The Dead Sea · Where to stay
Where to stay at the Dead Sea
Nearly every hotel bed on the Israeli shore stands in one strip at Ein Bokek, where a single property publishes 606 rooms.
Rooms in the largest hotel
606
The David Dead Sea Resort & Spa at Ein Bokek, of which 41 are suites, as the hotel publishes it
Rooms in the biggest hotel off the strip
166
The Ein Gedi Hotel, spread through a kibbutz botanical garden on the slope above the reserve
Standard VAT
18%
Israel's rate for 2025. Hotels publish that it applies to Israeli passport holders and not to tourists
Saturday check-in
18:00
At Isrotel's Dead Sea hotels, against 15:00 from Sunday to Friday
The choice at the Dead Sea is narrower than the search results make it look. Almost the entire hotel stock on the Israeli shore stands in one purpose-built strip at Ein Bokek, in the southern basin, and everything else on the lake is a kibbutz, a khan, a campsite or a pair of guest rooms behind somebody's house. A great many visitors solve the question by not sleeping here at all: Jerusalem is a little over an hour from the northern beaches, and a float, a mud smear and a shower fit comfortably into a day out.
For everyone else, the useful decision is which of three stretches to sleep on, because they are not interchangeable. Ein Bokek has the promenade, the free council beach, the mall and a row of hotels with spa complexes attached. Ein Gedi, in the middle of the shore, has the canyons, the botanical garden and the nature reserve, and the water is a drive rather than a walk. The northern shore around Kalia is the cheap end and the closest to Jerusalem, and it is also sinkhole country and lies in the West Bank, which some insurers and hire car agreements treat differently.
What follows is the case for each stretch, what the accommodation categories on this shore actually mean once you get past the word hotel, the ten places worth booking, and the practical grammar of an Israeli hotel stay: Shabbat check-in hours that are not the ones at the top of the page, half board, where the car goes, and the value added tax that comes off a tourist's bill.
10 places to stay
The places to stay worth the trip in The Dead Sea
Our pick and why, then everything the listing knows, with the date it was pulled.
01
Isrotel Nevo Dead Sea Hotel
A grown-up beachfront stay with a real dinner
Nevo sits on the shoreline at the southern end of the Ein Bokek strip, and Isrotel publishes that every room has a balcony, most of them facing the water. It is the one hotel here where dinner can be a menu rather than a buffet: the Ranch House is an American-style steakhouse working with Nebraska beef, alongside the main dining room. The rest of the package is aimed squarely at adults, with an Esprit Spa built round Dead Sea mud treatments, a private rooftop solarium for guests who came for sun exposure rather than swimming, and a business lounge on the eighth floor that guests on the seventh to ninth floors get thrown in. Parking is free in the hotel lot and the streets around it.
Check-in is 15:00 Sunday to Friday and 18:00 on Saturdays and holidays.
“close enough to the Dead Sea, clean room, balcony, good food.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.46,708 ratings85% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
Map, hours and reviews- Address
- Ein Bokek
- Kitchen
- Hotel
- Phone
- +9728-668-9666
- Website
- isrotel.co.il
02
Herbert Samuel Milos Dead Sea
Couples who want the beach at the door
Milos is the Herbert Samuel group's Greek-themed hotel on the strip: 162 rooms and suites in white and blue, set among planted gardens and flower beds, with a private beach a few steps past the pool. Some of the suites have their own infinity pools and adjoining terraces, which is as close as this shore gets to a room nobody wants to leave. Its position at the northern end of Ein Bokek puts the promenade and the council beach within a walk rather than a drive. The theming is wholehearted and will not suit everyone; the position and the suites are what you are paying for.
“Great facilities, great service, great rooms, great food.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.03,183 ratings75% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
Map, hours and reviews- Address
- dead sea, Ein Bokek
- Kitchen
- Hotel, Resort hotel
- Phone
- +9728-668-8100
- Website
- herbertsamuel.com
03
Vert Dead Sea
A treatment stay, and families who want a kids club with it
This is the large AFI-run hotel at the northern end of the strip, and the Tamar Regional Council's tourism site still files the building under the Crowne Plaza branding it carried under IHG. The description there is of 304 rooms, 14 of them suites, with a floor reserved for couples aged 18 and over and other floors given to families. The spa is the strongest argument: a heated Dead Sea water pool, two jacuzzis, wet and dry saunas, a sulphur pool, a gym, and a solarium with separate compounds for men and women, laid out for guests treating psoriasis, which is why a good share of the strip's longest stays happen here. A path runs from the pool deck straight to the beach, and there is a kids club for the half of the family that did not come for dermatology.
