We had the opportunity to travel through the amazing Jordan. Here are some tips that we think you can find useful if planning a trip there.
Visa
If you’re flying to Jordan, some countries can get visa on arrival (Argentina and Italy for example). If you’re traveling by land, then you need to get a visa prior to your arrival.
Jordan Pass
The Jordan Pass is a tourist package that features admission to most attractions across Jordan, including the famous city of Petra. It comes in three categories, depending on how many days you want to spend in Petra (1, 2 or 3), plus 40 other tourist spots. It also includes the tourist visa fee (40 JD) if you stay for more than 4 days (3 nights).
It is actually a good deal when you consider that a one-day admission fee to Petra is 50 JD and the visa costs 40 JD, as the cheapest Pass is only 70 JD. Plus you don’t have to queue to get the tickets!
The Jordan Pass needs to be purchased before entering Jordan and this can be done online in the following website: https://www.jordanpass.jo.
If you’re planning to see a bit more of Jordan other than Petra, the pass is good for attractions such as Wadi Rum desert, Jerash and Amman Citadel.
Get Around
Your options for getting around Jordan are limited as public transport is scarce and not good. You can get a taxi/driver to take you around or you can do like we did: rent a car and drive yourself.
Self-driving in Jordan is not hard, specially if you have some experience driving in crazy countries (we are from Argentina so we know!). The roads are not in the best condition, but they are getting repaired. Traffic is a bit hectic, specially in Amman, and most roads don’t have clearly marked lanes. All in all, we still managed to tour around Jordan with no issues, and saw plenty of tourists doing the same.
Renting a car is not expensive if you choose one of the local companies rather than international ones. We rented with Montecarlo, and although we didn’t have a problem with the car, we wouldn’t recommend it. We had read so many good reviews of this company, but in all honesty, we got a worn-out car that made very weird noises and we thought that it was going to leave us stranded anytime. Fortunately, that didn’t happen and we were able to do everything we wanted.
We recommend getting a GPS if you’re planning to see more than just Petra. Signs from the airport to Petra are very well marked, but not so much in the rest of Jordan. We also suggest getting a SIM card to use Google Maps, as the GPS sometimes doesn’t find the place you need to go to.
Budget
Jordan is expensive. Flights to and from Queen Alia Airport (the only airport for commercial flights) are a couple hundred dollars at the least. Backpacker tip: Aegean Airlines offers the cheapest tickets from/to Europe, via Athens – it doesn’t fly to Amman every day, so make sure to check that!
Accommodation and dining in Wadi Musa (the town of Petra) and the Dead Sea area are completely overpriced. The city of Amman is a lot cheaper, but do not expect Southeast Asia prices here!
Credit Cards are generally accepted in touristic places, but not everywhere, so it is always better to have some cash. We did have problems getting cash out of the ATM with our MasterCard so we had to exchange our emergency USDs to Dinars.
Climate
We were in Jordan in mid-December and it was cold enough to wear our winter gear. The mornings and evenings are the coolest, but once the sun comes out it’s nice. Average temperature was around 12 C. It is actually better to walk Petra in this condition since summer can get really really hot.
On the downside, days are shorter as the sun sets around 4.30 pm and attractions close earlier, so you have less time to visit.
We do recommend that if you go during winter, check that your accommodation has heating as nights can be very cold. We didn’t have a problem, but we slept in our winter pajamas!
If you’re going to the Dead Sea in winter, don’t worry! For some reason this area enjoys a different weather from the rest of the country and it’s always warm, so you can swim (or float) without freezing. When we were there it was around 24 C.
Safety
We never felt unsafe while travelling through Jordan, not even driving on those crazy roads. You see a lot of police on the roads and in touristic places. They might even stop you and ask for documents, which didn’t happen to us.
Jordan is very open to tourism and is not as strict as other Islamic countries. It is however a muslim country and locals dress in a modest way, most women covering their hair, so always be respectful. Petra is full of tourists so the dresscode will probably not be a problem.
As a woman, I did feel a bit uncomfortable in some places; even though I wasn’t wearing tank tops or shorts, I could still feel men looking at me. I just let Pablo do all the talking and handle money, as that is what they expect. When we stopped on the road to refuel or buy something, I would stay in the car so as to not draw attention to myself.
We hope the tips we shared are useful. We will be posting our itinerary soon. If you have any questions about Jordan, leave us a comment and we will be happy to answer or update our post with missing information.