Jordan was on my travel list since several years. We were supposed to go there with my friends last year, but then pandemic forced us to change our plans. We postponed the plan for this year. And we did it. We went there in the first part of March.
In fact, when we traveled there still was a state of pandemic, so during check-in we had to fill our a health information form, localization form and generate a QR code. They verified it during boarding. At that time, it was obligatory to have a health insurance that would cover also COVID treatment costs.
Polish citizens need a visa to get to Jordan. You can apply for it to the consulate in Berlin, but it's a bit expensive - you need to add a courier cost to the cost of the visa itself. It's much easier to manage everything at the border. Without any problem we can get a visa on arrival.
There is another, better, way - purchase of Jordan Pass. It's a special card that contains entries to the biggest attraction in the country, that is Petra as well as to about 40 other places. What's more important, it contains also a visa fee. You just show a printed or a digital version of the Jordan Pass and you receive a visa stamp without any additional fees.
There several types of the Jordan Pass. As far as I remember, the only difference is the number of days we can spend in Petra, and of course - the price. We decided on 1-day Jordan Wanderer for 70 JOD.
As regards the trip, we took a direct flight by Ryanair from Krakow to Amman. The flight lasted 3 hours and 40 minutes.
At the airport everything is well organized, in my opinion. It's worth noting that there is free unlimited wi-fi here. We can immediately connect to the network, check up-to-date information, for example on timetables, or simply pay using our phone.
The gates lead directly to the offices of mobile operators. They have special offers for tourists. In March 2022, Orange's offer was the cheapest. I chose the Short Visit Line, which for 10 dinars for 15 GB of Internet, 60 minutes of local calls, 60 SMSs and 20 minutes for international calls. Pretty decent.
As regards money, take some on you and exchange at the bank at the airport. Bank-operated bureaux de change and exchange offices are located on the right side of the arrivals hall.Try to withdraw money from ATMs as little as possible, due to the very high commissions.
Traveling by car in Jordan
There are several car rental offices in the arrival hall. I recommend this way of traveling. It's more expensive than public transport, but you won't have to worry about tickets, transfers, timing departure times, dragging your luggage with you. At the beginning, I was a bit afraid of driving on Jordanian roads, since Jordanians have the opinion of drivers who think that they are the most important on the road. On a road with two lanes, it seems like there were five of them, or at least local think so!
But outside the city, they must be on guard. Maybe because of the speed bumps mounted literally everywhere. Imagine a high speed road dotted with speed bumps.
Speed limits are: 50 km in built-up areas, 90 km - outside of them, 110 km - on the motorway. Passengers don't need to fasten their seat belts; you turn on the lights when we decide that it is getting dark.
You can encounter police and security checks, especially in the western part of the country. Perhaps there were more of them earlier. We only passed a few such points during our trip. You should then slow down, sometimes they will stop you and ask who you are, where you are going. They only stopped us once when we were heading for Wadi Rum. They were nice and smiling.
Generally, I got the impression that Jordanians are a very nice and friendly to visitors. Maybe this is only the case with tourists? I don't know. But for sure not all countries are like that, even those living from tourism.
We traveled around Jordan in a rented car for seven days. After arriving to Amman, we immediately went to the other side of the country, down south, to Aqaba. From there we went to Wadi Rum, Wadi Musa, Petra, the Dead Sea and ended up in the capital, Amman.
Just enough to get to know the most interesting places and experience new things.
What our trip was like, what made the greatest impression on us - I will write about it in the next part.
Our itinerary
- Akaba - a city at the Red Sea,
- Wadi Rum - desert, camel riding,
- Petra - visiting one of the new Seven Wonders of the World,
- Swemeh, Dead Sea,
- Amman - capital of the country.