AS A NEWLY CERTIFICATED Tourism Goodwill Ambassador for Israel I'm expected to "share with friends the meaningful experiences" of my recent week-long visit to Eilat, Israel's most southerly resort, located along the sun-soaked beaches of the fabled Red Sea.

So here they are, dear friends, some very 'meaningful' experiences starting with the impromptu Ambassador award ceremony itself conducted soon after our arrival at the Eilat TIC to pick up some brochures.

"You're from Northern Ireland? Not many people come to Israel from there," said Jody Kite Sirota, the boss.

I reposted: "Lots of them do, including your former head of State, President Chaim Herzog. He was born in Belfast in 1918 and went back ten years ago to see his boyhood home at 185 Clifton Park Avenue before he died." (I couldn't resist showing off the fruits of my pre-visit homework - 10 minutes on the splendid Ulster History Circle website.)

"Oy veh!" she cried. " Israel's Minister of Tourism, Issac Herzog is his son and I am sure he would be delighted to meet a travel journalist from his father's birthplace - if you fly to Tel Aviv."

"Thanks but no thanks," I declined. "I've just spent six hours on an El Al flight from Heathrow and I just want to chill out in Eilat, if you pardon such an inappropriate expression in this heatwave ."

And so it came to pass, thanks to the miracle of the Ministry of Tourism intranet, that an imposing Goodwill Ambassador Certificate, signed by Issac Herzog and printed out and framed by Jody, was presented to us on the sunny terrace of the tiny Tourism Centre next door to the Green Onion vegetarian restaurant in the middle of Eilat.

I'm sorry if all the following experiences are not 'meaningful'. They were all certainly fun, in what was a delightful first visit to Israel for me. I'll certainly be back...

A lot about Eilat

FIRST THINGS FIRST: Eilat is primarily a modern development of dazzling white megahotels, plus activities and attractions which were developed to take advantage of its all-year-round sunshine.

It is particularly popular for its dry, warm winters wihich attract flocks of 'snowbirds' from northern Europe, including lots from Russia, France and the British Isles. (Migrant birds of the feathered variety come in even greater numbers. We saw a florescence of flamingoes in the salt-pans of the hinterland.)

However, even in summer when it can get up to 110 F (43C) it is still packed with young watersports fanatics who go to sail, waterski, windsurf or just hang-out along its non-tidal beaches. Hostel and budget accommodation is available for young travellers.

Many, like yours Trewly, go to snorkel, swim and scuba-dive among the dolphins and exotic fishes of the fabulous coral reefs just a 10 minute bus ride away. These are regarded as the world's best diving destinations by many experts.

Weatherwise, Eilat is really dependable. Surrounded by deserts with just one inch of rainfall a year, it's more consistently sunny than better-known winter resorts, such as the Canaries where holidays can be a wash-out. I shall never forget our wet week in a Lanzarote apartment nor the post-Christmas hurricane in Florida that nearly blew our skyscraper hotel into Tampa Bay.

The price of a high-quality holiday in Eilat is much the same as Florida or the Canaries - but you are likely to get better, more luxurious, accommodation for your money.

We paid less than £700 pp for seven days B&B in the five-star de luxe Isrotel Royal Beach Hotel including excellent El Al flights, transfers etc... Prices may even go down, following a recent suicide bomb incident - Eilat's first-ever - which occurred a week after our visit.

Packages are available through local travel agents who have been recently briefed on Holy Land holidays by the tourism chief at the London Embassy of Israel.

Top place to stay

ROYAL BEACH HOTEL is probably your best choice if you fancy a big five-star hotel with luxurious rooms - all 363 with a terrace overlooking the Red Sea - plus good food, loads of facilities and activities, and packed with hundreds of 'different' people you are unlikely to encounter in Tenerife.

It's the flagship of the Isrotel chain (www.isrotel.co.il) of upmarket hotels and is managed with meticulous attention to detail. I didn't see one sweetie-paper on a table in any of the stylish public rooms nor a single crumb left lying under the serveries, thanks to the vigilance of well-tailored managers who spent time 'on the floor' instead of wasting time at meetings.

The hotel's beach is immaculate, too, thanks to Arvi the Beach Manager, who was a great friend of my wife's late parents Connie and Maurice Grant during their annual sojourn at the hotel. (Yes, the reason I chose the Royal Beach was due to their oft-repeated recommendation. I now know why they were so enthusiastic.)

Our spacious Royal Room had an eye-popping panorama over the bay to Aquaba, the main resort and port (in fact the only port) of Jordan. A giant Jordanian flag flies languidly over the city which is about the same size as Eilat but looks much less opulent.

