Floating in the Dead Sea | Unreal Experience | What its Really Like + How to Visit (Jordan)

Floating in the Dead Sea | Unreal Experience | What its Really Like + How to Visit (Jordan)

You’ve probably seen pictures of people floating 
in water so buoyant you can lie back and read a book, this is the Dead Sea and it is literally 
impossible to drown here. This is what it’s really like to visit the Dead Sea and what you need to 
know. The Dead Sea is a salt lake located in the Middle East almost 31 miles long and 9 miles wide and 
it’s most commonly visited in Jordan being just 1 hour away from the capital city Aman, being so 
close to the capital it’s common to visit as an organized day trip but for the most flexibility 
we decided to hire a car and spend the night. Most people enter the Dead Sea at a resort but most 
resorts offer a day pass so you don’t actually have to stay in one of the resorts to use the 
facilities. We’ve spent the night in the Astana Hotel in the town of Swemeh which is right on 
the northern edge of the Dead Sea and if I peer around the corner of the balcony here I 
can just about see the water and then behind the Dead Sea you’ve got some mountains and those 
are actually in Palestine that’s the West Bank the Dead Sea is right on the border between 
Jordan and Palestine and you can’t stand here without thinking about the inequality of 
how easy it was for us to travel over 3,000 miles quite spontaneously to get here while people 
living just 9 miles away don’t have the same access. So we have three items on today’s 
agenda: floating in the salty water, checking out the salt formations, but first and foremost 
finding some tasty Jordanian food and I have to tell you about this fantastic restaurant that 
we’d later call one of the best that we visited over our entire two weeks in Jordan! We’ve come to 
a restaurant called Beit Swemeh which was just up the corner from our hotel but it’s just happened 
to be a really well rated restaurant so we had to come and check it out. That’s incredible! It’s 
tasty yeah! This is nice, oh that dip’s really nice. And it’s actually run all by women as well 
so we had a platter of a couple of different things and they were all really very nice, our 
first taste of Jordanian cuisine so we definitely got lucky with this one. Now let’s go for a swim. 
Besides the salinity of the water the Dead Sea is also famous because it’s actually the lowest 
point on Earth, we’re currently 439 m or 1,440 ft below sea level. It is incredibly hot down here 
at this altitude, that is the Dead Sea just there which is one of the saltiest bodies of water it 
is I think 35% salty which is about 10 times more than you would expect the sea to be, I think the 
sea is around 3% and we’re about to go and swim in it. So in order to access the Dead Sea we’ve 
come into a resort, we were hoping to go to one of the public beaches, but all the entrances seem 
to be blocked off so we’ve come into this resort, but you do get quite a lot of amenities for it. 
So you just get a day pass, we paid 15 Dinar (JOD) for this. This resort that we’re at is called Sea Gate, 
i don’t know how it compares to the more fancy ones like the Hilton, but as far as we can tell 
it’s got everything that you would need. So you get access to the beach down there where you 
can go into the sea, there’s showers down, there’s some sunbeds with shade as well 
which is quite nice, you can do the mud treatment and then up here in this area you have access to 
the rest of the resort facilities as well, there’s a swimming pool just there, all the seating around 
here and then you can use the changing rooms and the showers up here as well and if you want you 
can eat here it was an extra 10 Dinar (JOD) for this resort if you wanted to have lunch we chose 
not to because we’ve just eaten. Apparently you can just float on the Dead Sea without moving 
anything! Now, I normally float anyway so I don’t know if this is going to be exciting but Craig 
and Jake both typically sink so it’s exciting to see what’s going to happen to them. Let’s give 
this a go, wow the ground is so salty, salt feels like a rock. Oh my gosh, I’m walking but it’s like 
it’s making me float when I can still touch the bottom. I’m floating! I can reach but I’m floating! 
The weirdest sensation is trying to walk because it just lifts you up when you should be able to 
walk on the bottom. I’ve never had this much of my body out the water when I’m not touching the 
bottom before, I just can’t, can’t go down! It’s odd, isn’t it? I always float but I’ve never floated this easy. This is the weirdest sensation. No way, hah! It’s literally impossible to drown. Without getting your head in, wroah! Hahaha. Oooh gosh. I accidentally got a tiny splash of water 
and it’s so salty. This is the edge of the beach and the sand here is completely covered 
up with salt so if I just grab a handful here you can just see it’s it’s just salt. 
It’s like a whole shelf here of salt, this is a rock of salt. This is the hardest thing trying to swim. It’s basically impossible to drown but 
also impossible to swim because your feet just float out of the water when you 
try and kick so you’re just kicking air. You just can’t swim, you have to do doggy 
paddle. Eventually we worked out that the best ways to swim while you’re this buoyant 
are either by doing doggy paddle which keeps your legs low enough under water to 
prevent them from being fired out or by sitting on your back and sculling 
at your arms. This is the best stroke. Yeah. We’ve done the the mud treatment which we leave 
on for like 5 or so minutes until it dries and then we’ll go back into the salty water 
to wash it off. Here’s the third mud monster. Craig is floating and he almost always just sinks so it’s really weird, I don’t think 
I’ve ever seen him float before. It’s so hard to balance because it’s just trying 
to lift you up. One thing to note if you’re coming here and you’re female and you’re 
wondering whether to go to a resort or a public beach is that it’s generally not 
acceptable to wear a bikini on a public beach here in Jordan but it is generally 
accepted within a resort. The beach is really sharp here the salt is really sharp so I 
would advise wearing flip-flops or water shoes. It’s so weird every time I move my legs 
as I’m walking I’m just like bobbing I think this is the closest you’ll 
get to the feeling of walking in space. We’ve all read that you shouldn’t shave 48 hours 
before going in the Dead Sea because it causes micro cuts that will sting like crazy with this 
much salt. We’ve all followed that advice but I can confirm, I’ve got a small cut on my hand and 
it really stings. The reason that this body of water is called the Dead Sea is because it’s 
so salty that almost no life can survive in this water. While we could have quite happily 
spent the entire day enjoying the feeling of weightlessness, it’s recommended that you don’t 
spend more than around 15 minutes in the water due to the extreme salinity which can dry out your 
skin. Be careful not to keep your face in the water… And of course we couldn’t leave the Dead 
Sea without attempting to get the classic photos trying to read a book while floating 
and I’ve got to say with this much buoyancy it really is a piece of cake and I didn’t 
have any worries about the book getting wet. If you do go to a resort with a swimming pool 
I encourage you to take a dip afterwards and really compare how the Dead Sea feels compared to 
a normal amount of buoyancy and it is also quite nice to soak off all the salt that sticks to your 
skin. Once we’d had our fill of floating we drove down to the southern end of the Dead Sea to check 
out some of the viewpoints and salt formations We’ve just found this little hut on the side of 
the road selling freshly-squeezed orange juice and it is very good and there’s also beach access down 
here as well if you don’t want to go to a resort Look at this we found some springs. The 
Dead Sea is receding at a rate of about 1 m per year and if you look at it over here the water is 
quite far away but over here where I am you’ve got evidence of the salt that’s been left behind. 
The texture on the floor is super interesting This salt is super like shiny the rest 
of the salt’s all been like really kind of spiky There’s loads of these massive chunks of 
salt nothing but salt. You can really see the texture of the salt here it’s kind of 
got this like crystalal-like texture, I’ve never seen anything like this before these are 
some rocks that are made out of salt. It looks like this is a popular photo 
spot, we’ve got this group over here, some more over here, some more over 
here, some people walking back up It’s sad to see that there is 
quite a lot of litter around here. I really feel like I’m walking on 
the moon walking on all this salt but then over here you’ve got these 
red rocks which is like Mars. We just stumbled across a bright pink lake, I don’t 
know what actually makes this pink. Nice reflection. Over here we’ve got a bit of orange, super 
bright pink over here and with the sun setting we said goodbye to the Dead Sea, but this is just the 
beginning of our two weeks in Jordan, so we’ll see you next time at one of the seven wonders 
of the world! And we’re the only people here.