“Modern hotel, friendly service, clean room, and nice restaurant.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.06,869 ratings75% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
Map, hours and reviews- Address
- 6928+G9, Ein Bokek M.P.O Dead Sea, Ein Bokek, 86930
- Kitchen
- Hotel
- Phone
- +9728-659-1919
- Website
- afi-hotels.co.il
04
Isrotel Noga
Families who will use the pool more than the sea
Noga is the family half of Isrotel's pair on the strip, and the chain describes it as beachfront with complimentary beach services, which on this shore means loungers, towels and shade. Indoors it runs heated saltwater pools that work year round, a children's pool and a Kiddos club, and it fills the week with wellness workshops and fitness sessions on the lawns rather than leaving guests to the buffet and the balcony. The Esprit Spa handles the mud treatments, with entry from age 16, so a family with younger children should not build the trip around a spa package. Isrotel's own page address and the regional tourism site both still call it Ganim, which is the name to search under if a listing looks unfamiliar.
4.23,980 ratings81% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
Map, hours and reviews- Address
- עין בוקק, ים המלח, 8693000
- Kitchen
- Hotel
- Phone
- +9728-668-9090
- Website
- isrotel.com
05
Ein Gedi Hotel
Anyone who came for the canyons rather than the float
The Ein Gedi Hotel is not on the shore at all: its 166 rooms are spread through Kibbutz Ein Gedi's botanical garden on the slope above the reserve, and the beach is a drive of about 25 minutes. The garden is the point, planted with baobabs, African palms and Australian trees among the olives and pomegranates, and guests get a free cultural programme with it, including guided walks of the garden and the reserve, workshops and a monthly full-moon walk in the Masada marls. The Synergy Spa stands on the northeast slope behind glass walls, with an indoor hot Dead Sea water pool, an outdoor freshwater pool heated in winter, a hammam, a dry sauna and twelve treatment rooms, and admits guests from 16. The hotel sells bed and breakfast or half board, and the dairy Baobar in the lobby covers the gaps.
“There's an outside patio in the dining hall that was so beautiful too.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.22,831 ratings81% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
Map, hours and reviews- Address
- Ein Gedi
- Kitchen
- Hotel
- Phone
- +9728-659-4222
- Website
- ngedi.co.il
06
Lot
A wellness stay without resort scale
Lot describes itself as a spa hotel built for wellness travellers rather than a resort, and it is noticeably smaller and quieter than the towers on either side of it. Rooms divide simply into sea view and mountain view, which is a more honest split than most of the strip offers. The two suites are the reason to look twice: one on the eighth floor at 63 square metres with a balcony of 37, one on the ninth at 66 square metres with a balcony of 52, both facing the water. It suits a stay measured in days of treatment rather than nights of sightseeing, and it is the hotel to pick if the resort scale of its neighbours is the thing putting you off.
“The hotel was excellent, with great food and a very pleasant staff.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.53,156 ratings88% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
Map, hours and reviews- Address
- ד.נ ים המלח, Ein Bokek, 86930
- Kitchen
- Hotel, Bed & breakfast, Day spa
- Phone
- +9728-668-9200
- Website
- lothotel.co.il
07
Oasis Spa Club Dead Sea
Adults only, or a family, on the same plot
The listing collapses what are really two Prima hotels sharing one site, and the distinction is the whole reason to book here. The Spa Club takes adults only, from 18, with 98 superior and deluxe rooms, no mobile phones or smoking in the public areas, breakfast served until noon, and free run of the spa all week on a card issued at check-in. Next door the Oasis is the family building, with a kids club, a paddling pool and live music in the evenings. They share a palm-shaded outdoor pool and a Moroccan-styled spa with a covered Dead Sea water pool, a Turkish bath, saunas and a cedar phyto-barrel, and both hand out vouchers for the solarium beach across the road.
