilat airport, it's not very expensive.

Thank you so much for your advice on going from Ben Gurion to Eilat. I am sorry I haven't got back to you earlier but I have had severe problems with my internet connection.
We will be landing at 02:35 on Sunday morning (25 October) coming in from Warsaw with LOT.

We will be going back to London via Vienna on 2 November at 15:20 with Austrian. Any idea what kind of time we need to be checked in for that kind of time and also what would be a suitable bus/ train to catch from Eilat that day?
Your help is very much apprecitated since most of the Transport pages seems to be in Hebrew.
/leri with family

Oh, glad to see you’re still around!

The Egged web site is also in English, and so is the Israel Railways site.
There are NO trains to Eilat as I wrote before.

I think that, unless you decide to fly, my option 2 is the best. Stay in the airport until you can get the 5:16 train to Tel Aviv Hagana station. When you come out of the Hagana station, turn left and walk for about five minutes to the central bus station. You enter the cbs on the 4th floor. Follow the signs to Egged departures, 6th floor (it's labelled in English). Buy your tickets to Eilat at the ticket window there. Get your tickets as soon as you can (buy tickets before looking for a cup of coffee, for example). Sunday morning is the start of the working week – Sunday is a normal working day in Israel – and buses are likely to be very full. As soon as the management knows how many people are travelling, they know how many buses to put on (the 6:30 a.m. departure is likely to be more than one bus; you will have a reservation for a particular seat on a particular bus). The bus leaves from platform 601. There are two routes, 790 and 394. The 790 is five minutes shorter journey (totally different route).

Once you’re on the bus, you can go to sleep if you like. I think that’s a whole lot better than having to faff around with changing in Beersheva.

November 2nd is a Monday so it won’t be so crowded. You need to be at the airport a minimum of two hours before your departure. (Check-in starts three hours before; obviously not all passengers can be checked in simultaneously; if you get there before 12:20 you’ll have to wait until then before they even look at you.)

There is a bus from Eilat at 6:30 a.m., getting to the Tel Aviv central bus station at 11:55. Buses drop passengers off on a ramp outside the station. You have to enter the station in order to leave it, for some ridiculous reason. Rather than trying to find your way out of the station and into the street, to enable you to go to the railway station, I suggest you get bus 475 to the airport from platform 623. Follow the crowds into the bus station. You will be on the 6th floor, which is the floor you want. For this journey you can buy your tickets on the bus. The buses go every 20 minutes and the ride takes about 45 minutes. You will be let off in an open field, from where you take another local bus (route 5), on the same ticket. (Keep the ticket from the 475 bus to show the driver of the 5 bus.)

Once you’re on the bus, you can go to sleep if you like. I think that’s a whole lot better than having to faff around with changing in Beersheva.

November 2nd is a Monday so it won’t be so crowded. You need to be at the airport a minimum of two hours before your departure. (Check-in starts three hours before; obviously not all passengers can be checked in simultaneously; if you get there before 12:20 you’ll have to wait until then before they even look at you.)

There is a bus from Eilat at 6:30 a.m., getting to the Tel Aviv central bus station at 11:55. Buses drop passengers off on a ramp outside the station. You have to enter the station in order to leave it, for some ridiculous reason. Rather than trying to find your way out of the station and into the street, to enable you to go to the railway station, I suggest you get bus 475 to the airport from platform 623. Follow the crowds into the bus station. You will be on the 6th floor, which is the floor you want. For this journey you can buy your tickets on the bus. The buses go every 20 minutes and the ride takes about 45 minutes. You will be let off in an open field, from where you take another local bus (route 5), on the same ticket. (Keep the ticket from the 475 bus to show the driver of the 5 bus.)

Many thanks yet again, you're a star!
/leri

Hi we used the instructions to get from Ben Gurion to the Tel Aviv bus station and to get the bus to eilat.

We arrived at 12 midnight and went up to the departure lounge on the 3rd floor where we found a coffee shop that did food and a macdonalds that were both open. Running along the main window there is a long flat seat type thing you can sleep on while you wait.

We used this:
OPTION 2:
The 5:16 train from the airport is the first one of the day that stops also at Tel Aviv Hagana station, journey time 10 minutes. This station is five minutes’ walk from the central bus station. The first bus to Eilat is at 6:30 a.m. from platform 601 on the 6th floor, route 790, arrives Eilat 11:30.

A couple of extra details:
The train station is accessible from the ground floor of Terminal 3. You exit by the main doors and turn immediately left. You enter a hallway that has 2 ticket machines. If you go a little further towards the escalators there is a ticket booth where you can ask/pay for tickets. The right hand escalator takes you down to the train. The first stop is Hagana - altho this is spelt differently and has more letters in the name. Off you get and go up to the road level. Turn left as you head out. Stay on the left hand path. Walk to the bus depot which is 5 mins away and obvious. Go to the 3rd floor.

Buy your tickets in advance as we arrived for the opening of the ticket office at 6am and we were told that the next seats available where on the 390 and at 08.00am. An Isreali lady tried to get another 6.30 bus organised by berating the management but they refused so we had a wait on our hands.

We got the 390 and got in to eilat for 2pm. The bus was packed. We had 2 stops en route.

We would have been better booking in advance on http://www.egged.co.il/Eng/ or using the info on this thread
Egged Customer services
I should have called the number given in the thread.

There are ticket machines on the 3rd floor where you put in your booking code and get your tickets.

There are a number of shops selling food if you have to wait.

The depot on a sunday morning was packed with young people in uniforms and with well worn semi automatic weapons!

I'm glad it worked out, even if not quite as smoothly as you (and I) hoped!