Jordan
When most people think of the Middle East in the West they think of a region with safety issues and wars. While there are countries that have issues in the region, I can tell you that the wonderful country of Jordan is not one of them. We had no idea what to expect when visiting Jordan in May of 2023 but when we arrived we found an extremely welcoming country that we felt just as safe in as back home. Its a country with so many things to do it from ancient cities, to the lowest point on Earth, to epic desert landscapes and wonderful food. We spent seven wonderful days in Jordan with a great tour with Trafalgar Tours and had an unforgettable adventure.
Getting to Jordan and Transportation
Getting to Jordan can definitely take a bit of work and time as it did for us. Jordan has two international airports with the main airport being in the capital city of Amman and a second smaller international airport in the Southern City of Aqaba. The main airline that services Jordan is Royal Jordanian that has flights all around the world. We flew to London on British Airways and then flew into the Queen Alia International in Amman. It was about 15 hours of flight time from Texas to Amman. Another way some get to Jordan as some did on our tour was to go to Israel and then cross over the land border. Most flights from the West into Jordan seem to get in very late at night as we arrived around 12:30am. The main ways to get around Jordan are if you rent a car yourself or join a tour like we did. They do have busses but we did not use them. We did use Uber in Amman to visit a museum and it was very affordable being only around 1.5 Jordanian Dinars (around $2) for the 20 minute ride.
Other Country Information
The currency of Jordan is the Jordanian Dinar that is pegged to be worth a little more than the US Dollar. Credit cards can be used at larger shops and some small shops and vendors but I would have a good amount of cash available for things you might want to purchase while in Jordan. Many people will take US Dollars as well but that is not always the case. Arabic is the language of Jordan but most people we encountered spoke at least a little English. Jordan is a Parliamentary Monarchy meaning they have a parliament but also have a royal family. The official name of the country is the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Like for any country look up the rules for entering the country as you do need a Visa for tourism to enter the country. You can purchase a visa on arrival or purchase a visa ahead by contacting the Jordanian Embassy. Also if you have prescription or other medications you might need to bring with you keep your prescription and medication in the original bottles and possibly get a note from your doctor in case customs speaks to you about it. Each country has its own rules on medications so its good to be prepared. We had no trouble but customs did take a look at my medications.
The People of Jordan
We found from the moment we landed in Jordan that the people are extremely welcoming and kind. We constantly heard “You are welcome in Jordan” by many people who we met along the way. Everyone was very willing to help us if we needed it and were very kind. Our tour director Enas and our driver Rashid were great examples of the kind of people we met in Jordan. Enas was always willing to go the extra mile for us including tying our Kafiya (traditional head covering to keep the sun off your head. In Jordan 97% of the country are of the Islamic faith but people wore a wide mixture of clothing with many ladies covering their hair with the hijab but others did not. Some men wore traditional clothing and other more western style clothing. In the rural areas we got the chance to meet Bedouin tribes who were very welcoming and friendly. Throughout our time in the country we felt very safe and cared for as guests by the people of Jordan. I got many smiles when I would give people an Arabic greeting and people went out of their way when they didn’t have to, to give me things like coffee or tea. They really worked to make our time special in Jordan. Just like we have found in many countries the selling can be somewhat high pressure at times and its expected to haggle when it comes to prices.
Security in Jordan
Some might be concerned traveling to Jordan being in a relatively volatile region. We felt safe the entire time in Jordan. At the time of this writing the US State department rated Jordan at a level 2 our of 4 meaning exercise increased caution. It is the same level as much of Europe and other countries. The people of Jordan also take security very seriously. At each of the hotels we stayed at they had airport style security where each bag was scanned and you go through a metal detector. At our hotel in Amman they had a car check as well. The same airport style security was found at museums as well. Its not too different than stadium security back home honestly. I appreciated the security as they are working to keep all of the tourists safe in the country and it did not interfere with any of our trip.
