Marriott Jordan Valley Resort, Amman

...are rooms of the international Marriott standard with superb, comfortable beds (either one King or two Queens per room) with super smooth and welcoming white linen. Fresh towels every day and a high standard of cleanliness made this a comfortable place and a welcome retreat from the somewhat dusty and extremely hot atmosphere outside. The air-conditioning made my room constantly comfortable - occasionally even too cool – and was absolutely essential, ...
...for you. You can earn Marriott Reward points on a stay at this hotel, to use towards a stay elsewhere or indeed you could spend accumulated points on a stay here.

If you are thinking of booking, do look at the Escape rate or other half board options – there is really nowhere else to go to get an evening meal, so you want to actively consider including this in the cost up front.

Arrival and departure

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Introduction

The Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth. The water surface of the Dead Sea is about 410m below sea level right now (it is dropping by about 1m per annum at the moment – more about that later). It is a unique place. Most of us can’t get to the highest place (the top of Everest) but we can get to the lowest – if you get the chance, do go.

There are well established hotels and resorts on the Israeli side of the Dead Sea, but this is only newly being opened as a tourist location on the Jordanian side, with facilities really only being created in the decade or so. There are other hotels very near here (the Movenpick Dead Sea and the Dead Sea Spa being two others that are already reviewed on Ciao) but this review looks at the Marriott. By the way, both a Crown Plaza and a Holiday Inn are currently under construction, so there will be even more choice by 2008/9.

Location and how to get there

This hotel is about 45km from Jordan’s capital Amman (Queen Sofia International Airport) and the journey takes 45 minutes to an hour in a taxi (fixed fare, about £25 in June 2007). There are limited options for public transport. Car hire is possible and the hotel will provide free parking. I took a cab from the airport, which was fine. The car had to negotiate several police/army checkpoints as the Jordanians take their and our security seriously.

The hotel is on the north-eastern bank of the Dead Sea, near to where the Jordan River empties out. The border between Jordan and Israel/Palestinian Territories runs along the river and down the middle of the Dead Sea. The address of the hotel is Dead Sea Road, Sweimeh. My experience of the roads was that they were wide and fast without too much traffic and the journeys were comfortable and quite fast.

Some visitors will be going direct to this hotel; some will be staying as part of a multi-centre holiday and might arrive directly from somewhere else. Both Petra and the Red Sea resort of Aqaba are further south, towards the Jordanian border with Saudi Arabia – some people were visiting these resorts and attractions also

Accommodation

In June 2007 there were more than 200 guest rooms with more under construction. These are rooms of the international Marriott standard with superb, comfortable beds (either one King or two Queens per room) with super smooth and welcoming white linen. Fresh towels every day and a high standard of cleanliness made this a comfortable place and a welcome retreat from the somewhat dusty and extremely hot atmosphere outside. The air-conditioning made my room constantly comfortable - occasionally even too cool – and was absolutely essential, as the outside temperatures hit over 40 degrees centigrade (110 Fahrenheit) every day of my visit, with 45 degrees C on a couple of days. July and August is usually even hotter.

All rooms have en suite facilities, bath with a shower over, toilet, bidet and basin. Complimentary soap, shampoo and body lotions are supplied. The standard rooms all have mini bar, air con, room safe, TV, alarm clock, iron and ironing board and a couple of small bottles of water are left in your room daily. Most rooms have either a balcony or a terrace – some look into the middle of the complex (I took the photo above from my room balcony) and some look out from the sides of the hotel. For the first three nights I was there, I was in a room looking out. It has a large terrace but was constantly dusty from the construction work going on around. I much preferred the pool view room I was subsequently moved to. An English language newspaper or news sheet was delivered most mornings.

The rooms were quiet and peaceful. Getting the room made up and getting other services (like having the mini bar topped up) was sometimes frustratingly difficult. There are free Ice machines on every floor.

High speed internet access was available from all rooms (if you had your own laptop – at an additional charge) or you could buy time from 1 hour upwards in the hotels Business centre.

Cost

This is a luxury resort and spa hotel and it is priced to match. Expect to pay £100 - £200 per room per night (for a standard room) and remember that any prices quoted need to have 10% service and 15% Government tax added on top. There are a number of pricing options including half board and you need to look at what is best for you. You can earn Marriott Reward points on a stay at this hotel, to use towards a stay elsewhere or indeed you could spend accumulated points on a stay here.

If you are thinking of booking, do look at the Escape rate or other half board options – there is really nowhere else to go to get an evening meal, so you want to actively consider including this in the cost up front.

Arrival and departure

As standard, check in is a 3pm and check out at 12 noon. I arrived a midnight after a flight from the UK. There are plenty of staff on and there were porters as well as check-in staff waiting to help. The front gates of the hotel are closed and there are security guards – obviously, hotels have been attacked in Jordan in the past by insurgents and the Jordanians are making visible efforts to protect their own people and their visitors from harm.

I got a print out of my bill on the evening before I was due to leave and checked the items on it then, to make it faster for me the following morning. The reception staff are very accommodating (as are almost all the staff) – if you want something, do ask; the answer is usually yes.

The entrance to the hotel and the main lobby are extremely plush – I imagine this is how if feels to arrive at a Sultan’s palace: Quite over the top with indoor trees and hundreds of lilies and hundreds of candles at night, but quite exciting, too!

Activities and things to see and do around

This falls into two main categories – within the hotel complex and outside it.

