When coming to Jordan, how can one miss the Dead Sea? In China’s primary school, one of the textbooks contains one picture of someone floating on the Dead Sea and reading newspaper, which has becomes a very famous scene that all Chinese people remember. Funny isn’t it?
Most foreign travellers stay at the northeast bank which is under one hour’s ride from Amman. There are many international franchises here, including Kempinski, Hilton, Holiday Inn and Movenpick, to name a few. Kempinski is without a question the best, but also fairly expensive.
Hilton happened to be having a winter sale at that time, and I just got the Amex Surpass card which has a quarterly $50 credit. Cost-wise it became the best option for me.
Hilton Dead Sea is a proper resort, and big. Entrance to the resort is by the highway, then it’s another minute to the hotel lobby. The Hilton (and presumably other hotels too) is quite self-contained, which means most guests will unlikely leave the property during their stay.
The lobby is somewhat empty except for the Christmas tree. The viewing platform is nice though.
My suitcase was immediately “taken” by the porter the moment I stepped out of the car. Man at the front desk was very keen once he’d seen my Diamond membership, and explained everything about the hotel in full details. 2pm late checkout was granted with no hassle.
The hotel has four wings: Petra / Madaba / Ajloun / Jerash, and I’m assigned to a Junior Suite in the Petra Wing. Cruising in the hotel building is quite chill and I definitely feel on vacation now.
I booked a twin-bed as it was cheaper, and received an automatic upgrade to one with a terrace a couple of days before my arrival. I asked about switching to a king room in the app chat, and they upgraded me to the Junior Suite straightaway.
Upon stepping into my room I’m really amazed. What a beautiful Junior Suite and I have to say it’s so much better than most of the “full” suites that I’ve stayed at.
The TV desk acts as a segregation. A small living room on the left hand side:
Bedroom and bathroom on the right:
And a walk-in closet:
They’ve used a cute little sandbag for “Do Not Disturb”, instead of the regular dull paper card.
Minibar and welcome fruits:
It won’t be a resort if there’s no balcony in the room.
I love the room so much. In fact it reminds me of and doesn’t strike me any less than the JW Marriott at Cancun, although the latter is supposed to be a much more upscale hotel.
Let’s check out the pools, and there are three of them. Stepping down from guest buildings the first thing I see is this “-401 Below Sea Level” sign. I had no clue when coming from Amman and was totally stupefied when I suddenly started to lost my hearing…
There are reserved areas for couples and family, but it’s off season and there doesn’t seem to be many guests anyway.
Two of the pools are closed on sunset, and the last one (heated) is open till late. But so much for the pools now, as we need to visit the Dead Sea! Two lifts are needed to reach the beach.
It’s a private beach for Hilton’s guests only, so won’t be too crowded. The beach is quite rocky so make sure you wear slippers / shoes. Floating is very easy though and they aren’t lying!
The sea water is extremely sticky and you probably want to shower right away. You’ll also see a lot of salt crystals on the beach.
They’ve also prepared enough supply of mud for your skincare 😛
Two pictures of the gym:
And for cat lovers (I’m not one), you can spot many of them in the hotel.
Breakfast is served at the Spectrum restaurant:
I arrived at around 9am and the restaurant was rather empty. I was asked “tea or coffee” three times by different attendants – a bit too much attention yet they are doing a good job.
It’s a massive buffet, and there’s pretty good spread covering local and international cuisine.
I love the pickled vegetables – a combination of cucumber, carrot and radish.
In my opinion their breakfast is better than Fairmont Amman.
The Hilton has three restaurants, which isn’t many by resort hotel’s standard. Spectrum is turned into a buffet restaurant during the day, and the Italian restaurant Bacchus was closed during my visit.
The other option is 1312 which does Lebanese food. In front there was once an Executive Lounge but closed permanently after the pandemic.
There’s a Happy Hour at 1312 in the evening for Diamond members.
You get two drinks and a (small) main dish. The chicken sharwama is very tasty.
I originally booked a 9am BA flight to London, but changed to a 5pm Austrian flight instead to allow me more time to chill. It turned out to be a great decision.
The Hilton has been an awesome experience, as both the facilities and service are very good. I don’t remember when’s the last time I had such a good time at a Hilton Hotel, and I made sure to left them some good reviews!
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