Amman
The capital city of Jordan is the main gateway into the country to most who visit outside of those that come to Jordan through Israel. Its the largest city in Jordan with over 4 million people and is a very modern. You can find Western restaurants such as Popeye’s, McDonalds, Pizza Hut and others in the city. You have modern shopping malls and have the very nice main international airport of the nation. We saw companies such as Amazon in Amman and hotels such as Hilton and Marriot. The name Amman comes from the Ammonites that were in the region and mentioned in the Bible. We started our trip in Amman by heading over to the Jordan Museum to learn about the country. It was a wonderful museum that truly discussed the good and the improvements being made in the country. It talked about the great strides made for women in the country and increases in education. They still have issues with un-employment and a scarcity of water. The museum talked about their efforts in renewable energy as well as other initiatives. The largest part of the museum told the history of Jordan and its people. They spoke about Petra and the Nabatean people. They had exhibits on the Romans and cities such as Jerash. There was also a great section about the Bedouin tribes in Jordan. They had a high tech temporary exhibit that went over the great contributions of Muslim and Arabian scientists throughout what the West calls the “Dark Ages”. They made great advancements in medical, engineering and many other disciplines. At the end of the museum we had the chance to see some of the Dead Sea Scrolls containing books of the Bible and also a copper scroll. It was a great way start out our time in Jordan. We ended our first day in Jordan meeting our tour guide Enas and the rest of our tour group at the hotel. It was followed by a great Jordanian food Buffet at the hotel.
On our second day in Amman we started out going to Northern Jordan to visit the ancient Roman City of Jerash. I will talk about that separately below. We also visited the small city of Iraq Al Amir to visit a Women’s Cooperative. We came back and got to see some of the highlights of Amman. We first went and visited the large Ancient Roman theater that could seat thousands. There were many kids and people out enjoying the plaza playing soccer and enjoying their day off. In Jordan and the Muslim world weekends are on Friday and Saturday with Friday being the Holy day. We were touring on a Friday so everyone was off. We visited the small but nice Folklore Museum and Jordanian Traditions museums that were at the Roman Theater. All the museums we visited has English and Arabic so we could still learn. Our last stop of the day touring wise was up in the hills of Amman as the city is in higher elevation. We visited the Citadel of Amman where we could see Ancient Roman ruins and the Temple of Hercules that used to have a massive statue of Hercules. Earthquakes destroyed most of the statue. We also walked to the Umayyad Palace. The views of much of Amman and the Roman Theater below was nice. We also visited the historical museum at the site. After a quick refresh at the hotel we headed out with our wonderful guide and our group to have dinner at a local home. Trafalgar has a great program they call “Be My Guest” where you get to have dinner and spend time with a local family. The wonderful family welcomed us into the living room to have a meal they cooked at their home. It was a middle class family home and the family owned a couple restaurants. We had the chance to ask questions of the father, mother and their three daughters. The father mentioned he was going to visit Houston in the near future to see its food scene. They are a Christian family and I asked what that is like in a majority Muslin country. They said everyone gets along well in Jordan as people are very tolerant. It was a great visit with some wonderful people. We headed back to our hotel (The Landmark Hotel) and got ready to leave Amman for Southern Jordan.
Jerash
On our second day while in the Amman area we went North through mountains and forests in an area that gets the most rain and snow in Jordan. Jerash is the capital city of the Jerash Governate (like a state back in the US). It is a city that has been inhabited since Neolithic times and was occupied from Greek to Roman to Byzantine to the Crusades. We got the the site and started our tour with Enas. She led us through the Roman built roads where you could see ruts from chariots that passed through. There were statues, mosaic floors and beautiful columns. We walked up to the highest point at that was a an ancient temple. There a local showed us that the column actually move with a spoon. The ingenious engineers used a different type of rock and engineering technique that allowed the columns to stand during earthquakes that hit the area. The rock would make an interesting sound so it was like a warning siren for earthquakes. We also visited the large theater where some Ex-Military band members played music for the group and a dance circle was started. After they were done locals were yelling repeat! The acoustics where impressive in the theater. Some of the vendors at the site where pretty insistent for us to buy a Kafiya and even put them on my head so I could try it. I went ahead and bought one so they ultimately left me alone after that. It was good to keep the sun off my head and neck. After shopping in the marketplace we headed off to Iraq Al Amir.
