Jordan is an amazing little country, sandwiched into the middle of the middle east. It’s home to the city of Petra – the third wonder of the modern world, as well as the striking red desert of Wadi Rum, beautifully preserved Roman ruins and some of the best hummus you’ll ever eat. What’s more, you can do the whole country in less than a week.
Jordan is an amazing little country, sandwiched into the middle of the middle east. It’s home to the city of Petra – the third wonder of the modern world, as well as the striking red desert of Wadi Rum, beautifully preserved Roman ruins and some of the best hummus you’ll ever eat. What’s more, you can do the whole country in a week.
Just a head’s up, we didn’t go to the Dead Sea, so you won’t find any info on it here.
Overall, we found travel in Jordan to be fairly easy and straightforward. Public transport was infrequent, but would depart when scheduled. Taxi drivers would try to rip you off, but only by a little bit, and were otherwise very helpful with directions. In terms of spending, overall, we found Jordan to be very cheap. It’s easy to find a delicious meal for less than 5JD (11NZD/7USD), with dinner averaging closer to 10JD. Because the country is 95% Muslim, there’s hardly any alcohol to tempt the budget either.
The big cost of travelling to Jordan is the entrance fees. The best thing you can do is purchase the Jordan Pass prior to arrival in the country. This one-off ticket of ~100USD includes your visa on arrival, and either one, two or three days entrance to Petra. Because Petra costs 70USD and the visa costs 40USD, you’d be silly not to buy it.
Amman, 2 nights
We stayed in Amman for two nights, but the first night was only a half-night, as our flight got in at 1am. We stayed in The Boutique Hotel Amman (17.7JD / 25USD / 39NZD for a double room, a/c, private bathroom, helpful owner) which was in a fantastic location for exploring the city. It was a walkable distance from the Amman Citadel, a taxi to the bus station was only 3JD and the surrounding restaurants were excellent.
Jerash is a must-do day trip while in Amman. These Roman ruins are some of the best outside of Italy, and are practically deserted compared to the crowds you get in Europe. You can wander the huge expanse at your own pace, with very few cordoned-off areas. Entry is included in your Jordan pass. You can either pay a taxi driver 30-40JD for a round-trip, or do what we did, and catch the bus. From downtown Amman, catch a 2-3JD taxi to the ‘North Bus Station’ and from there, find the busses bound for Jerash. If your taxi driver is nice, then he might drive you directly to the bus. If he’s unkind, like ours, he’ll drop you off in the middle of some share-taxi touts who will tell you ‘there’s no bus, 5JD each for a share taxi.’ Ignore them, there is a bus – just walk into the area of parked minibuses, asking various drivers where to find the correct coach. The bus leaves once full, and costs 1JD each.
To return from Jerash, the bus leaves from the opposite side of the road than where you were dropped off. Again, it leaves when full, so there’s usually one waiting.
The Amman Citadel is an easy walk from downtown, and is also included in the Jordan pass. Unfortunately, we arrived half an hour before closing, and weren’t allowed in. We peered at it through the fence and enjoyed the view from the top of the hill, but it would have been better to go inside. Afterwards, ‘Rainbow Road’, famous for its shopping, eating and nightlife, is just a few blocks away.
Notable eats:
Hashem’s – Where you can get a massive feed of falafel, hummus, beans, salad and mint tea for two, for just 4.5JD. Open 24h and always busy.
Petra, 3 nights
Petra is worth allowing three nights for, so that you can have two full days of sightseeing. When we were there in July, midday temperatures were reaching 37 degrees C, which meant that it was only really possible to visit in the early morning or in the evening. Despite this, it really is such an incredible place. Mummified in time by the dry environment, the ancient palaces, churches and tombs are beautifully preserved, and the striking red cliffs are an incredible backdrop. It takes thirty minutes to walk from the entrance gate to the Treasury – the famous facade is the first part of the city that you see (and is also the most photographed). Touts will try and offer you a ride for this 30 minute walk, either on horseback or in a carriage. Deny them and keep walking. The walk is easy and slopes gently downhill, and there is very little in the way of animal welfare in Jordan. Those horses don’t have a happy life.
