Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the neighbouring hotels. Various packages are available with discounts on weekdays
(adult/child JD15/12). If you're looking for an extra-restful experience, VVIP areas are
provided for an extra JD30 (couples only) with king size beds. Towels are free. A range of
spa treatments and massages is also available. There are several restaurants and bars and a
buffet at the weekend.
In addition to the previously discussed day beaches, some of the resorts offer day rates
outside holiday periods. The Mövenpick charges JD40 for access to the pools, beach and
buffet (couples and families only) and an extra JD50 for access to the spa. The Marriott
charges JD60 (JD35 entrance only; JD25 for food). The Dead Sea Spa Hotel charges JD30
with a snack and a drink thrown in. The Holiday Inn charges JD25 on weekdays and JD45
at weekends and holidays.
Mud Bathing
Most beaches have mud pots by the sea's edge where you can self-administer a full-body
mud-pack. Leave it in place to bake under the sun for five to 10 minutes and then wash it
off in the sea. It tightens the skin and leaves it feeling smooth, tingling and refreshed.
BRAVING LUXURY IN A DEAD SEA SPA
You can't come to the Dead Sea and not try a spa. Even if you're a die-hard, old-school traveller who feels that
sleeping on a bed with a soft mattress is a sign of weakness, there's a certain gratification in succumbing to the spa
experience. You'll be in good company: Herod the Great and Cleopatra, neither noted as wimpish types, both dipped
a toe in spa waters. So ditch the hiking boots for a day, step into a fluffy bathrobe and brave the clinically white,
marble entrance hall of a Dead Sea pleasure dome.
The
spa experience
(from around JD30)
usually begins with a mint tea and a spa bag to stow your worldly goods
- this isn't going to be a chlorinated swim in the municipal pool back home. You'll then be shown to the mirrored
changing rooms, with Dead Sea soaps and shampoos and more towels than you'll have body to towel down. This
marks the point of no return: the silent-padding assistants waft you from here along marble corridors to the opulent
bathhouses.
All the spas offer a range of cradling Dead Sea waters with different levels of salinity. There's usually a foot spa
and a float in a Damascene-tiled Jacuzzi. Outside pools assault visitors with a variety of bullying jet sprays. Best of
all are the little pots that bubble when you sit in them and ought to be X-rated.
Luxury of this kind is an extreme sport and by the time you reach the spa's private infinity pool, you'll be so se-
duced by the ambience you won't have the energy to try the saunas, steam rooms or tropical sprays, let alone the
gym. Lie instead under an oleander by the pool, sip a chilled carrot juice and wonder why you resisted the spa ex-
perience for so long.
