Two non birding trips to Eilat in March 1988 and 1990 were both family holidays with not too much chance of birding. The first saw the four of us based in one of the cheaper seafront hotels. The lack of opportunity to go birding was compounded by a boat trip into the gulf which resulted in three of us being struck down with food poisoning. Sue ignored my advice to avoid the chicken served on board and was the only one not affected!!
The only real highlight of the week was bumping into a Birdquest group who kindly invited me out on their bus for an evening jaunt into the mountains where a staked-out Humes Tawny Owl (Strix butleri) performed well, a bird that wasn't even on our radar during the 1979 visit. Now renamed as Desert Owl (Strix hadorami).
The second visit was just Sue and I and included a jeep trip out into the desert north of Eilat with staff from the Birdwatching centre and a two day trip up to Jerusalem and Massada. Locally, two evening trips up to the 'dripping tap pool' outside of town produced 13 and 14 Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse respectively and a variety of birds were seen around the hotel, beach and salt pans. Raptor watching was minimal but still notched up 180+ Steppe Eagles. A single Hooded Wheatear, found in a wadi whilst the rest of the group enjoyed a rustic lunch served on a blanket in the shade of an acacia bush, was the best passerine. Not sure I recorded every species but notes shiw 110 species.
A package holiday with pretty much no birding took us to Sharm-el-Sheikh in March 2004 and a stay at Sonesta beach with just White-eyed Gulls on the beach and a few Crowned Sandgrouse in to the old, and by then, hideous sewage works. A bird tour group, can't remember the name or even the nationality(!) invited us aboard their coach to watch them fly in at dusk; I guess it helped to minimise disturbance as well.
