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Last Spring, my wife and I were able to take a lovely two-week road-trip in Jordan during Ramadan. After traipsing around the country, we wanted to spend a couple of days relaxing by the Dead Sea, famous for high salinity that makes folks incredible buoyant (and can sting freshly-shaven faces, FYI). We found good rates at the Hilton Dead Sea Resort and, armed with a couple of $250 resort credits from the Hilton Aspire Card, decided to give the place a look-see.
Hilton Dead Sea Resort Bottom Line Review
The Hilton Dead Sea Resort is the rare hotel that’s actually greater than the sum of its parts (helped out immensely by the richly atmospheric Dead Sea area). Outside of the views, nothing is particularly stellar, but there’s enough positives to make it a nice place to while a way a couple of days. Awards are often a poor value, but elite members are effectively given breakfast and dinner to go along with complimentary mud treatments and room upgrades. That, combined with frequently low cash prices, can make the property an excellent value. Thumb’s Up
- Price: During our dates, awards were pricing around 50,000 pts/night, while cash prices were ~$110/night. We still had two Hilton Aspire $250 resort credits to burn, so we booked three nights at cash rates and then split the check between the two cards with credits on them at checkout. The two credits completely covered all of our lodging, food, drinks and even some laundry…and we had about $20 left over.
- Value: Using points, it’s usually a poor value. I rarely saw an award night that priced out much above 0.3 cents per point and it’s sometimes under that. Cash prices can be very good as an elite member, often as low as $90-110/night. Since this includes breakfast, heavy evening hors d-oeuvres and mud treatments, it makes for a pretty affordable all-inclusive-ish stay.
- Location: Located in Sweimeh, on the northeast corner of the Dead Sea. It’s about 25 minutes from the King Hussein border crossing into Israel, 20 minutes from the Christ Baptismal Site and 45-50 minutes from Amman. Like quite a bit of the Dead Sea, there’s not a ton of food options nearby, although this is walking distance from a mall that has a few restaurants on offer.
- Room: We booked a classic room with one king and were proactively upgraded to a 345sq ft King Deluxe Room with a balcony and a sea view. The room itself was just ok, feeling more like a Florida Doubletree or Hampton Inn than a “resort and spa.” The highlight was undoubtedly the balcony, where we enjoyed morning coffee, sunsets and evening nightcaps. The first night, the bugs ate us up. After that, we were smart and sprayed up when we went out after dusk.
- Parking: Complimentary self-parking. Valet parking is 2 JOD/night (~$3). In practice, it’s faster to walk the the 30-40 feet to the self-parking lot than wait for the valet to bring the car around.
- Resort/Destination Fee: None.
- Internet: Good towards the center of the resort, sketchier the further you get out towards the edges.
- Service: Oddly variable. Some folks were warm and efficient, ready to help as needed. Others were oddly dismissive. We watched a couple of front desk agents completely ignore guests waiting for help, another almost bit a guest’s head off for asking about towels. It should be noted that this very well may be due to fasting during Ramadan, so I don’t want to draw any large conclusions from it. This was also the only hotel we visited in Jordan that made us leave alcohol that we had brought for our room in our car. Our bags were x-rayed every place we stayed, but here they made us remove the booze, saying that we could order anything we wanted from the bar (they did let us keep a couple of beers).
- Turndown service: Nightly.
- Dining:
- 1312: Dinner-only, Middle Eastern/Jordanian restaurant with nightly, live music. This is where the Diamond “snacks” service is and it also has a decent selection of Lebanese wines and Shisha. The majority of the seating is outside around the water features. Nice sunset and evening hang-out spot. Open daily 4pm-12am.
- Bacchus: Lunch and dinner-only Italian restaurant located behind the “adult” pool. Probably the least appealing of the dining options from a view perspective. Open daily from 1pm-10:30pm.
- Spectrum: All-day, buffet restaurant located on the lower ground floor. This serves as the breakfast restaurant in the morning and then transitions to lunch and dinner service. There is a nice balcony that overlooks the property and the Dead Sea. Open daily, 7am-11pm.
