How to Do the Dead Sea On the Cheap

Cecily, our college daughter, came home to Jordan for Christmas.  She returns to the US this weekend and since she won’t return to Jordan before we leave here in June, she had a few things on her Bucket List to do before heading back to the Mother Land.  One of those things was to float in the Dead Sea.  Somehow, she lived here for a whole year and never got in the Dead Sea.  Not sure how that happened.  And so, because we are super amazing parents who would never deny our offspring a cultural experience, we obliged.

There are a handful of ways to do the Dead Sea in Jordan.  One is to pay $60 or so and go to one of the high end resorts like the Marriott, Movenpick or Hilton.  Your $60 will buy you access to the resort’s lovely swimming pools, showers and private beach.

A cheaper way to do the Dead Sea is Amman Beach.  Amman Beach is a small resort that is just swimming pools, showers and private beach.  The pools are average, the showers–below average and the beach is not great.  However, Amman Beach is about $15; much cheaper than the pricey resorts.  We could have taken Cecily to Amman Beach, but we’re not that high-brow.

Instead, we took Cecily to what we like to call The Ghetto Beach.  The beauty of The Ghetto Beach is that it is free–and free is truly beautiful.  Unfortunately, nothing else about The Ghetto Beach is beautiful.  Everything else is, well … pretty ghetto.  Have a look:

This didn’t stop Cecily and her brother Ben from getting into the water.

 And floating around in the obligatory Dead Sea fashion.

Jason and I stayed on the beach with the riffraff and their smelly riffraff camels.

The camel guy continually paraded his animal past us in an attempt to entice us into paying for a ride.  It was tough, but somehow we managed to withstand the temptation.

Not to be outdone by the camel guy, these characters were hoping that we would pay for a ride on their horses.  Luckily for us, Jason grew up on a cattle ranch and thus refuses to pay money to ride a horse.

And so, our feet remained firmly planted on the litter-strewn ground:

After the kids emerged from the water, we noticed this shepherd and his sheep — which I’m assuming had just done their business in the same water the kids were floating in.

This morning, Cecily started complaining of an earache and swollen glands.  Not sure if it’s related to any of this.  There is no way to tell.

But rest assured, we definitely did not overpay for this memorable cultural experience!