“Clean luxurious great food close to great beach and good elevator”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.07,215 ratings74% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
Map, hours and reviews- Address
- Dead Sea, Ein Bokek, 8693000
- Kitchen
- Hotel, Resort hotel
- Phone
- +9728-668-8000
- Website
- prima.co.il
08
David Dead Sea Resort & Spa
Groups, and anyone who wants the whole holiday indoors
The David calls itself the largest hotel at the Dead Sea and publishes 606 rooms, of which 41 are suites in a wing with its own service. Every room has a sun balcony over the water, and the list runs from superior and deluxe through premium, family suites, garden rooms, connecting rooms and accessible rooms, which is the kind of range only a hotel this size can carry. There are two spa complexes rather than one. The trade is exactly what the numbers imply: buffet queues, lift waits and a lobby that is never empty, so anyone hoping for a quiet week should take one of the smaller hotels on this list instead.
“The hotel has gorgeous sea views, offers decent food and friendly service.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 3.98,903 ratings69% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
Map, hours and reviews- Address
- ריזורט וספא, מלון דיוויד ים המלח, Ein Bokek
- Kitchen
- Hotel, Massage spa, Spa
- Phone
- +9728-659-1234
- Website
- grandhotels.co.il
09
Kalia Kibbutz Hotel
Half an hour from Jerusalem, with a lawn to sit on
Kalia is the northern shore's main hotel, inside a working kibbutz at the top of the lake, and it puts Jerusalem at 25 minutes. The holiday village has 64 rooms: 16 doubles, 40 mini-suites taking up to five people and six apartments taking up to seven, arranged round lawns with a large pool and a covered toddler pool. It is rustic rather than polished, and priced accordingly. Two things to weigh before booking: the pool closes for part of the winter, and Kibbutz Kalia is in the West Bank, which some insurers and hire car agreements treat differently from the rest of the route.
“They renovated rooms and restaurant,.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.1641 ratings77% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
Map, hours and reviews- Address
- קיבוץ קליה, Kalya
- Kitchen
- Hotel
- Phone
- +9722-993-6333
- Website
- kaliadeadsea.com
10
Ein Gedi Camp Lodge
The cheap bed with the best view on the shore
The khan at Ein Gedi is a campsite with design ambitions: air-conditioned family tents for up to five, converted VW vans fitted out for couples, a caravan with its own kitchen area and television, and pitches for anyone who brought a tent. Nothing but the caravan has a private bathroom, the showers and lavatories are shared, and the cooking area has fridges, hobs and worktops but no utensils, so bring them. What you get for that is the position, on the slope above the water with the Jordanian mountains opposite, and a large central tent that works as a lobby, with hammocks, seating and power sockets. Bedding and towels can be hired at reception if you do not want to carry your own.
“Cold drinks and nice food with great view and atmosphere.”
A reviewer, quoted by Google under the listing. 4.3449 ratings84% of raters gave four or five stars.
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings move; this one is a snapshot, not a live figure.
Map, hours and reviews- Address
- חאן, Ein Gedi, Israel
- Kitchen
- Hotel
- Phone
- +97250-923-0555
- Website
- eingedicamp.co.il
The decision
Three stretches of shore, and only one of them has a hotel strip
Ein Bokek is the default and for most visitors it is the right answer. It is a purpose-built resort village rather than a town, laid out along the southern basin, and everything a stay needs is inside a fifteen-minute walk: hotels in a row, a seafront promenade, a shopping mall with a dining level, and a central beach run by the Tamar Regional Council which hands out chairs and umbrellas free and keeps showers, changing rooms and lavatories behind them. The water there is shallow, warm and flat. It is also the reason to be honest about what you are looking at, because this end of the lake is an evaporation pond kept topped up by pumping rather than the natural sea.
Ein Gedi, some 35 kilometres north, is the choice for people who came for the desert rather than the float. The kibbutz runs a hotel inside its botanical garden, there are khans and caravan sites on the slopes around it, and the Nahal David and Nahal Arugot trails start a short drive away. The trade is the water: the hotel puts the beach at a 25-minute drive, the old public beach below the kibbutz closed in 2015, and there is no promenade to wander after dinner. What replaces it is quiet, a garden full of baobabs and a view across to Moab.
The northern shore, around Kibbutz Kalia and Kibbutz Almog, is the budget end and the one nearest a city: the Kalia hotel puts Jerusalem at 25 minutes. This is where the camping, the glamping and the cheapest beds are, and where a stay costs a fraction of the strip. Two things go in the other column. The northern basin is where the sinkholes are, so bathing means a managed beach rather than wherever the shoreline looks inviting, and this stretch lies in the West Bank, which is worth checking against a travel insurance policy and a hire car agreement before booking rather than after.
