Review of the Park Plaza Orchid Hotel Tel Aviv

The Park Plaza Orchid Hotel Tel Aviv is centrally located next to the Tel Aviv beach. After arriving from TLV airport in the afternoon we wanted a place to stage ourselves before heading to Jerusalem and so we chose the Park Plaza. It also gave us an opportunity to burn 44,000 Club Carlson points for two nights instead of the nightly rate of $200. An extensive buffet style breakfast was included.

This hotel is actually an Orchid Hotel, an Israeli chain, that simply co-branded as a Park Plaza to gain more guests. There was no obvious branding other than a small sign in the lobby, and virtually no branding in the room. The representative at the counter seemed offended that I asked if we had been upgraded. Given that this hotel was co-branded I should have known better to not have asked.
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Crossing the border from Israel into Jordan via Eilat/Aqaba

I just finished a week-long trip in Israel and to continue touring this part of the Middle East, I wanted to combine it with the best of Jordan, namely Petra and Wadi Rum. So I decided to cross into Jordan at the southern border, spending a few nights relaxing in Aqaba before continuing to Petra. There’s a lot of outdate information about the border crossing from Israel into Jordan and hope to elucidate the vagueness surrounding this crossing. Continue reading “Crossing the border from Israel into Jordan via Eilat/Aqaba”