Iraq Al Amir
Before heading to Amman again we went out into the rural mountain area once more to the small city of Iraq Al Amir. In Jordan un-employment is high and that is especially true for women where it sits around 30%. We went to the Iraq Al Amir Women’s Cooperative that gives ladies in the area a place to work. They fed us a nice lunch paid for by Trafalgar that helped provide for the ladies working there. They also had a nice ceramics and greeting card shop. We went in and bought some items from each. It is always great to help locals when traveling so the experiences can be rewarding for both us and those in the country. While we were there at the local Mosque an Imam was speaking and leading Friday Prayers. The message was played over the loud speakers at the Mosque. After finishing our lunch we headed back to Amman.
Mount Nebo and Madaba
We got up early and after a great buffet breakfast we headed out of Amman to go to Southern Jordan. After about an hour drive we arrived at our next stop that is the Holy site of Mount Nebo. Mount Nebo is where Moses stood to look into the Promised Land before he died. At Mount Nebo we looked into Israel and the West Bank with a great view. We could see the Dead Sea, and the ancient city of Jericho in the distance. There are sculptures including a serpentine cross representing Moses. There is a Byzantine era church at the top with beautiful Mosaics on the floors inside. On the site there is a large circular gravestone similar to what Jesus’s tomb is shown as. We took some time to enjoy the views of Jordan and Israel before we headed back to the bus to head into Madaba. Madaba is the capital of the Madaba Governate and was our stop to see the art of mosaic making. We took a tour of a mosaic cooperative that is funded by Jordan to keep the art alive and help give people a job. We watched locals working on intricate mosaics of all different sizes and designs. They served us traditional tea as we shopped for things like Mosaics, T-Shirts and Arabian knives. After leaving the cooperative we had the chance to visit a church in downtown Madaba that had a huge mosaic inside showing the main sites in the Holy Land. It was lunch time and we actually headed to the restaurant owned by the family we ate with the night before. They made us some nice sandwiches with spicy pickles and fries and we got to see one of the daughters who runs the restaurant. We then headed back to the bus for a couple hour drive through the arid Southern desert to our next stop.
Shobak Castle (Montreal)
Our next stop was another historic site from another era, The Crusades. When Christians from the West came to fight Muslim peoples who lived in the Holy Land they built castles to try to hold the the area. Shobak Castle is one of those castles from the Crusades. Perched atop a small mountain out in the desolate desert we rode up on a gold cart up to the top to tour the castle. It has not been fully excavated so there is not a whole lot of interpretation now. We went into small rooms and up on the walls of the castle that look out into the desert. We also saw a large amount of stone cannon balls. It was an interesting sight to see and it will only get better as they excavate and build up the historic site more. Shobak Castle was our last tour site before our Bedouin dinner we had out in the canyons.
Ammarin Bedouin Camp
Our last stop for the day before we headed to our very unique hotel for the night was a coffee and dinner with the Ammarin Bedouin tribe. We drove out on a barely recognizable dirt road out to a Bedouin Camp site amongst beautiful Canyons and rocks. The tribe welcomed us by roasting coffee from Yemen over a fire, hand grinding the coffee and then making it their traditional way. It tasted different than our coffee but it was very good all the same. After we tried the coffee they welcomed us to their tent where we first took off our shoes and then were served traditional food with Bedouin bread (like a pita or tortilla). We sat at low tables and inside a very colorful tent. After dinner I walked out of the tent to enjoy the quiet sunset out in the desert. We headed to our hotel afterwards in the pitch black landscape. It was a great experience at the Bedouin Camp and the end of a long but great day!
