Herbert Samuel Hod Dead Sea Hotel (formerly Hod Hamidbar Resort)

Herbert Samuel Hotels now runs the property, alongside further hotels in Eilat, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Herzliya. Hod Hamidbar, the name the hotel carried for decades, still shows up on older maps, booking screens, and taxi small talk.

Same building. New flag.

Herbert Samuel Hod Dead Sea Hotel is the current official name of the Ein Bokek property long known as Hod Hamidbar Resort. The operator, Herbert Samuel Hotels, states on herbertsamuel.com that the hotel recently underwent a comprehensive renovation, and it runs further properties in Eilat, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Herzliya.

If you booked under either name, you are going to the same address. Third-party sites still mix the two freely, so do not worry when the sign over the door disagrees with your voucher.

Ein Bokek is the main resort cluster on the Israeli shore of the Dead Sea, roughly 430 meters below sea level. The hotel sits inside the central cluster, and the operator’s page puts the shore steps from the entrance. That shore is Ein Bokek beach, which the Tamar Regional Council describes as open to the general public with lifeguards, showers, toilets, and changing rooms.

The location does most of the work here. You can float before breakfast, walk back for coffee, and be at the restaurants of the Ein Bokek commercial center about five minutes later, per the deadsea.com listing. No shuttle needed.

The pools are the point. The operator’s official listing gives the spa an indoor pool filled with Dead Sea water, alongside a gym and a solarium, and the current deadsea.com listing adds mineral pools, a sulfur pool, a sauna, and hot tubs. Outside there is a large central swimming pool with a toddler pool beside it.

The spa at Herbert Samuel Hod Dead Sea Hotel has an indoor pool filled with water from the Dead Sea, per the operator’s official page, and the current deadsea.com listing adds a sulfur pool. Dead Sea water carries about 34.2 percent salinity, so the standard advice is a 15 to 20 minute soak followed by a freshwater rinse.

An indoor Dead Sea water pool matters more than it sounds. In August the shore bakes and in January the wind bites, but the indoor pool floats you in the real mineral water year round at a controlled temperature. Session length guidance is in our how long to soak guide.

One caution from the current deadsea.com review, worth repeating: warm sulfur and mineral pools put real load on the body, so talk to your doctor first if you have health concerns. A hotel spa is a wellness facility. Our spa versus clinic guide explains when you want an actual clinic.

The current deadsea.com listing gives the hotel about 200 rooms in standard and family configurations. The operator does not publish a count, and the renovation may have changed it. The operator’s page lists standard rooms with Dead Sea views, superior doubles, and penthouse suites with private balconies. Rooms have air conditioning, a flat-screen TV, a minibar, and Wi-Fi, per the deadsea.com listing.

Dining runs on two tracks. The operator advertises a chef’s restaurant, while the deadsea.com listing describes buffet breakfast and dinner under rabbinical kosher supervision. Check what your rate includes before you arrive, because half board and breakfast-only bookings sit side by side on the same booking sites. Rates across the strip are in our Dead Sea hotel prices guide.

Herbert Samuel also runs a second, smaller property on the strip, the boutique Milos Dead Sea, if you like the operator but want fewer rooms around you. And if you are still weighing the whole strip, our hotel comparison guide puts every Ein Bokek property side by side.

Search under both names, because inventory and pricing sometimes differ between listings of the same hotel, and verify what your rate includes. Then widen the search across all Dead Sea hotels in Israel if the fit table gave you doubts.

Two of Israel’s most visited nature sites are a short drive up Route 90. Trail access at Ein Gedi shifts with weather and flood damage, and the Israel Nature and Parks Authority closes the Nahal Arugot trail to new entries three hours before the reserve shuts, so check the INPA page before you go.

Masada National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001, sits 12 kilometers from Ein Bokek per the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, a short drive north of Herbert Samuel Hod Dead Sea Hotel, and Ein Gedi Nature Reserve, with its cascading waterfalls and resident ibex, lies 18 kilometers beyond Masada.

Masada works as a sunrise trip via the Snake Path or a midday one via cable car. Ein Gedi Nature Reserve is the counterpoint to all that salt: fresh water, shade, and the waterfalls of the Nahal David trail, per the Israel Nature and Parks Authority.

• Herbert Samuel Hod Dead Sea Hotel, official hotel page, Herbert Samuel Hotels: https://www.herbertsamuel.com/en/hod-dead-sea/
• Masada National Park, Israel Nature and Parks Authority: https://en.parks.org.il/reserve-park/masada-national-park/
• En Gedi Nature Reserve, Israel Nature and Parks Authority: https://en.parks.org.il/reserve-park/en-gedi-nature-reserve/
• The Hotel Beaches, Dead Sea Official Tourism Site, Tamar Regional Council: https://www.deadsea.co.il/attractions/the-hotel-beaches/?lang=en
• Hod Hamidbar Resort hotel listing, DeadSea.com: https://deadsea.com/hotel/hod-hamidbar-resort/