We had an alfresco breakfast under the palms every morning, alongside one of the four heated pools which are perhaps the most beautifully landscaped I've ever seen in any resort hotel. There are four or five other restaurants in the complex, from an expensive US style steakhouse to a wonderful Israeli takeway. Its 3 Monkeys pub on the prom is the most popular in Eilat.

As we were lucky enough to be upgraded, we had the run of the Executive clubhouse which had delicious complimentary salads and snacks - plus a full bar that hardly anybody seemed to use.

I can unreservedly recommend the Royal Beach. We took a sneaky look around the Frommer's Guidebook favourite Dan Eilat along the North Beach prom and were unimpressed by its weary foyer furniture, abandoned party balloons and poolside loungers as regimented as a May Day military parade in Moscow.

Dancing with Dolphins

I AM THE STAR of the movie 'Dancing with Dolphins' which was filmed at one of Eilat's most spectacular attractions, the world-class Dolphin Reef.

This unique Ulster-Israeli Co-production was shot at great expense (£13!) by the Reef's own underwater cameraman who followed me around while I went snorkelling for half an hour with the dozen or so wild dolphins which have taken up residence in a deep reef just off the most picturesque beach in the Bay of Eilat.

The DVD serves as a portable souvenir of what was, for someone like me with a chronic bad back that prohibits most sports, a life-affirming experience that was worth every shekel of the £32 it costs for the privilege of swimming among the friendliest wild creatures on the planet.

It's worth spending the extra few quid to have yourself filmed professionally for posterity. The snaps I tried to take with my Lidl underwater camera came out blurry, as dolphins move at torpedo speed and they don't hang around till your flash goes off.

My favourite moment was when one of the females brought her little six-month old calf to have a look at the sight of this unfit amateur in a too-tight wetsuit being pulled along by my bossy teenage instructor who didn't think I was moving my swim-fins smoothly enough.

As well as snorkellers and scuba divers, Dolphin Reef is a big draw for ordinary tourists who know about a more a tube of Soltan than a Snorkel tube. For just £4 you can spend the whole day sunbathing, snacking and relaxing on its sands (It's free at night when the sprawling beach bar area becomes Eilat's favourite outdoor party zone). The fact that this beach is within sight of dolphins frolicking, courting, quarrelling and getting cheeky with tourists - and a stray dog known as Joker - is a bonus.

Just before I got into the Red Sea, I spent a pleasant couple of hours floating around in the Dead Sea. Well, actually, I was in Dolphin Reef's indoor Relaxation Pool filled with salts and minerals brought down in a tanker-lorry from the Dead Sea itself, 200 km north of Eilat.

The whole world knows that the amazing buoyancy of Dead Sea waters means that anybody can float on their back. They didn't tell me in Bible Class that's because the waters are so saline that you can't even stand up. It's a weird sensation when your feet refuse to touch the gritty bottom of the pool and your kneecaps keep popping up at eye level!

I liked it best when the silky-skinned spa attendant joined me in pool and massaged my temples and dispelled the nervousness that was building up in advance of my movie debut, dancing with dolphins...

Marine magic

MY OTHER 'MEANINGFUL' experiences included two that made the most of our stay close to one of the most enthralling ecosystems on Earth.

Underwater Observatory Marine Park is a brilliant a collection of aquariums, shark pools and other diversions on Coral Beach. The highlight is a short walk on a pier to a beautifully designed underwater 'flying saucer' with viewing windows, just inches from magical reefs teeming with MILLIONS of rainbow coloured fish darting in and out of exotic plants and sponges. And I thought my visit to the Great Barrier Reef would never be bettered!

The big attraction in this part of the Red Sea is the multitude of different living corals, soft, stony or black that can be viewed close-up. Some, like the Cauliflower, Brain and Mushroom Corals are interesting enough, but others are a delight to garden lovers like me, being astonishingly similar to colourful clumps of alpine flowers, fern groves and low-growing shrubs Ain't nature wonderful?

A two-hour trip on a glass-bottom boat like the Israel Yam-5 will give you views of the seabed and surface-level tanks where they farm a firm textured fish called a Denise.

More intriguingly, the trip takes you along the coast of friendly Jordan, down to the border with not-so-friendly Egypt and within sight of the mountains of very-unfriendly Saudi Arabia. A Middle East cruise for a fiver!

Keep it Kosher

THE MAINSTAY of Eilat's British and US business, it must be said, are Jewish families who have an affinity with Israel and who prefer to stay in hotels where the food is kosher and the Sabbath (Shabbas) is observed.