A rule of thumb that survives most itineraries: Ein Bokek if the point is the water and the spa, Ein Gedi if the point is walking, Kalia if the point is a cheap night between Jerusalem and Masada, and no night at all if the lake is one line on a longer list.
The stock
Hotel, kibbutz guesthouse, khan, zimmer: what the words mean here
The Tamar Regional Council's tourism site sorts the whole field into three categories, and the split is more useful than the one booking platforms use, which flattens everything into the word hotel. It lists hotels; khans and camping; and rural accommodation, the local term for the zimmer. Which of the three you have booked decides whether there is a restaurant, a reception desk at three in the morning, or a shared shower block.
The hotels are almost all at Ein Bokek and almost all chain-run: Isrotel, Fattal's Leonardo and Herods brands, Prima, Herbert Samuel, Grand, Brown and AFI. They share a template. A buffet dining room, an outdoor pool, and a spa complex with heated Dead Sea water pools, saunas and a treatment list; several add sulphur pools, and several add a solarium laid out for guests treating psoriasis, with separate compounds for men and women. Half board is the normal booking rather than the upgrade. Age limits are worth reading before you book a family room: the Prima spa complex admits guests from 18, the Ein Gedi spa from 16, and Isrotel's Kayma takes guests from the age of 10 in the hotel itself.
Kibbutz guesthouses are the second category and the most distinctive thing on this shore. Ein Gedi's hotel is a set of low buildings threaded through a working botanical garden, with lawns, a mini-golf course and a free programme of guided walks and workshops for guests. Kalia and Almog run holiday villages of the same species at the northern end: rooms round a lawn, a pool, a dining room, and a kibbutz rather than a resort outside the door.
The bottom of the market is more interesting than the price suggests. Khans and campsites run the length of the shore, from the Ein Gedi camp lodge with its air-conditioned family tents and converted vans to a glamping complex above Kalia with a dozen lotus tents, two pools heated in winter, a field kitchen and breakfast in the morning. There is a youth hostel at Masada and one at Neve Midbar beach. The zimmers, meanwhile, cluster inland at Neve Zohar and down at Moshav Neot HaKikar: usually one or two units, run by the owners, kitchen included, and named after whoever is handing over the key.
The alternatives
Where people sleep when they do not sleep on the lake
Jerusalem is the honest answer for a large share of visitors. The road drops to the northern beaches in a little over an hour, the city has every grade of bed, and a Dead Sea day from there costs nothing in logistics beyond an early start. Anyone travelling without a car should think hard before committing to a night on the shore, because the buses thin out sharply on Friday and stop on Shabbat, and there is no way to improvise a taxi at Ein Gedi.
For a dawn climb at Masada, the youth hostel at the foot of the mountain is the sensible bed, and the regional tourism site lists it alongside the hotels. It puts you at the cable car station rather than twenty minutes down the road at Ein Bokek, which is the difference between starting the Snake Path in the dark and starting it in the heat.
Further out, Kfar HaNokdim on the desert heights offers rooms and tents in a Bedouin-styled encampment with camel rides and workshops, which suits families with a night to spare and no appetite for a buffet. South of the lake, the moshavim at Neot HaKikar and Ein Tamar hold a long list of guest units among the date groves, about twenty minutes' drive from Ein Bokek beach, and they are where people end up when the strip fills during a school holiday.
The stay
Shabbat hours, half board, the car park and the VAT line
The check-in time printed on a booking confirmation is the weekday one. At Isrotel's Dead Sea hotels rooms are ready at 15:00 from Sunday to Friday with checkout by noon, but on Saturdays and Jewish holidays rooms are only available from 18:00 and checkout runs to 14:00. The same hotels list a synagogue, a Shabbat lift and Shabbat clocks that must be ordered in advance, and permit Shabbat candles only at the entrance to the main restaurant; a late Saturday departure can usually be bought at the desk. None of this is unique to the Dead Sea, but a Saturday arrival here bites harder than elsewhere, because there is nowhere to sit out three hours except the beach.
