Dead Sea Spa Resort — Hotel in Madaba

Dated, Poorly Maintained, Dreadful Food

Simply put, avoid the Dead Sea Spa Hotel since it’s showing its age, is poorly maintained, and caters to large tour groups. The food at the buffet restaurant (the only restaurant on the property) was plentiful, but almost inedible.

Location The Dead Sea Spa Hotel is located among a cluster of hotels on the Dead Sea at the line between the Balqa and Madaba Governorates in Jordan. The Dead Sea Spa Hotel is designed to keep you on the property, while some of the other resorts in the area are located near multiple restaurants, giving you a choice that is all but eliminated at the Dead Sea Spa Hotel.

Check-In The check-in process is reasonably efficient, and the bell staff person promptly brought our luggage to our room.

Lobby The lobby has a view of the Dead Sea, but with lack of seating, it is not a place for guests to socialize or eat/dine.

Rooms We had a large, corner room that faced the Dead Sea. While the décor is a bit dated, the layout was spacious, including room for a sofa sitting area and a stand-alone desk. We had a king-sized bed, with electrical outlets on both bedside tables. Note that, even though we had requested a non-smoking room, there were ashtrays on the furniture, which indicated to me that the room had previously been used by smokers.

Complimentary coffee and tea were provided, as was a bottle of water per day per guest.

Bathroom The bathroom is large, with plenty of storage room for one’s own toiletry kits. The shower/bathtub was fine, with decent water pressure. The shower has a half-wall, European-style glass enclosure, so one had to be careful to aim the nozzle toward the wall while showering.

Dining/Bar Options We went to the lounge just below the lobby for a pre-dinner cocktail, but the server told us that the sports bar had two-for-one pricing from 6-7pm. Since it was 6:50pm, we quickly went to the bar. Since “happy hour” was almost ending, there was a line of people trying to order drinks at the bar. One of the bartenders told us to go to an empty table and that he would come take our order. A few minutes later, though, he just brought two draft beers to our table – without taking an order for a cocktail, which was what we had asked about at the bar. The sports bar had an order seating area that was full with other guests when we arrived. Consequently, we were seated inside the bar, which felt a bit like someone had converted their basement in 1970 to a “bar” with a billiards table and a few television screens.

There is only one restaurant on the property, and everything is served buffet-style to accommodate the large tour groups that the hotel clearly caters to. Since the buffet is an “all you can eat” affair, the focus is on quantity, not quality. In fact, the food was practically inedible, to my taste. I’ve had better hummus in prepared packaging from grocery stores. Lettuce and fruit at the salad bar appeared wilted. Main courses were slavered in gloppy sauces (I just had pasta, which seemed to be the safest choice). Desserts looked okay, but lacked flavor.

With the hordes of tour group members piling their plates high, the dishes at the buffet tables were often empty, with spillages on the counter not being cleaned up by the staff.

Breakfast was served in the same all-you-can-eat style – again with low-quality, little-flavor foods.

Hotel Grounds The star of the grounds, of course, is the Dead Sea itself. The hotel did provide a pit of black, Dead Sea mud to apply to one’s skin, if desired. There were also showers to wash off the salt and the mud, but the water pressure was not great.

Overall Were I in the area again, I would never stay at the Dead Sea Spa Hotel. Other than floating in the Dead Sea, there was nothing enjoyable about the experience at the Dead Sea Spa Hotel. Investigate one of the other resorts in the area that are more up-to-date, have more amenities, and offer multiple...

A unique relaxation experience at a wonderful hotel on the shores of the Dead Sea.

First of all, the Dead Sea is the best place in the world for those seeking relaxation, and it's one of my family's favorites! The area has the highest oxygen levels in the world due to its location at the lowest point on Earth. It's an exceptional destination for those seeking relaxation and the therapeutic benefits of the Dead Sea's mineral salty water, which are at the highest salts concentration in the world.

The hotel's spa (Vitalia Spa), is superb and is open to guests aged 18 and over. It's extremely peaceful and relaxing. Soft music is played throughout, and there's an indoor pool filled with Dead Sea salty water, salt cave, sauna, Jacuzzi, hammam, hydrotherapy, relaxing area with thermal deckchairs, and a therapeutic massage area. There's also a gym and fitness club and a sunbathing solarium area. The professional Thai massage therapists are among the most experienced in the area, and some specialize in therapeutic massage and physiotherapy.

The hotel has its own private beach, offering therapeutic mud and salt scrubs, and a unique experience of sunbathing and lounging in the highly saline Dead Sea waters.

The rooms are spacious and clean, and some have balconies. However, it's not recommended to stay in the room too long during your stay at the Dead Sea Spa Hotel to avoid missing out on enjoying hotel's facilities and activities.

The hotel also offers a variety of activities and multiple swimming pools, some for children, some for families, and some for adults only.

The hotel also offers evening entertainment after dinner, including a Western-Eastern singing band, belly dancing, and a sports bar.

Most importantly, the hotel staff is friendly and dedicated to customer service, led by the hotel manager, Mr. Nasr Tayeh, who always strives with dedication and professionalism to serve guests, delight them, and ensure they receive the best hotel services. He is certainly one of the most professional hotel managers I have ever met.

A wonderful experience, and we definitely plan to return to this...

Dead sea spa hotel proved to me that going for low budget booking can give much more than expected compared to more expensive hotels/resorts. Service was uncompromised with customer satisfaction being put at top priority for the staff in general, and front desk in particular, special thanks here to Mr. Samer, front desk officer and Mr. Ali, bellman, who went a mile a head to guarantee our atmost satisfaction.

Clean rooms and bathrooms, very good comfy bed, two types of pillows more comfortable than most of other hotels i had been to.

Decent five star standard bathroom amenities, with coffee/tea making facilities in the room, supplied once daily coffee and tea bags. AC was quite good in some of the rooms i booked, but needed a much better attention and maintainance in others, although an immediate response from maintainance team helped in improving the AC condition but not to the standard.

The view was magnificent, although a little more attention should be paid to remove the dust and dirt coating outside of the window to crystalize the view.

Swimming pools are four in number, fit for all ages, quite clean with simple water games facility available for the joy of children and adults alike. Private access to the dead sea with good service.

Breakfast was fine, with choices more than expected for a four stars hotel. Staff in the restaurant were attentive and helpful who attended to whatever we requested. Restaurant atmosphere was cozy and fits a five stars hotel standard.

Over all, although i had been before to almost all the other five stars hotels in dead sea, Jordan, spa hotel was in no way less than any of them in all terms except slightly for the cozy environment in the outside of the building during the night, where spa hotel didn't match the elite feelings at night in other hotels.

I will not think twice in the future, and spa hotel will be my only destination for future dead sea visits...