Prima Music Hotel

Some hotels settle for a name and a colour scheme; Prima Music builds the whole stay around music. Each floor follows a different musical genre, the public areas are bright and lively, and the hotel keeps a record club with a turntable for guests who prefer their music with a little needle noise. There are also evening shows, parties and a professional playback recording studio. You can, in other words, return from the Red Sea and spend the evening listening, watching or making a questionable contribution to the hotel’s next hit single.

The hotel suits you if you want a beach base with something happening around it, rather than a quiet hideaway where the loudest event is a teaspoon meeting a coffee cup. Families have access to the MusicLab children’s club during the summer months and school holidays, while couples can use the pool, the music room, the garden and the evening programme at their own pace. English is spoken by the hotel team, alongside Hebrew, French, Italian, Spanish, German and Russian, so you can deal with the practicalities without resorting to underwater hand signals.

You are on the Coral Beach coast of Eilat, in Israel, with direct access to the sandy Almog Beach, also known as Coral Beach. The Red Sea is not a distant backdrop here: it is the geographical fact around which the stay is organised. Sun loungers and parasols are available on the beach, and the Coral Beach Nature Reserve is about half a mile away on foot.

Almog Beach Marina is around 300 metres away, with restaurants close enough to give you an alternative to the hotel dining room when you fancy eating elsewhere. Central Eilat is roughly 3.1 miles away, so the hotel places you by the coast rather than in the middle of town. Dolphin Reef Beach is about 1.2 miles away, while Princess Beach is around 1.6 miles away.

For arrival planning, King Hussein International Airport is about 10 miles away by road, Eilat-Ramon Airport about 14 miles and Taba International Airport about 23 miles. The hotel is around the edge of the resort area, which is useful for the coast and less useful if your evening plan involves wandering through central Eilat on foot.

The room choice is mainly about what you want to see when the curtains open. Sea-view rooms give you the Red Sea from bed, while other rooms look towards the pool. The music theme continues upstairs, with colourful interiors and floors shaped around different genres rather than one repeated hotel template. Family rooms are available, and accessible rooms can be booked for guests who need them.

Air conditioning matters in Eilat, particularly when you have spent the day warm, salty and carrying more equipment than seemed sensible at breakfast. Rooms also have a refrigerator and an electric kettle, useful for keeping water cold and making a hot drink without leaving the room. A seating area, desk, flat-screen television with cable channels and wardrobe space cover the practical end of the evening; a sofa bed gives some room configurations extra flexibility.

For a couple, the sea-view option is the obvious choice if the view is part of the holiday rather than a line on the booking form. For three people sharing, choose the room category whose layout and sofa bed work for your group. Accessible accommodation includes adapted standard rooms, and the hotel has lifts with tactile floor numbers and spoken Hebrew announcements. The property is non-smoking throughout, with daily housekeeping and a 24-hour reception.

Meals are served in the hotel restaurant as a buffet, with Israeli and international cooking in an air-conditioned dining room. Breakfast is the substantial Israeli kind rather than a pastry and coffee afterthought, and the buffet is kosher under the supervision of the Eilat rabbinate. Breakfast runs from 07:30 to 10:00, extending to 10:30 on Fridays and Saturdays; dinner is served from 18:30 to 20:30. Lunch is also available at the restaurant.

The booking options include accommodation only or breakfast included, so check which arrangement suits your diving schedule before you reserve. A full breakfast is not quite the same thing as an early diver’s breakfast: no early breakfast service or packed meal is provided here. Dinner is not a late affair either, so returning from a long day at sea calls for a little planning rather than optimism.

There are two bars. The Lobby Bar Lounge serves light drinks, desserts, light meals and cocktails from the afternoon, with evening performances adding a place to sit when you are not ready for bed. Around the outdoor pool, the Pool Bar handles drinks and light meals. Continuous snacking is available, which is handy when a post-dive appetite refuses to respect the official meal timetable.

The main outdoor feature is a swimming pool facing the Red Sea, surrounded by a broad lawn with loungers. The pool has a bar beside it and a lifting device for wheelchair users. Summer opening hours are 09:00 to 18:00; in winter, it opens from 09:15 to 14:45, subject to weather conditions. That winter timetable is worth noting if your idea of a lazy afternoon starts later than most people’s.

There is a fitness room with treadmills and exercise bikes, plus table tennis, a games room and billiards. The hotel also schedules evening entertainment, shows and parties, giving you something to do without having to organise another excursion. The record club offers music on a turntable, while the professional studio lets guests record playback songs. It is a more hands-on alternative to the usual hotel piano that nobody is allowed to touch.

Families have the MusicLab children’s club during summer and school holidays, with supervised creative activities, sports events, face-painting and temporary tattoos, along with inflatable pool equipment. Children’s indoor and outdoor play areas are also available. For a slower hour, the landscaped garden, picnic area and outdoor seating provide somewhere to sit with a drink and let the day’s air bubbles become a distant memory.

Check-in is from 16:00 to 23:30 and check-out is by 10:00. The minimum age for check-in is 18, and children of all ages are welcome. Cots can be requested for infants, while extra beds are not available. Pets are not allowed, and the hotel accepts card payments rather than cash.

Free Wi-Fi covers the hotel, free on-site parking is available, and spaces cannot be reserved. A 24-hour reception, concierge service, luggage storage, tour desk, daily housekeeping and laundry service keep the practical side reasonably straightforward. The hotel also has a meeting room and medical services available on request.

Accessibility is unusually detailed: the route from the car park to the lobby has a ramp, the reception includes hearing assistance, accessible toilets are available, and two wheelchair-adapted lifts have tactile floor numbers and spoken Hebrew announcements. The restaurant is wheelchair accessible, buffet dishes can be served by staff, and the pool has a lifting device. Two adapted standard rooms are available to reserve. On Saturdays and Israeli public holidays, check-in begins one hour after Shabbat or the holiday ends, so arrival timing needs checking if your flight lands around that window.