Travelogue on Jordan: FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF JORDAN
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT OUR ENTIRE ITINERARY AND OUR EXPENSES IN JORDAN – see TRAVEL TO JORDAN.
“Kids, pack your bags—we’re leaving in two days!”
Some people experience immense happiness and joy when they travel and find themselves in the place they’ve been dreaming of. Others, however, feel that same sense of excitement even while planning the trip, as they search for information and great deals. I’m definitely one of the latter, and I absolutely love planning trips….. This trip to Jordan, however, was unlike any other, because we booked tickets today for… two days from now. In this travelogue about Jordan, you’ll find out how this happened and how our last-minute trip came together.
I’ve wanted to visit Jordan for a long time, and generally speaking, plane tickets there aren’t expensive—they range from about 25 to 40 euros round-trip. BUT on the eve of our 10th wedding anniversary, I quickly checked the Ryanair website and found that there were tickets for 5 euros each way—how could I not take them? That’s 20 BGN for a round-trip flight! We bought the tickets on Friday evening, and we were set to travel on Sunday. The dates were December 15–18, 2019. There was a brief discussion with my husband about whether to travel just the two of us or take the kids with us, and in the end we decided: Kids, pack your bags—we’re leaving in two days!
In reality, though, we only had one morning to pack, since we had a personal commitment in Sofia the next day, so on Saturday we gathered whatever we could, each with one backpack, and headed for Sofia. We spent the night there, spent the next day exploring the capital, and headed to the airport that evening.
Our flight to Aqaba on Ryanair departed at 5:35 p.m. and landed in Jordan a little earlier than scheduled—around 8:00 p.m. The plane was filled exclusively with Bulgarians who had set out to follow in the footsteps of the Nabataeans.
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VISAS, CURRENCIES AND JORDAN PASS
When entering the country through the airport in Aqaba, Bulgarian citizens do NOT need a visa. You simply go through passport control, and flights to Aqaba are usually cheaper. However, if you enter Jordan through the airport in the capital, Amman, you’ll need a visa, which costs 25 JOD (about 63 BGN).
You have the option to purchase the JORDAN PASS, which costs between 70 and 80 JOD depending on the package you choose, and each one includes a free visa (which otherwise costs 25 JOD), free admission to Petra (the ticket is otherwise 50 JOD), and access to other free attractions. So if you plan to stay in Jordan for more than 3–4 days, be sure to buy the JORDAN PASS.
To make currency conversions easier, simply convert the Jordanian dinar to the Bulgarian lev, just as you would the lira to the lev. The exchange rate is roughly the same. For example, 1 dinar is 2.40 leva. Be sure to check the current exchange rate before you leave to avoid any unpleasant surprises.
It’s a good idea to buy a local SIM card, even though there’s free Wi-Fi in many places, as well as in every taxi. The price for 10 GB is about 10 dinars, and you can purchase it by presenting your passport both at airports in Jordan and at various stores in the cities.
Welcome to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan! / This is the country's full name./
General Impressions of Jordan
There are NO shuttle buses from Aqaba Airport to downtown Aqaba. You can only get there by taxi; the fare is about 10 JOD for the entire ride one way. We paid an extra 3 JOD to have the driver drop us off right in front of the hotel, since the street signs, hotel signs, and everything else were in Arabic, and we couldn’t make heads or tails of them.
We received an exceptionally warm welcome from the staff at our hotel in Aqaba. It wasn’t exactly a hotel, but rather a few private apartments in a shared building—ArwaHotel Apartments. They were very accommodating, and even when we tried to tip them (something we either never do or innocently forget), they refused to take the tip. WOW!
They let us keep the entire router in our room so we’d have a good enough Internet connection, since we decided not to buy a separate SIM card. The apartment was clean enough (by my standards of Arab cleanliness), with comfortable beds and modern furnishings. Only the bathroom needed some renovation, but it was okay. We had towels, toiletries, and a refrigerator at our disposal. Oh yeah, I almost forgot—and a huge terrace overlooking the main coastal street in Aqaba. The price for two nights was 150 BGN.
The streets were very well lit everywhere. We didn’t notice this at night, but during the day we saw that the streets themselves weren’t particularly clean or well-maintained. The locals have planted palm trees and flowers in some spots along the boulevards and in the gardens to escape the desolation that otherwise surrounds them.
Just as in Aqaba, so too in the rest of Jordan, we felt safe. The people here are devout Muslims; although they do not dress entirely in the Arab style, they consider crime a sin and simply do not commit it. And they hold the King of Jordan in high esteem.
As a country with few natural resources and no oil fields, Jordan relies primarily on two types of mining—one for minerals and salts from the Dead Sea, and the other for phosphates in the desert. Jordan has two climates—Mediterranean in the northern part and desert in the southern part of the country, where Aqaba is located. The Mediterranean climate is so favorable for agriculture that crops are harvested up to four times a year! (For example, a crate of tomatoes costs 1 dinar, which is the same as ½ kg of tomatoes in Bulgaria. 1 dinar = $1.43 = 1.80 BGN.)
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FOOD PRICES IN JORDAN
Food prices in Jordan are extremely low, but you need to know where to look. Keep in mind that, just like anywhere else in the world, prices near popular tourist attractions are double or triple the usual rate. For example, at the entrance to Petra, a pizza costs between 12 and 15 Jordanian dinars, while in Aqaba, you can easily find one for 6 or even 3 dinars. When we tallied up our expenses from the trip, it turned out we spent only 85 dinars on food for the four days in Jordan—and that was for two adults and two children!
On the main coastal boulevard in Aqaba, there are several fast-food restaurants (such as Aladin Foods) offering full meals with meat, rice, potatoes, and vegetables for 2–4 dinars—which is practically free, considering that one serving is more than enough to feed two people. There’s also a McDonald’s, which has an indoor play area.
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GETTING AROUND IN JORDAN
There are 3 main ways to get around Jordan – by bus (organized transportation, tour), by rental car, or by taxi (private driver).
– BUS. If there are one or two of you, it’s best to get around by bus. There are regular bus shuttles from Aqaba to Petra and from Petra to the Wadi Rum desert, and the fare is 12–15 JOD per person one way. For example, we took the bus to Petra, and it cost us 18 JOD per person round-trip. The bus company was called JETT. We bought the tickets from Viator.
– CAR RENTAL. Well, I suppose this is also a very affordable option when there are four people in the car, but we didn’t have any time to plan ahead or shop around for deals, so we can’t comment on this mode of transportation.
– TAXI. Taking a taxi is a great deal and even cheaper than taking the bus when there are four of you, as was the case with us. Not only is it much more comfortable, but you can also tell the driver exactly where to drop you off. You can arrange for a driver to take you to different places around Jordan, and he’ll give you a discount. Every taxi has free Wi-Fi. In Jordan, the rule is “If you have a car, you’re a taxi driver,” so don’t be surprised if people offer you rides everywhere on the streets. Jordan is a place for haggling. So go ahead and haggle—that’s what people expect from you, and you can easily knock down the price to as little as half of the initial asking price.
Some of the taxi fares we paid during our stay in Jordan:
From Aqaba to the Wadi Rum Visitor Center – 30 dinars one way
From Aqaba to South Beach – 10 dinars one way
From Aqaba Airport to downtown Aqaba – 10 dinars one way
From Aqaba to the border with Israel – 8 dinars one way
TO THE NEXT TRAVELOGUE ABOUT JORDAN – PETRA – The Kingdom of the Nabataeans and one of the Seven Wonders of the World