Within the complex, there are three outdoor swimming pools (and one indoor – in the spa. More on that later). The two larger pools have fountains and a water slide, they are not too deep and they have Jacuzzis around them on the edge of the pool. This is pretty child friendly and they are open from about 8am to sunset – about 7.30pm. Pool 3, which is the smallest and overlooks the Dead Sea, is adults only (over 16 years) pool. Modesty is insisted on, so there is no topless sunbathing at the complex.

I was told that the hotel was only 40% full whilst I was there and indeed I was told it rarely gets more than 60% full. It certainly seemed that there was plenty of space for the guests, always space to get in the pool or get a sun bed. It was very noticeable, however, that when locals came down for day trips at the weekends (Friday and Saturday in this 90% Muslim country) there was a lot more pressure on facilities.

At the bottom of the complex (and quite a climb down) was the Dead Sea itself. It is possible to get into the Dead Sea (you don’t exactly swim – its more of a float) but it was quite a scramble up and down a steep and rocky slope on the waters edge. Some of the less mobile visitors there when I was there were unable to get in or out, so did not actually experience the Dead Sea at all, which was a shame. Whilst I was there, work started on what I was told was a $25,000 US scheme to make access easier, so this problem might have been resolved.

(As I said before, the water level of the Dead Sea is currently dropping by about 1 meter per annum. This seems mainly to be due to over extraction of water from the Jordan River by the counties in the region. There is a plan to pump millions of gallons of sea water up from the Red Sea and let it run into the Dead Sea, the intention being to gradually increase the level of the Dead Sea by some 10 meters. This is some years away at least)

The other main attraction here is the Spa, of course. In addition to the indoor swimming pool, there is also a pool filled with water from the Dead Sea (useful for those who could not get into the actual Dead Sea like my friend Molly from Scotland) and facilities such as steam baths and Jacuzzis (complimentary for hotel guests). There were also a whole range of spa treatments (to be paid for individually) from mud wraps and massages through facials, manicures, pedicures and so on. There is also a men’s and women’s hairdresser on site every day. I found the spa environment very calming and soothing, cool and mainly quiet with gentle music and so on, but I thought the treatments were very expensive and not many people were making use of them during my stay. Everything was very clean and nicely maintained.

There was a small but quite well equipped gym with aerobic machines and free weights (again, no charge to registered guests). There was also a Kids play area with some electronic games.

Immediately outside the complex, there is really nothing to see or do and all that is about is the entrance to the Movenpick, Dead Sea Spa resort and a convention centre. To go anywhere else, you need transport – there is nothing to walk to.

A short (20 minute) journey away is the Baptism site, recognized as the site where John the Baptist baptized people including Jesus Christ. There are archeological excavations here and you can visit (small entry fee). There is also the mountain from where Moses looked into the Holy Land before he died. The hotel can arrange a visit to Amman and there are options to go further afield if you wish, such as visits to Aqaba or Petra. Although Jerusalem is only about 30 miles away, visits to or through the Palestinian Territories are harder to manage.

Restaurants and the shop

Given that there is really nothing else around, you pretty much have to eat at the restaurants on site or from room service. I thought that the hotel had done a pretty good job of making the various restaurants feel quite different from one another, but it does partly depend on how long you are staying: Some people are only at the hotel for three or four nights and could have a different eating experience every night: some who were there for 14 nights or more were getting pretty bored of the same places, especially if they were on half board, where they were limited to only a couple of choices in each restaurant.

The choices were:

• Il Terrazzo (pretty decent Italian)
• Jo’s Steakhouse (some good although very expensive steaks)
• Mosaico (buffet, including Middle Eastern food) and
• Champions (US-style sports bar with beer, burgers and hot dogs).

Overall, the food was not bad and was pretty good in places. Wine and beer were expensive, especially as everything has the service and tax added on. Highlights were probably the Middle Easter special buffet nights run at weekends in Mosaico (although they got cancelled a couple of nights) – this did offer the chance to try some completely new meals and dishes.

There are a couple of other eating locations like Cascades (a BBQ restaurant) but that was not open when I visited. The main bar in the hotel (Acacia Bar) offered some food – sandwiches and the like – which were adequate. There were also a couple of pool bars serving though the day.

There was one small shop on the site, selling toiletries, some Dead Sea spa products, a selection of T-shirts and souvenirs of the stuffed Camel variety and a small number of other items (like cigarettes). It did not sell any food, alcoholic drinks or water. Alcohol is not widely available for sale in this predominantly Muslim country and all forms of it were expensive in the hotel.

NOTE: Many Jordanians smoke and so do many other people from the region. Almost everywhere allows smoking e.g. most of the rooms are for smokers and most of the restaurant tables are for smokers, too. People even smoke in the swimming pool. If you can't stand smoke, you would probably be happier somewhere else.

And finally…

It’s a unique place, but it is a fair way from anywhere else. If you want an active nightlife and clubs and bars to go to, this is really not for you.

Bathing in the Dead Sea is believed to be beneficial for a number of skin conditions including psoriasis. There were a few people about who were clearly there at least in part for ‘the cure’ and not just for the holiday destination. British doctors don’t seem to agree on the potential health benefits although the German health service sends people to the Dead Sea for treatment.

Do get out and about, if only for one day. The hotel arranged for my friends and I to hire a taxi and driver for a few hours at not a lot of cost and it enabled us to see a bit of the area. The colours of the mountainsides are different to anywhere else I have ever been.

Pack enough books and magazines and go to relax. And if you like the sun, this is a great place to be. 

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