At 67, the writer finally made a 50-year-old dream come true, taking an intercity bus from northern Israel to Eilat. The journey, once imagined at age 17, became even sweeter because passengers aged 67 and over ride public transport free in Israel. The trip had been delayed during the war, but once service resumed, the long-planned ride south was completed.
The chosen route was Egged’s line 993 from HaMifratz Central Bus Station in Haifa, which the article says is the longest active bus line in Israel at 432.2 kilometers. A second Haifa-Eilat option, line 991 from Hof Carmel, is longer on paper at 445.4 kilometers, but runs only partially, with one bus a day and not every day. The writer also notes that a former route from Kiryat Shmona no longer operates.
Departure was around 7:00 a.m. from HaMifratz, Israel’s largest transportation hub, with about 25 people waiting. Seats had to be booked in advance through Egged’s EGG app, and passengers received assigned seats and barcode tickets by email. The bus was not full, but some riders still sat in the wrong places, showing that reserved seating on buses remains hard for passengers to accept.
The ride took about six and a half hours and included only two actual stops, at Beit Kama Junction and Ein Yahav rest area. The article criticizes both as unappealing and in need of cleaner toilets and better upkeep. The bus itself was described as clean, spacious, well air-conditioned and equipped with USB and USB-C charging, though only USB worked properly. Other passengers included people heading to Eilat, the Negev, or onward connections via Sharm el-Sheikh, Nuweiba, and even Estonia, with one Russian-speaking traveler saying the bus was “better than a plane” and “much cheaper.”
The driver, 65-year-old Shmuel Ziv, has 43 years of driving experience and says the job still feels meaningful. He drives the route four times a week and spends the night in an Egged-arranged hotel room in Eilat before returning north. The bus arrived at Eilat’s new central station around 1:30 p.m., after which the writer checked into Neve Eilat, a renovated Atlas hotel with 193 rooms, 123 of them two-room suites, including one with a private plunge pool. The article concludes that the bus is a good, cost-effective alternative to flying, especially for solo travelers, while calling for better maintenance of rest stops.