Breakfast is included and is the large Israeli buffet, which is the meal the hotels compete on. Dinner is the question worth answering at booking rather than on arrival: half board is the standard package on this shore, and given how few independent kitchens there are, most people should take it. The exceptions are worth knowing. Isrotel's Nevo runs an American-style steakhouse alongside the buffet, the Ein Gedi Hotel sells bed and breakfast or half board and keeps a dairy cafe in its lobby, and the mall by the central beach at Ein Bokek has a dining level and a handful of named restaurants for anyone who wants a night off.
Parking is free at the hotels and it is not free at the beach. The Isrotel properties publish free parking in their own lots and the surrounding area, and Prima's two hotels give free parking subject to availability. The public car park at Ein Bokek's central beach, by contrast, is regulated blue-and-white kerbside parking paid through the Pango app, and the council itself warns that spaces are hard to find and points drivers to two overflow car parks up the hill. If you are staying on the strip, walk.
Finally, the tax. Israel's standard rate of value added tax is 18 per cent, and the hotel chains state plainly on their own booking pages that rates are subject to VAT for Israeli passport holders. The corollary is the useful part: a foreign passport holder visiting as a tourist is not charged it on the accommodation bill at all. It is applied at the front desk rather than reclaimed afterwards, so the practical step is to give the passport details when booking and produce the passport and the entry slip at check-in, and to settle the bill in foreign currency or on a foreign-issued card. Dual nationals who entered Israel on an Israeli passport pay the tax like everybody else.
The full list
Every place to stay we found in The Dead Sea
All 17 that Google Maps returned for this area, ranked by rating weighted for how many people rated it, so a five from three people does not outrank a four and a half from three thousand.
| Name | Kind | Rating | Ratings | Price | Where |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ein Bokekעין בוקק | Hotel | 4.7 | 372 | n/a | Ein Bokek |
| Lot | Hotel | 4.5 | 3,156 | n/a | Ein Bokek |
| Dead-Sea Camping | Hiking area | 4.5 | 150 | n/a | Ein Gedi |
| Isrotel Nevo Dead Sea Hotel | Hotel | 4.4 | 6,708 | n/a | Ein Bokek |
| Ein Gedi Camp Lodge | Hotel | 4.3 | 449 | n/a | Ein Gedi |
| Isrotel Noga | Hotel | 4.2 | 3,980 | n/a | ים המלח |
| Ein Gedi Hotel | Hotel | 4.2 | 2,831 | n/a | Ein Gedi |
| Badolina Ein Gedi Glampingבדולינה עין גדי גלאמפינג Badolina Ein Gedi Glamping | Camping cabin | 4.2 | 326 | n/a | Ein Gedi |
| Kalia Kibbutz Hotel | Hotel | 4.1 | 641 | n/a | كاليا |
| Herbert Samuel Milos Dead Sea | Hotel | 4.0 | 3,183 | n/a | Ein Bokek |
| Vert Dead Sea | Hotel | 4.0 | 6,869 | n/a | Ein Bokek |
| Oasis Spa Club Dead Seaאואזיס ספא קלאב ים המלח | Hotel | 4.0 | 7,215 | n/a | Ein Bokek |
| Brown Dead Sea Hotelמלון בראון ים המלח (לשעבר אנג'ויי) | Hotel | 3.9 | 6,494 | n/a | Ein Bokek |
| David Dead Sea Resort & Spa | Hotel | 3.9 | 8,903 | n/a | Ein Bokek |
| Herbert Samuel Hod Dead Sea | Hotel | 3.8 | 3,500 | n/a | Ein Bokek |
| Biankiniביאנקיני - כפר נופש בצפון ים המלח | Resort hotel | 3.6 | 3,963 | n/a | n/a |
| Royal Dead Sea Hotel | Hotel | 3.4 | 3,268 | n/a | n/a |
Google Maps, retrieved . Ratings and counts move daily and this table does not: it is a snapshot, and it is here so the ranking above can be checked rather than taken on trust. Prices are Google's own price band, not a menu price.
Practical
What to know before you go
- If you arrive on a Saturday or a Jewish holiday, confirm the check-in hour: at Isrotel's Dead Sea hotels the room is not ready until 18:00, against 15:00 on other days.
- Book half board unless you have a car and a plan. The independent kitchens on this shore are few, and the hotel dining rooms are what the hotels compete on.