- Sky Lounge: Rooftop bar with panoramic views of the Dead Sea and the surrounding mountains. Supposedly has a DJ most nights. We were unable to visit, as the lounge was closed during Ramadan. Open daily from 8pm-late.
- VUE: Coffee and sweets counter located on the lobby level. The views from the seating areas are terrific. Seemed to have irregular hours when we were there (perhaps due to Ramadan).
- Infinity: Pool bar with both cocktail and swim-up service. Note that this is also closed during Ramadan. Open for drinks and snacks daily from 9:00am-7pm.
- Spa: The primary feature of the “spa” is the complimentary (for guests) Dead Sea mud treatments at the beach. You’re covered in mud with a bit of a massage, you let the mud dry and then you wash it off in the Dead Sea. You can also get good-value massages on the beach or at the pool.
- Fitness Room: Located next to the club lounge on the lower ground floor. For a resort of this size, it’s pretty small and heavily-weighted (pun!) towards cardio equipment. It would be hard to get a full resistance workout in.
- Hilton Diamond Benefits:
- Room Upgrade: We booked a standard room and were upgraded to a ~344 sq ft King Deluxe Room with a sea-view balcony.
- Free Breakfast: Breakfast buffet served daily at Spectrum Restaurant. It’s a fairly extensive spread, with a mixture of Middle Eastern, Asian and Western options. Includes made-to-order egg dishes and a huge variety of pastries, as well as espresso drinks.
- Club Lounge: There is a club lounge and during our stay it was open, but not serviced with any food or beverage options. Instead, the hotel served elite members an evening, three-course “snacks” menu at restaurant 1312. This included hot and cold mezze along with a massive fruit plate for dessert. The food was pretty good and was easily enough for dinner.
- Late Checkout: Upon asking the night before we left, we were given a 2pm checkout.
- Welcome Amenity: Two packages of (rather tasty) dates were waiting for us in the room.
- Would I stay again? Yes, but probably not on a points stay due to the high relative cost of awards. As an elite member on a cash stay, it’s can be a very good value.
Pros
- Marvelous Dead Sea views from almost the entire property
- Evening complimentary “snacks” menu makes this almost full board for Diamond members
- Private beach with complimentary mud baths
- Good elite recognition
- Breakfast is fairly extensive with a variety of options
Cons
- Rooms are uninspiring (with the exception of the sea view balconies)
- Uneven service
- Subpar fitness area
- Very strict about bringing your own alcohol to your room
- Balconies can be fairly buggy at night
- There’s a lot of relatively forward cats at 1312 at night. If you don’t like them, this could be irritating.
Image Gallery
Hilton Dead Sea King Deluxe Room with Sea View
Hilton Dead Sea Resort Restaurants
1312 (elite “snacks”)
Spectrum (breakfast)
Bacchus
VUE
Sky Lounge
Hilton Dead Sea Resort Beach Area
Hilton Dead Sea Resort Pools
Hilton Dead Sea Resort Club Lounge
Hilton Dead Sea Resort Common Areas
Hilton Dead Sea Resort Fitness Area
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Thanks for the detailed review and especially for the pics. They do so much more to give me a sense of the property.
We were in Morocco during the last days of Ramadan a few years ago. Many sites were closed (outdoor markets, historical sites) which was a real drag. On the bright side, each restaurant offered special treats at dinner as folks were breaking their fast. That part was fun and yummy! Overall, though, we’ve decided not to plan trips during Ramadan–too much is shuttered. Great review though. Might add this on to a scheduled trip to Jordan in May 2024.