How to visit the Dead Sea and what you need to know before you go

We traveled to Jordan to experience what it’s really like to float in the Dead Sea. Floating in the Dead Sea is an unreal experience. It’s one of the weirdest sensations we’ve ever felt and it should definitely be on your bucket list. The Dead Sea is both the lowest point on earth and one of the saltiest bodies of water on the planet and because of this it’s basically impossible to drown. Even people who typically can’t float just won’t sink here. It’s like a combination between floating in the sea and what we imagine the weightlessness of outer space must feel like. We were also surprised by the lack of international travelers here in 2025.

As part of a 2 week road trip around Jordan, we spend a full day and night around the dead sea. In this video we:
Visit a resort where you can swim and float in the dead sea
Experience covering ourselves in the mineral rich dead sea mud
Try one of the best restaurants in Jordan, near to the Dead Sea
Explore some epic salt beaches and salt formations

Useful links 👇
Dead Sea Resort – https://trip.tpo.li/Eax3Bzyu
Restaurant – https://maps.app.goo.gl/g56EmCMwGLnyNwSm7
Our Hotel – https://trip.tpo.li/GapGJrSi

Don’t miss the rest of our upcoming Jordan series including Petra and Wadi Rum Dessert

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We’re Claire and Craig and we’re documenting our adventures, bringing you to remote and lesser visited parts of the world.

#jordan #deadsea #travelguide #jordantravel