- Give the passport details when booking and produce the passport and entry slip at check-in rather than at checkout, and settle in foreign currency or on a foreign-issued card, so the tourist rate is applied rather than argued about.
- Check spa age limits before building a family trip round a treatment package: the Prima complex admits guests from 18, the Ein Gedi and Vert spas from 16.
- Do not pay for a parking add-on at Ein Bokek. Hotel parking is free; it is the public car park at the central beach that is metered, through the Pango app.
- A hotel without a private beach is not a handicap here. The Tamar Regional Council's central beach lends out chairs and umbrellas free and keeps showers, changing rooms and lavatories, and it also lends wheelchairs from the lifeguard's hut.
- For a sunrise walk up Masada, sleep at the hostel by the cable car rather than on the strip, and save the twenty minutes of road at four in the morning.
- Ask whether the pool is open before booking a winter night off the strip: Kalia's closes for part of the winter, and several of the desert sites run seasonal pools.
The figures
Numbers behind this page
Each figure carries the year it belongs to and links the source it came from.
| Measure | Figure | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rooms, David Dead Sea Resort & Spa | 606, of which 41 suites | 2026 | grandhotels.co.il |
| Rooms, Ein Gedi Hotel | 166 | 2026 | deadsea.co.il |
| Rooms, Herbert Samuel Milos Dead Sea | 162 | 2026 | herbertsamuel.com |
| Rooms, the Ein Bokek hotel listed as Crowne Plaza | 304, of which 14 suites | 2026 | deadsea.co.il |
| Rooms, Prima Spa Club (adults only, from 18) | 98 | 2026 | deadsea.co.il |
| Rooms, Kalia holiday village | 64 | 2026 | kaliadeadsea.com |
| Check-in on Saturdays and holidays, Isrotel Dead Sea hotels | 18:00, checkout by 14:00 | 2026 | isrotel.com |
| Standard rate of Israeli value added tax | 18% | 2025 | taxsummaries.pwc.com |
The rest of the The Dead Sea guide
Sources and further reading
Every link below was opened and checked when this page was written. Official statements are marked as such: they are the subject's own account, not an independent one.
- OfficialDead Sea Land, Tamar Regional Councildeadsea.co.ilAccommodations
The region's own three-way split into hotels, khans and camping, and rural accommodation, plus the glamping, hostel and zimmer entries
- OfficialDead Sea Land, Tamar Regional Councildeadsea.co.ilEin Gedi Hotel
166 rooms in the botanical garden, the Synergy Spa, the free cultural programme and the board options
- OfficialDead Sea Land, Tamar Regional Councildeadsea.co.ilCrowne Plaza
304 rooms, the couples floor, the sulphur pool and the solarium for guests treating psoriasis
- OfficialDead Sea Land, Tamar Regional Councildeadsea.co.ilSpa Club
98 rooms, admission from 18, and the pool and Moroccan-styled spa shared with the Oasis
- OfficialDead Sea Land, Tamar Regional Councildeadsea.co.ilEin Bokek Central Beach
Free chairs and umbrellas, showers and changing rooms, the metered car park and the overflow lots, and wheelchair access
- OfficialIsrotelisrotel.comHotels in the Dead Sea
The chain's three Dead Sea hotels, the age floor at Kayma, and the published note that the 18 per cent tax is not included for Israeli citizens
- OfficialIsrotelisrotel.comNevo Hotel
Balconies in every room, the Ranch House steakhouse, the rooftop solarium, free parking and the Shabbat check-in hours
- OfficialIsrotelisrotel.comNoga Hotel
Beachfront position, saltwater pools, the children's club and the spa age limit
- OfficialHerbert Samuel Hotelsherbertsamuel.comHerbert Samuel Milos Dead Sea Hotel
162 rooms and suites, the private beach and the suites with their own infinity pools
- OfficialGrand Hotelsgrandhotels.co.ilDavid Dead Sea Resort & Spa
606 rooms of which 41 suites, the sun balconies and the two spa complexes
- OfficialLot Hotellothotel.comLot Spa Hotel
The hotel's wellness positioning and the dimensions of its two top-floor suites and balconies
- OfficialKalia Dead Seakaliadeadsea.comKalia Hotel
64 rooms in the holiday village, the room mix, the pool and the 25 minutes to Jerusalem
- OfficialEin Gedi Camp Lodgeeingedicamp.co.ilAccommodation
The tents, vans and caravan, the shared washing and cooking facilities and what guests must bring
- ReferencePwC Worldwide Tax Summariestaxsummaries.pwc.comIsrael: Corporate, Other taxes
The standard rate of Israeli value added tax
Where to stay at the Dead Sea: common questions
Where should I stay at the Dead Sea?+
Ein Bokek, unless you have a specific reason not to. It is the only stretch of the Israeli shore with a hotel strip, a promenade, a free public beach and somewhere to eat that is not a hotel dining room, and it is the base that needs the least planning. Choose Ein Gedi instead if the walking matters more than the water, or Kalia if you want a cheap night close to Jerusalem.