Once inside, you’re free to explore wherever. There aren’t many maps and there’s not much signposting, so it pays to take a map of your own. The Monastery is furthest point from the entrance – about a one hour walk one way. It’s just as impressive as the Treasury, but with just a fraction of the crowds. Again, touts will try to get you to ride a donkey – don’t do it. There’s also the Al-Khubtha Trail which takes you past the ancient tombs to a viewpoint of The Treasury, this one takes about 45mins one way. If you want to get the insta-famous shot of the Treasury without the walk, there are touts who will help you climb to certain viewpoints for ~5JDpp. If you go early though, the touts will be sleeping, and you can just climb up to the viewpoint yourself.
All the blogs told us to wake up at the crack of dawn, and head into Petra before the crowds. Turns out a few other people read those blogs too. At 7am, there were plenty of people already inside the park, including some large tour groups. So here’s my advice – stay late instead of arriving early. On our first day, we arrived at the Treasury at about 3.30pm and everyone was leaving. The park closes at 7.30 and by 5, it was practically empty. It was cool enough to walk around without melting in the sun, and we hardly saw another soul. It was more pleasant than our early-morning experience.
The town of Petra (as opposed to the city of Petra, which is the attraction) is basically just another tourist town. Prices are higher here, and there’s not many budget accommodation options. We stayed at Petra Capsule Hostel (along with every other backpacker in town.) A double pod with a city-view (aka a window) set us back 11.7JD (25NZD / 16.5USD). It was… fine. There are ~30 pods in a large room, which means that there are lots of bags around. The pods are consistently sized and ours (pod 7) was a more of a 1.5 person pod. It was hot at night, so get a USB fan. The bathrooms were clean, but flooded. But for the price, it really wasn’t bad. Pod 5 is by far the best, with a big bed and two large windows with a great view, so ask for this one if you can.
Noteable eats:
Reem Beladi Restaurant – Charming little restaurant owned by a really friendly guy. Reasonably priced mezze and araies (essentially Jordanian quesadillas, very tasty). Free mint tea after dinner.
Al-Arabi Restaurant – Best value shawarma in town at only 1.5JD. Perfect to take down the hill into Petra for a picnic lunch.
Wadi Rum, 1 night
Wadi Rum is a huge national park, made up almost exclusively of stunning red desert. There’s no town, no shops and very few roads. The only buildings are the various Bedouin (native nomadic people) ‘camps’ that provide accommodation to tourists.
Now, these ‘camps’ are not actual campsites. They’re all permanent buildings, loosely based on original designs of the nomadic Bedouin structures. There are hundreds of camps, nestled in the bottom of cliffs and tucked around every corner. You have so many to choose from.
The only difference between the camps is the quality of the room (varying from basic rooms with a shared bathroom, all the way up to insta-worthy igloos) and the food (you will have to eat the food at your camp, there is nowhere else to go). Nearly every camp offers the same ‘activities’ at an additional cost: a 4×4 jeep ride in the desert, a camel ride, or a trip to a sunset viewpoint. You can either choose a camp that offers an all-inclusive price (room, food, one or more activities) or a camp that charges for each of these separately. In the end, there’s not a huge difference in price though.
We chose to stay at Panorama Wadi Rum (10JD / 21NZD / 14USD for the room, which was shared bathroom, no a/c. 10JD each for an excellent buffet dinner. Breakfast included.) We did a 4×4 jeep tour with them as well. (50JD for 3h – shared between 4). The jeep tour is the only way to properly see the Wadi Rum landscape. To be honest, I’m not sure it was entirely worth the price, but from my research, the prices are practically standardised – nobody is offering the same tour for cheaper. Your best bet is to find other travellers to share the cost of the tour with.
However, our camp was within walking distance of the ‘Sunset Point’ which meant that we didn’t have to pay for a driver to take us there. Climbing up the cliff at 7pm afforded us some pretty amazing views.
To get from Petra to Wadi Rum, we could have taken the 6am bus that Petra Capsule Hostel provides. Tickets at 6JD p/p. However, we didn’t really want the early wake-up, and didn’t have any reason to get to Wadi Rum at 8am. So instead, we found two other travellers at the hostel to share a taxi with, so we could leave when we wanted. A taxi ride from Petra to Wadi costs 35JD (local price, you have to haggle the drivers down.) This meant the ride was 8JD each when shared between four. We left at 9.30 and got there at 11. Much more reasonable.
From Wadi Rum, we got a ride to the Aqaba/Eilat border with a lovely French couple – though we had been prepared to share a taxi again (there are no buses on this route, the standard price for the taxi is 30JD). If we’d had more time, it would have been fantastic to spend some time in Aqaba, where there is incredible snorkelling and diving. Instead, we had to make our way into Israel.
