One of our best and most unique experiences in the Middle East was to float 400 meters below sea level… in the Dead Sea. We enjoyed it so much that we went twice!
Our first trip was a day excursion from Amman. Our driver brought us to a private resort on the North Eastern side… it was a nice resort, but it came at quite the price! We had to pay 16 JOD ($24 CAD) per person to enter the resort… it seems that our driver conveniently forgot to mention this before we left..! We stayed for about 3 hours and had a great time playing with the oily-feeling water and weird buoyancy. Jen still had some eczema/allergy rashes that burned like crazy from the salt, so she spent lots of time in the resort's cold fresh water pool. On the plus side, the Dead Sea seemed to really help her skin!
Dom also dug up some Dead Sea mud from under the salt crust, and buttered himself in it to make his skin super soft ;)
We loved the Dead Sea so much (especially Dom) that we went for a second visit from the Israeli side. During our road trip through Israel, we stopped for another dip at Ein Bokek on the South-West side of the lake (we learned our lesson and found a free public beach :)). Jen's rashes had mostly healed now, so it was even more enjoyable.
There are many beach areas all around the Dead Sea. Of the two we visited, we prefer the Dead Sea on the Israeli side as it was a lot cheaper (free!), cleaner, calmer, and had better facilities.