Swimming in the Dead Sea in Jordan

The desert tires us out so much that we always quickly escape to the edge of a nearby sea. We’re spoiled for choice: the Red Sea or the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea has always been a dream for me—there aren’t many countries with access to it (Israel, the West Bank, Jordan)—so this is our very first time discovering it. JB uses our miles to treat us to 6 nights at the Marriott Dead Sea Resort & Spa. We even took advantage of a deal: 3 nights booked, 1 free, with buffet breakfast + spa access (sauna, hammam, pools) thanks to JB’s Gold status at Marriott.

In Spain, I had access to a spa offering the Dead Sea experience: a small pool filled with very salty water. Apparently, not being subject to gravity and being able to float like that in the water is a treatment in itself. It was fun in a pool, but imagine an entire SEA!

The hotel is huge; it’s a good 10-minute walk from the lobby to the private beach access. It’s really a city! The entrance is a bit of a hassle because we have to scan our bags, and we get “scolded” by security for having a speaker in our suitcase. Luckily, it’s not confiscated. We’re just told not to use it during our entire stay. We didn’t quite understand why. JB, being Gold, secures us a late checkout (until 3 PM) and an upgrade to a room closer to the pool and restaurants, with a balcony view of the Dead Sea (which we don’t use at all). Anyway, we get a higher category than the room we booked, so that’s cool.

As soon as we lie down on the bed, we know we’re in a Marriott; the pillows are like clouds. The bed linen is just too good. Over all these years of travel, we’ve slept in hundreds of different accommodations, with a huge variation in the quality of the bedding and linens. We realized how much better we sleep in quality, and we promised each other that the day we become sedentary again, we’ll invest in quality. Good thing the linen labels are visible. JB takes photos of all the labels so we can have the exact same bedding at home.

There are too many people on the first day (probably those still lingering in Jordan after New Year’s), but afterward, we feel like we’re alone in this vast hotel. Every day, JB and I go to the breakfast buffet. They recognize us quickly, and without us even asking, the waitress offers, “two hot chocolates? as usual?” Once, I forgot my silk scrunchie in the buffet room, and they found me the next day to return it. Even the housekeeper knows we’re huge fans of the hotel robes and offers us fresh ones every two days. Really, we’re being pampered.

Then, every morning, JB heads to the gym. In the afternoon, once the sun has warmed things up, we go together to the Dead Sea to float a bit, before taking a freshwater shower and heading back up to the spa to enjoy the heated pools, sauna, and hammam. At the spa, there’s a freshwater pool and another filled with Dead Sea water but heated. So, cold-sensitive people like me can still enjoy the Dead Sea water when it’s cold. It’s also fun to compare, within a 30-second interval, the difference in buoyancy between regular water and that of the Dead Sea. Honestly, the water is nice, even if some days it’s a bit colder than others. Even I can swim in it. Compared to the Red Sea water, the water here is really warmer.

And it’s true that you can only float. It’s strange and pretty amazing, but it’s impossible to swim properly; everything rises to the surface and floats: feet, hands… you can lie down and sleep without a problem. You can really pick up a book and read without any effort, because your whole body floats. So you’ll see people who look like they’re standing, but actually, they’re upright and not touching the bottom. It’s so inhospitable for fish that there are none. The upside is that even if it’s very deep, I’m not afraid, even though I’m always scared of running into a big fish.

The hotel provided us with jars of mud for guests to take mud baths. Indeed, it’s renowned for its benefits. It stinks, but when you put it on your skin and rinse it off in the sea, your skin is SO SOFT. Even JB can’t believe it and applies it every day because he likes it so much.

On some days, there’s absolutely no wind, and the Dead Sea transforms into a salt desert landscape like in Uyuni, where you can’t distinguish the horizon anymore; the sea blends with the sky, and it’s such an incredible sight that we wonder what we did to deserve such a landscape. While floating, you can drift all the way to Israel or the West Bank (across).

The hotel provides aqua shoes because some rocks are covered in sharp salts. But just 3 meters out, it gets deep and you lose your footing.

Nearby, there’s a mall where JB and I go for dinner from time to time. That’s where I bought my jars of mud. Expect to pay between 7 and 10 JOD for a huge jar. 30 minutes away, there’s a stunning panoramic viewpoint (paid entry) at 2 JOD per person, where you get a view of the entire Dead Sea and realize how little construction there is around.

You absolutely have to stay in a hotel with access to the sea, or swim in a public spot where someone offers you a freshwater shower. To be honest, this very salty water stings your mucous membranes after a few minutes, and any wound, even micro-wounds, will hurt a lot. After shaving, for example, it was too painful for JB. I got a drop in my eyes, it killed me. I can’t stay long in this water because it stings me a lot, so the freshwater shower right after feels really, really good.

I highly recommend spending 2 to 3 days here; it creates a real break. It’s very quiet, and people can’t swim in the sea for too long, so usually there are only 2-3 people at a time. The rest prefer swimming in the outdoor pools. The spa area is paid for those without Gold status, so there are very few people. We loved our little sunny getaway before returning to France in the middle of winter.

With that, we head back to Amman. Upon arrival, the staff point out that we have a flat tire. A hotel employee helps JB put on the spare tire. Heading to dinner, JB’s jeans rip loool. Seriously?! I’m tired because there are too many little misfortunes that never usually happen to us (money being stolen, car breaking down, flat tire…). It’s really time to end our 8-year world tour! I decide to stop moving around completely and simply wait for our flight to Paris, because I believe in the law of series and I don’t want any more sh*t while we just want to finish our world tour peacefully. Of course, the rental agency charges us for the flat tire, but it’s fully covered by our insurance. And JB just needs to buy new jeans as soon as we arrive in France, that’s all.

At Amman airport, luck smiles on us again when JB finds his beautiful Tissot watch we’ve been looking for for weeks, with a discount on top. Usually, JB isn’t the type to treat himself to such luxuries, but during his job search, I convinced him to get one once he found a job, to mark the occasion. By chance, we buy the watch on the day our world tour ends, but also on the day he signs his contract electronically.