What to do at the Dead Sea with kids? At 420 meters below sea level, the Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth and forms a natural border with Israel, the West Bank and Jordan. What is special about the Dead Sea is its high salt level. This is caused by much of the water evaporating, leaving the salt behind. Every year the Dead Sea continues to sink by about 1 meter. What makes the Dead Sea so special is the high salt content of the water (33%). This allows you to float without difficulty. In addition, the water of the Dead Sea contains many different minerals and this in combination with the high salt content has a cleansing effect on your skin. In this blog we will give you all the information that is important while visiting the Dead Sea with kids
Best travel time Dead Sea with kids
The best time to travel to the Dead Sea with kids is in spring or fall (March through May and September through November). The weather then is pleasant in terms of temperature and it is mostly dry. In summer temperatures can reach 40˚C and winters are cool, but it never gets really cold. Frost has never occurred here.
This is partly due to the tempering effect of the Dead Sea on the region’s climate. Also take into account, for example, Ramadan. During Ramadan, it is difficult to get food in restaurants during the day and you cannot eat until late in the evening. This can be especially unpleasant with kids.
Transportation to the Dead Sea
The Dead Sea is an hour’s drive from Amman. This can make it ideal to end your tour of Jordan at the Dead Sea. From Amman it is of course also possible to take a trip to the Dead Sea. We ourselves came from Aqaba and drove our rental car to the Dead Sea in about 4 hours.
To travel around Jordan with kids, a rental car is very convenient. Most families rent a car at the Amman airport. You can rent a car here through Sunny Cars. Sunny Cars has an excellent package with all kinds of insurances, and they also have good terms with regard to excess reimbursement and free cancellation. As a result, you can do a great job renting a car at Amman airport through this organization.
Dead Sea with kids
From most hotels and resorts you can get to the Dead Sea in no time. Of particular note is the stretch you have to descend to the Dead Sea. Each year the Dead Sea drops by about one meter due to drought and poor water management. Because the Dead Sea has such a high salt content, it is not very convenient for very small kids to also float in the salt water. By the way, swimming is also not possible in this sea.
Our 4-year-old daughter joined us in the water very briefly, but soon got a drop of salt water in her eye and that is not a success we can tell you. What she did enjoy was getting smeared with mud. There was also a very family-friendly lifeguard who showed our daughter beautiful salt crystals. She was even allowed to take one with her.
It is not recommended to spend more than 30 minutes in the water. Fortunately, all hotels/accommodations at the Dead Sea do have swimming pools, and kids can have a great time here. For us, a visit to the Dead Sea with small kids of 1 day and 1 night was more than enough.
Tips for visiting the Dead Sea
Following our visit to the Dead Sea with our kids, we provide some tips below for parents with kids who want to visit the Dead Sea.
- Coat your kids with mud from the Dead Sea. Often in places near the Dead Sea there are large containers of mud. This mud is rich in various minerals and therefore very good for your skin. Coat yourself with this mud, let it dry in the sun and then go floating in the Dead Sea. You are guaranteed to come back with skin as soft as a baby’s.
- Fall back gently into the Dead Sea, trying to avoid splashing the water. The last thing you want is to get this whole salty water in your eyes. Should this happen by accident, most resorts have showers to rinse you off. With kids, you can choose to put on goggles to protect the eyes, for example.
- Do not stay longer than 15-30 minutes in the Dead Sea. The salt water has a cleansing effect for your skin, but if you stay in this water for too long your skin will dry out completely.
- Therefore, rinse off with water immediately after floating in the Dead Sea, otherwise your skin will still dry out.
- Do not shave before entering the Dead Sea; due to the high salt content, it is recommended not to shave at least 2 days beforehand. This is because due to the salt, it can sting tremendously and the Dead Sea will not be a pleasant experience. Also be careful with wounds.
- Put on old(er) swimwear, as the high concentration of salt can damage your swimwear.
- Be careful with long hair in the water and put it in a high ponytail or high bun. Your hair will dry out tremendously otherwise due to the high salt content.
- Take off all jewelry.
- In certain places along the Dead Sea, you can still look for salt crystals (or at your hotel/resort if you are lucky) with kids.
- The sunset at the Dead Sea is beautiful, really go see it!
- Bring a little book to take a fun photo. The photo below is from bloggers Joep, Sanne and Sophie who also visited the Dead Sea,
Family-friendly Dead Sea hotel
We ourselves stayed at the Dead Sea Spa Hotel for 1 night. We stayed in a hotel room with our two small kids. There are very spacious rooms available at this family-friendly hotel and a baby crib was added. The hotel is large and spacious and there are several restaurants. There is also a spa and a medical center (focused on skin problems). From the hotel you can get to the Dead Sea.
You can also buy a day pass for this hotel. Then you get a towel, you have access to the Dead Sea and you can shower yourself afterwards. Then you don’t have to stay overnight with the family here, for example, but you can drive up and down from Amman to the Dead Sea by car with kids. If you don’t have transportation yourself, then you can still choose an organized tour to the Dead Sea from Amman as well.
Of course, there are plenty of other family-friendly hotels located near the Dead Sea. We list some of these family-friendly hotels near the Dead Sea below.
Budget accommodation: Samarah Resort
Mid-range accommodation: Crowne Plaza Jordan Dead Sea Resort & Spa, an IHG Hotel
Luxury accommodation: Kempinski Hotel Ishtar Dead Sea
Also check out the entire list of family-friendly accommodations near the Dead Sea.
About the author: Roy, Laura, Maud & Gwen love to travel and explore the world. When we have vacations, we prefer to choose a not so obvious destination where we want to travel around. We have great adventures as a family every time because of this!