Hayat Zaman Hotel
We stayed the night at a hotel that was once an old village that has turned the small homes into a hotel resort just 20 minutes from the entrance to Petra. You could get lost in the winding corridors that make you feel like you are in an adventure movie. Our room was very unique with stone walls, Arab carpets and stone work. In the morning we work up to wonderful views of the canyons and deserts since the hotel is on a hill. We got a good breakfast and said goodbye to this unique hotel experience as we headed off to Petra!
Petra
On this day of the trip we spent pretty much the entire day at the beautiful ancient Nabatean capital city made famous in “Indian Jones and the Last Crusade”. Petra is a UNESCO World Heritage site and it is spectacular. The Nabateans were a society of traders who specialized in spices being on a key route on the Spice road. Thousands of years ago they settled in the canyons of Petra after being nomads. We started relatively early in the morning to beat the crowds and the heat in the desert. We had been very lucky so far on our trip with highs being in the 70s and lows in the 50s. In Petra there is a lot of walking as its an expansive site. We started the 2.5 mile walk around Petra with our wonderful guide Enas. We stopped to see where Aaron (the brother of Moses) is said to be buried and then arrived in The Siq. The Siq is a winding narrow canyon that was the sacred route into Petra. There were carvings of different gods and carvings of camel caravans that passed through that way into the city. You can still see the elaborate water pipe system the Nabateans created to be able to funnel water into the city and survive in the desert. At the end of the Siq a small crack in the narrow reveals the greatest and most famous image of Petra. We walked out of the Siq and the amazing “Treasury” that was the Temple that held the Holy Grail in Indiana Jones. It is huge and carved directly into the cliff. There is a lot of activity in the area with camel rides, vendors and fellow travelers. The “Treasury” is actually a royal Nabatean Tomb. It was carved from the top down and contains architecture from Greek, and Egyptians. We continued on our tour walking by many different local vendors selling souvenirs, sand art in a bottle and Bedouin eye liner worn by both men and women. We continued past the Royal Tombs up in the mountains and past what was once the homes of the Nabateans. Sadly the homes are nothing but rubble due to earthquakes that destroyed them. We walked on old stone roads and ended our walk with our guide near the city temples. We got a quick bite to eat and then heads out to tour on our own. We had the option to walk up to the Monastery but it was 850 stairs to get there and in the afternoon it was starting to get hot. We visited the great temple and then walked up the 200 stairs to go inside the Royal Tombs. We spent some time shopping and stopped to get some Gatorade as the afternoon sun was making it very hot walking the 2.5 miles back. There are camels, and donkey’s you can ride back but the safety is not necessarily good and you don’t know how the animals are treated. Its downhill when coming into Petra and of course up hill going back. We bought a customized sand art with our name and “The Treasury” in it and it was ready by the time we got back to the shop. After the long walk we made it back to the visitors center and we went into the well air conditioned museum that is free. Its very important to stay hydrated in Petra so we got more water at a bar built into a Nabatean Tomb. After meeting up with our group and guide we headed out to travel to the famous Wadi Rum desert.
Wadi Rum
In Wadi Rum we were following the footsteps of Lawrence of Arabia and many others who have come to this desolate but beautiful area. There are miles of sand dunes, rocky mountains and a lone former Turkish railroad track. We headed into our “Glamping” accommodations for the night out in a remote area. The camp was run by a Bedouin tribe and was very well done. We each got a small cottage that had granite countertops, a TV, shower with hot water, a small stove and nice bed. For being so far away from anything the accommodations were very nice. The TV wasn’t working since they had a sand storm that day. We went and watched sunset over the very quiet desert. Camels grazed on the little vegetation in the distance as the sun set behind the mountains. Dinner was cooked in the ground by the Bedouins and was another nice traditional meal. They had a birthday and wedding celebration for a guest with a birthday and for the honeymooning Australian couple we got to know on the trip. We ended the day heading out to gaze at the many stars in the desert sky. We could hear animals howling in the distance so we headed back for a good nights sleep.