We were at this resort in April 2023. Overall, we enjoyed it and the views were amazing. I do think Ramadan is responsible for some of the service. We found throughout Jordan that the later in the day it got, the more irritable many Jordanians got. We had a private driver for our time around the country and he told us he insists that all his employees (other drivers) not fast, because he doesn’t believe it is safe for a driver. If you work in an industry like that, you are exempted from fasting, but then you must fast in the off season when there aren’t tourists. There really is nothing near the Dead Sea resort area. Overall, we didn’t love Jordan like we thought we would. It was our 40th country, and we agreed our least favorite so far. Petra and Wadi Rum were beautiful, but everything is very spread out and the landscape between cities/sites is very ugly with lots of trash/litter everywhere. Lots of time spent in a car for this trip. After leaving Jordan, we travelled to Egypt and LOVED Egypt. One funny thing that happened at the Hilton Dead Sea. We arrived at dinner time but were pretty exhausted. My husband and I went down for our “snacks” but our son said he was too tired and just wanted to go to bed. We ended up not eating very much and there was a lot left over, so we decided to take it back to the room for our son. The look of absolute horror on the waiter’s face when we asked if we could have a box was priceless. It seems that this is not a common practice in Jordan? Anyway, he said he would ask his supervisor, but then returned and said no, “food is for eating here.” I didn’t press it, but it really seemed like a waste to dispose of all the leftovers.
Nice review. Over the years it has been interesting to see the Jordanian and Israeli (Ein Bokek) Dead Sea resort areas transform. The Jordanian resort hotels always seem to be cheaper on cash or points but that area has never been as developed as the Ein Bokek area. Covid seems to have changed all that. Ein Bokek vastly improved the local shopping and restaurants since about 2018 but the big chains like IHG have mostly abandoned Ein Bokek, leaving it to local chains that have subpar service and mostly seem to cater to Jewish Sabbat weekend visits instead of international tourists. This has left the Jordanian side with better hotels and overall service but a lack of other attractions (compared to the Israeli side).
RSS still broken
Can you please give us a little more detail about what you’re seeing how you’re accessing the RSS? We haven’t been able to replicate it and haven’t gotten that complaint from anyone else.
We visited the area in Feb ’23. Rather than stay there we drove from Amman in the morning, visited the Christ baptism sure, paid entry to the facilities and Dead Sea at a different hotel, had plenty of time to float and mud bath, then enjoyed late afternoon in Amman’s downtown and Citadel. We didn’t feel like we rushed anything, we had plenty of time. And staying in Amman was so much more fulfilling than any place we saw at the Dead Sea.
Hi Tim, great detailed review. Was there much to do around the area besides hanging out at the resort? any sights or experiences (besides the Dead Sea, of course)? Also, did you get to partake in the Eid al-Fitr celebration at the end of Ramadan? I have seen photos and videos of it and it looks awesome with a ton of food (although I would feel a bit odd celebrating since I did not fast, I have been assured by many of my Islamic friend that they would welcome anyone to join in the festivities regardless of whether they fasted through Ramadan or not).
Same here…other than hang out on the beach, are there hikes or cultural activities nearby? (If so, how near?)
Thanks for the writ-up…you have me itching to go there!
In my experience, there was nothing else of interest nearby. Mt. Nebo is about a 40 minute drive, and very much worth a visit.
There’s a handful of stuff that can be fairly easily self-explored with a car over the course of a day or two. John the Baptist’s cave/Christ baptism site is ~20 minutes away, Mount Nebo is (IMHO) a must-visit and is about 30 minutes away. That can be easily combined with some time in Madaba, which is famous for the oldest known floor mosaic in the world (an impressive map of the Dead Sea area). Madaba also has a cool archeological park and a fun little downtown area that’s good stop for lunch. If you’re into hiking/outdoors and the time of year is right, a trip into the canyons of Wadi Mujib is a blast. Amman is only about 50 minutes or so, but I’d suggest spending at least a couple of days there as opposed to doing a day trip from somewhere else.
We spent a day in Aqaba (Red Sea, not Dead Sea) and found it to be a great day trip. Glass-bottom boat tours over an airplane crash, many good food options, historic fort from 4000 BC, Yamanieh coral reef. May be worth the drive; it was for us.
I was there for 3 nights in March. Your review is spot on…”The Mall” is laughable.
Ha! I agree. Our mental picture of the mall was significantly different than what we found. 🙂