Non-Jews like me hardly ever notice any difference. Kosher restaurants have to maintain two kitchens as meat is kept completely separate from dairy products and no pork or shellfish is served. Also, they close from Friday afternoon to Saturday night.

However, if you were not previously informed that the buffet breakfast in your hotel was kosher, I bet you would not notice the absence of ham or salami slices among the utter abundance of breads, exotic fruits, cheeses, salads, smoked fish, cereals, nuts, cakes, pastries on display.

I was intrigued by one of the few other symbols of Jewish observance I noticed - one of the many lifts in our 15-storey hotel was designated a Shabbas Elevator. I was told that this automatically stops, opens and closes at every floor without requiring religious Jews to press a button, which is against rabbinical laws.

I imagine that some Orthodox Jews faced with a much-interrupted journey to their room on the 15th floor must develop the patience of a Saint, if you will excuse the expression...

Eating out is Magniv!

THE YIDDISH WORD 'fresser' means someone who really enjoys eating - a bit of a greedy-guts like me. I saw a lot of fellow-fressers around the tables of Eilat - but surprisingly few of them were as heavily-built as the people you see in Orlando, Greedy-guts Capital of the World.

Not many people speak Yiddish in Israel, now that the original post-Holocaust immigrants from Eastern Europe have found their final resting place in their beloved Zionist Homeland.

As modern Hebrew, the national language, is difficult, it's no wonder that most Israelis speak English. As well as learning it throughout schooldays, it is widely used informally among the 18-21 year olds who must serve at least a couple of years in the Israeli Defence Force. The dozen or so young Israelis I spoke to enjoyed their military service, especially our sparkly hotel lounge waitress Erella who was a dental assistant in the Navy.

My favourite waiter was talkative Dror who served us in the amazing Casa do Brasil, a carnivores' paradise where you can eat all the meat you want. This sort of place is not my usual style but I fancied a big steak one night and this was the recommended spot. Israel's climate is no good for the lush Ulster-style grass needed for golf courses and beef cattle rearing so most is imported from South America.

What a concept! For about £15 each, you enjoy a succession of different meats skewered on swords, straight from the biggest open rotisserie/barbecue/grill I've ever seen. When a mighty skewer is chargrilled to perfection, the pig-tailed character of a chef makes an announcement in five languages to the cosmopolitan clientele (mainly Russian fressers).

All the meats are succulent cuts imported from Brazil's best beef ranches - ribeye, entrecote, sirloin, filet mignon etc, plus some Brazilian specialities. In addition there are succulent chicken joints plus lamb cultets and shanks. This constant parade of pure protein comes with salads, wedges, sauces and condiments - plus a bowl of beef chilli as a starter!

Dror - whose day jobs is maths teacher - taught me the Hebrew word 'Magniv!' meaning 'super', 'cool' or 'excellent'. I have been using it ever since - with its accompanying thumbs-up - instead of my usual 'Estupendo!' (I am falling out of love with the Spanish language now that my GCSE Spanish exams are looming...)

Brazilian beef is hardly typical Israeli fare, as was the seafood in The Last Resort or the kosher Chinese cuisine in Wang's. That's why I was thrilled by the spread of local delicacies served up to us in Shipudel Habustan, one of the cosmopolitan selection of restaurants and food kiosks on the buzzing North Beach promenade between the towering hotels and the palm-lined shoreline.

It was on the prom where I had my first-ever sharma, the local take on doner kebab, sliced from a huge cones of compressed turkey meat using a remarkable sheep-shearing-type device.

Our meal in Shipudel was an intriguing selection of 18 little dishes served with flatbreads straight from the oven, all meant for sharing in Israeli family-style. Amid all the spicy salads and zesty pickles I particularly liked the hot crispy falafel balls filled with mashed chickpeas as well as a hummous spread more garlicky than the Sainsbury's version.

El Al's Superstar Holidays

WE FLEW El Al on the scheduled early morning flight from Heathrow, taking around five hours to friendly little Ovda (Eilat) Airport, located a fascinating 50 minute bus ride from the resort on a road running parallel with the Egyptian border 'peace-line' through a Biblical wilderness of craggy mountains and wadis.

El Al airport security turned out to be much less of a bother than expected and on-board services were really excellent, including free movies, aperitifs,meals and wines. The Israeli-style dinner inbound was particularly memorable, finishing off with the industrial-strength middle eastern coffee I now really enjoy.

My friend Martin Blake of the El Al London PR team sent me the glossy brochure for El Al Superstar Holidays which scores of really attractive hotel packages for Eilat plus other major destinations in Israel. I also saw some special offers on its website www.superstar.co.uk which included free hotel at Heathrow which would make it more economical for travellers from Northern Ireland.