The next morning we hit a minor snag on the tour when the camp’s water pump broke and we had no running water. While it wasn’t great it didn’t put a damper on our day. We got up earlier than most of the group to see sunrise. It was well worth it. It was so quiet we could hear the radio playing in a truck a mile or so away. We watched hot air balloons blow up and then fly to see the sunrise. The camels came back to graze and watched the sun rise in a scene reminiscent of one of the opening scenes in Lawrence of Arabia. After having a nice breakfast we got in the back of a pickup truck and drove out into the desert. We visited a fort/castle that was a movie set and stopped where The Martian was partially filmed. We visited a cave called Lawrence of Arabia Cave and could hear the echoing in the canyons when we talked. We headed to a Bedouin Tent where they offered us hot tea as it the traditional welcome and then we headed back to our waiting bus. We headed back on the around 3 hour drive to Amman with a stop for lunch. There our tour group split up with some staying the night in Amman and those like us who opted for an extension to visit the Dead Sea. We parted ways with our amazing tour guide Enas and headed over to our resort in the Dead Sea through the dust storm that was covering the country at the time. We could smell the dust in the bus and at times it would be very dusty like driving through fog.
The Dead Sea
We stayed at the Holiday Inn Dead Sea Resort and it was like no other Holiday Inn we have stayed at. It was once again very safe as there was a military checkpoint outside the hotel and security going into the hotel. The hotel was beautiful with over a dozen nice pools, a spa, multiple bars and shops. We had a nice balcony and a spacious room. Dinner and breakfast was included for us and it was a very nice buffet with local foods. On our second night there the buffet included tacos and some Mexican food that was good but a surprise for us. Each of the two nights we spent there they had a wonderful belly dancer perform for the guests to local music. We also visited the spa and got a 30 minute message that was very nice and cheaper than any resort in the US we had been to at around $40 each. We enjoyed relaxing at the hotel after our journey and before we headed back on the 15 hours of flying back home.
The Dead Sea is the lowest point on Earth on land at over 1,400 feet below sea level. The sea is also one of the saltiest bodies of water in the world and nothing can live in the sea. Our guide gave us some great tips on floating in the Dead Sea before we parted ways in Amman. She let us know to only be in the water for around 10-15 minutes at a time and to drink water after getting out. Staying in longer could cause skin irritation and losing too much water. Also she mentioned to be careful getting in to float since you are so buoyant the water tries to flip you over. We walked down to the nice hotel beach and got into the water. Its a completely different swimming experience. You float at the top of the water with no effort at all. Its about as close to Zero-G as you can get on land. We easily floated in the water and relaxed. The water did try to flip me over but we did fine. When looking at the water you could see a sheen on the water kind of like oil on water but it was the salt and minerals. The water was very clear but we did not go out far. As soon as we got out we went to the close by shower as any cuts you have will start stinging. We drank water and rested for a bit before getting some Dead Sea mud on our arms and swimming one more time. Our skin was extra soft and smooth after our 30 minutes or so in the water. We swam for a bit in hotel pools and then got back inside since it got very hot in the afternoon.
Heading Home and Conclusion
There is only one British Airways flight to London each day and its at 8:30 AM. We got up pretty early to get our shuttle to the airport as it was a 45 minute drive from the Dead Sea to the airport. Trafalgar once again arranged everything and even had a to go breakfast box of a sandwich, fruit and brownie we ate on the way. At the airport there was a military checkpoint and then all bags were scanned before we went to check in. The airport security was also thorough and they checked each bottle of my prescription medicine. We got through security just fine and then headed back to London
Jordan was a wonderful trip and a country full of amazing experiences and a truly warm and caring people. As our tour guide said the Jordanian people give from the heart. We had so many unique experiences on the trip and had a lot of great food. Our tour guide Enas and drive Rashid were some of the best we have ever had while traveling and helped make the experience even better. If you are ever get the chance to visit Jordan don’t hesitate to do so. Its very safe and a wonderful experience. It was one of the top trips we have been on and is something we will never forget!