A Journey to Jordan, Jerusalem and Istanbul

Introduction

From 25th of August to 17th September 1998 me and my boyfriend Ralph travelled to Jordan. We were guided by the book "Jordan & Syria - a travel survival kit" by lonely planet. Since I found some of the information out of date I decided to put this diary on the web although there are several travelogues about the region already.

I hope that these pages are of some use to you as a supplement to your guidebook. Of course I cannot be made responsible for any loss, injury or inconvenience sustained by any person using the information contained in this travelogue (that's the disclaimer). Anyway all information is as correct as possible, but things can change - especially the prices and exchange rates.

So why Jordan? I've been travelling to Israel in 1991 and to Egypt and Israel again in 1992. I enjoyed those trips very much, especially the one to Egypt, and so I always wanted to go back to the Middle East once more. Unluckily my studies kept me away from travelling for a while. After finding a job I didn't have the possibility to take a holiday long enough for both Syria and Jordan, so we decided for Jordan after having heard the enthusiastic reports from several of our friends. And, although my expectations were really high, we were not disappointed at all. The hospitality of the people is just overwhelming. And Jordan offers a lot - fantastic desert sceneries, historical ruins and even a swim in the sea for the beach-fans. I liked it even more than Egypt - it's less crowded, less dirty and noisy and there are (not yet) too many tourists.

I tried to write down the names of the places where we went in arabic letters, so this might be a help when looking for the right bus. I checked the spelling with a friend of ours, so I hope they are correct. If not, please give me a message - I will be very grateful for all other (bad English, typos, layout...) too.
You will find an overview over the hotel prices, transportation and entrance fees among the tips. Things which will probably apply to Germans only are marked with a small German flag .

If you want to read the diary offline, you may download the zipped version (about 60 kB) - just unpack all the files into a single directory.

Getting started

Visa

You will need a visa when going to Jordan. Usually you can get one at the border without any problems. Since we planned to go to Jerusalem from Amman we would have had to buy the entrance visa 2 times, so we got double entry visa before we went to Jordan.

Germans can get those at the embassy in Bonn or at the consulate in Berlin (Honorarkonsulat des Haschemitischen Königreichs Jordanien, Pfalzberger Str. 74, 10717 Berlin, Tel. 030-8852311). They will fax or send you the forms, so you may easily get the visa by snail mail without having to go there. A single-entry visa (3 months valid) costs DM 20.00, the double-entry (3 months valid) DM 40.00 and a multiple-entry (6 months valid) DM 80.00.

Be aware that you will get a stamp into your passport at the Jordan border, which says that you should contact the next police station within two weeks. This is supposed to be the visa for staying in Jordan, which nobody told us. If you don't do this they will make you pay JD 1 for each day you stayed longer at the exit. We were not aware of this and in the hotel they said we shouldn't worry about the stamp - but then the police made us pay the penalty when we went to Jerusalem (so we were lucky doing so - it would have been much more expensive otherwise).

Getting there

We flew with Turkish Airlines, which is one of the cheap possibilities. We had to change in Istanbul both ways, but the flight from Berlin to Amman and back was only about DM 750.00. There are a few cheaper airlines, but most of them were sold out, and only TAROM (Romanian Airlines) had some seats left. Due to my experiences from 1992 I did not want to fly with this one. Turkish Airlines was okay, and anyway it was nice to have 3 days left for Istanbul at the end of the trip.

Medicine

At the moment you don't need any inoculations before going to Jordan.

Money

As always I took my money with me - as US$-traveller cheques. There were no problems to change them, although not all moneychangers accept them. Usually the next one will. I don't know if you can use your credit card for getting money, you can pay with it only at a few places.

I even changed some Dinar for getting to Amman from the Airport.

If you are from Germany - don't do it, it's pure robbery. In Germany I got JD 1.00 for DM 3.00, while in Jordan I would have paid only DM 2.50 despite the high Dollar - it was DM 1.80 when we went (it was DM 1.68 when we came back - this happened to me every time when travelling with dollars).

Currencies and rates

Okay, let's go to Jordan!