Sagit Levy went to Sinai's beaches to find a paradise of peace, away from the daily fears of violence-wracked Israel.
She staggered home to the Jewish state yesterday slashed by shrapnel and with her eardrums perforated.
The slew of bombings killed holidaymakers and destroyed an idyllic refuge from strife, on Israel's doorstep and with a rare welcome from Arab neighbours.
"Until last night it was so great, peaceful and quiet, with beautiful sea and friendly people. It was a dream holiday," said Levy (26). "In a thunderclap it became a nightmare." Security services had warned of the danger of attacks in Sinai, but thousands of Israelis took the risk of visiting the resorts anyway.
The biggest blast late on Thursday ripped a big chunk out of the Taba Hilton hotel with its popular casino, right on the border. Minutes later, booby-trapped car bombs blew up at backpacker beaches down the coast.
Jonathan Gorni (27), a student, said: "We were sitting down after dinner and then the bombs went off one after another. I saw a car blowing up about 20 metres from the restaurant. Everyone ran. Houses and cabins were blown down. Everyone was calling for paramedics." He said he was aware of the Israeli government's warnings about travelling in Sinai. "I don't think that I will be back for a while but it could have happened anywhere," he said.
Hila Tovi (25) added: "We ran to the beach and the ambulances arrived after 30 minutes. The resort looked like a shanty town after a hurricane."
Dazed Israelis streamed over the border into Eilat from vacations ruined by the attacks, near the end of the week-long Jewish harvest holiday.
Suicide bombings have become all too routine at home during the four-year-old Palestinian uprising.
Sinai was a place where Israelis felt they could breathe a little easier, even if they never dreamed of visiting the few other Arab countries that allow them in, and despite the pro-Palestinian sympathies of most people in Muslim Egypt.
"It was certainly one of the most beautiful places for us. Peaceful and quiet and even close to Israel," said art therapist Efi Cohen (36), who was blown out of bed by the Taba blast with her husband and three children.
"I'm very disappointed and sad, and just glad that the family is safe." Israel suspected a group tied to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda was behind the attack, rather than Palestinians.
But few thought they would be back in Sinai soon.
"I hope time will be a healer and that we'll come back eventually," said Yonatan Gorni (27), an enthusiastic snorkeller in Sinai's clear waters who was 15 metres (yards) away from one of the blasts.- (Reuters)