Do I need to stay overnight at all?+
No, and plenty of people do not. Jerusalem is a little over an hour from the northern beaches, so a float, a mud pack, a shower and lunch fit into a day trip without strain. A night becomes worth it if you want the water early before the coaches arrive, if you have booked spa treatments, or if you are combining the lake with a dawn climb at Masada.
Are the Ein Bokek hotels really on the Dead Sea?+
They are on the southern basin, which is an industrial evaporation pond kept full by pumping rather than the natural lake. That is not a swindle so much as an explanation: the water at Ein Bokek is shallow, warm and calm precisely because it is managed, which is why this is where the bathing infrastructure ended up. The wild shoreline is north of Ein Gedi, and it is not somewhere to walk into casually.
What happens to a hotel stay over Shabbat?+
Check-in moves later and checkout moves later with it. At Isrotel's Dead Sea hotels rooms are ready at 15:00 from Sunday to Friday but only from 18:00 on Saturdays and Jewish holidays, with checkout at 14:00 rather than noon. The hotels run a synagogue, a Shabbat lift and Shabbat clocks ordered in advance, and confine candle lighting to the entrance of the main restaurant.
Is breakfast included, and should I book half board?+
Breakfast is included almost everywhere and is the substantial Israeli buffet. Half board, which adds dinner, is the normal booking on this shore rather than an upsell, and most visitors should take it: the strip has a mall dining level and a few restaurants, but nothing like the choice of a city, and Ein Gedi has essentially none. The Ein Gedi Hotel sells both options openly, so the comparison is easy to make.
Do tourists pay VAT on an Israeli hotel bill?+
No. Israel's standard rate is 18 per cent, and the hotel chains state on their own booking pages that rates are subject to that tax for Israeli passport holders, which is the polite way of saying that a foreign passport holder visiting as a tourist is not charged it. The saving is applied at the desk rather than reclaimed later, so give the passport details at booking and show the passport and entry slip at check-in. Dual nationals who entered on an Israeli passport pay.
Is there anywhere cheap to sleep?+
Yes, and more of it than the hotel strip suggests. The regional tourism site lists khans and campsites along the whole shore, including a camp lodge at Ein Gedi with air-conditioned tents and converted vans, a glamping complex of a dozen lotus tents above Kalia with breakfast included, a hostel at Neve Midbar beach and a youth hostel at Masada. The zimmers inland at Neve Zohar and Neot HaKikar are the other budget answer, and they come with a kitchen.
Are there adults-only hotels at the Dead Sea?+
There is at least one in the full sense and several in effect. Prima's Spa Club takes guests from the age of 18 only, with 98 rooms and a ban on mobile phones and smoking in the public areas. Isrotel's Kayma admits guests from 10 upwards, which is not adults-only but is quiet by resort standards, and most of the strip's spa complexes set a floor of 16 or 18 whatever the hotel's own policy is.
Can I get to the hotels without a car?+
You can, by intercity bus from Jerusalem, but it constrains the trip more than people expect. Services are infrequent, they stop early on Fridays and do not run on Shabbat, Ein Gedi is worse served than the strip, and there is no ready supply of taxis to improvise with. Without a car, sleep at Ein Bokek, where the beach, the promenade, the mall and the restaurants are all within a walk of every hotel.
Do I have to pay to use a beach if my hotel has not got one?+
No. The central beach at Ein Bokek is maintained for the general public by the Tamar Regional Council, with free umbrellas and chairs, showers, changing rooms and lavatories, and a promenade beside it with drinking fountains and shade. Hotel beaches charge non-guests for loungers, but the council beach costs nothing, and it is adapted for disabled visitors, with wheelchairs lent from the lifeguard's hut.