We landed in Amman and immediately got it wrong
The taxi driver at Queen Alia Airport was friendly, the fare was 24 JOD, and we thought we were being ripped off. We weren’t. That’s our first lesson from Jordan: everything you think you know about the Middle East, about Arab hospitality, about what a “tourist trap” looks like — recalibrate it at the door.
We’d spent months planning this trip. Spreadsheets, Reddit threads, three different guidebooks. And within about forty-five minutes of arriving in Amman, every assumption we had was being quietly dismantled.
This is the story of our first week in Jordan: what we did, what we got wrong, what surprised us, and what it actually cost.
Day one: downtown Amman and the shock of the hills
Amman is not a city designed for flat shoes. The older western districts — Jabal al-Weibdeh, Jabal Amman, Rainbow Street — sit on a series of steep hills connected by staircases, bridges, and narrow streets that wind between stone houses the color of pale honey. Nobody had told us about the hills.
We dumped our bags at a guesthouse near the third circle (budget pick, clean, about 35 JOD a night for a double including breakfast) and walked. Which is, it turns out, the only right way to start Amman.
The Roman Citadel sits at the top of the highest hill in the older city. Getting there on foot takes about twenty minutes from Rainbow Street and involves at least one wrong turn and the realization that Google Maps here sometimes routes you through someone’s front courtyard. The Citadel itself is worth every step: the Temple of Hercules, an Umayyad palace, and a view over the city that makes the whole grid of white stone buildings stretch out below you like a relief map.
Admission is a few JOD. No tour guides required, though the placards are sparse enough that having one would help.
Hashem and Sufra: two restaurants that explain Amman
We ate lunch at Hashem. If you’ve researched Amman at all, you’ve seen it mentioned. It’s a small downtown restaurant that’s been serving falafel, hummus, fuul, and flatbread since 1952. It doesn’t look like much — plastic chairs, fluorescent lights, open kitchen — and the bill for two people will almost certainly be under 4 JOD. The food is genuinely excellent. We went back three times in four days.
Dinner the next evening was at Sufra, on Rainbow Street, which is Hashem’s opposite in almost every sense. Sufra occupies a restored 1940s villa, has proper cloth napkins and a wine list, and serves classic Jordanian dishes made with unusual care: mansaf, maqluba, freekeh soup. Budget about 18-25 JOD per person with drinks. It’s the kind of place where the food explains the culture — you understand something about Jordan through the layers of flavor in a pot of slow-cooked lamb.
If you can only do one, do both.
The Cantaloupe rooftop: where Amman makes sense
On our second evening, we found the Cantaloupe rooftop bar, tucked into a building in Jabal Amman. This is where Amman’s young professional class goes to watch the sun set over a city that somehow manages to feel ancient and completely contemporary at the same time. The cocktails are good. The mezze is better. The view — over that impossible geography of hills and valleys and minarets — is why you come.
We sat there for two hours and watched the city light up. It cost about 12 JOD each including drinks. It was worth twice that.
If you want to feel the pulse of modern Jordan rather than just the postcard version, the Cantaloupe rooftop is where you start.
Days two and three: Petra, unexpectedly emotional
We’d pre-bought our Jordan Pass (more on that later — worth it if you’re staying three nights or more and hitting multiple sites) which included Petra entry. We drove down from Amman early on day two — leaving by 7am — which put us at the entrance in Wadi Musa by just after 10.
The Siq — the 1.2-kilometer slot canyon that serves as Petra’s entrance — is something that photographs simply cannot prepare you for. The scale is wrong in photos. The quality of light is wrong. The silence is wrong. You walk through this narrow crack in the sandstone, between walls that rise 80 meters above you, and then suddenly there is the Treasury.
We both stopped walking. Neither of us said anything for a minute.
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, is carved directly into the rose-red cliff face in a moment of astonishing architectural confidence. It is 40 metres tall. It was built around the first century BCE as a royal tomb. It is, in person, one of the most extraordinary things we have ever seen.
We spent two full days in Petra. Day one: the main trail to the Treasury, the colonnaded street, the Royal Tombs. Day two: the long climb to the Monastery (Ad Deir), 850 steps up through a landscape that feels increasingly biblical the higher you go. The Monastery is actually larger than the Treasury — it was probably built in the third century BCE — and from the small café at the summit you can see for what seems like half of Jordan.
Petra entry alone is 50 JOD per day without the Jordan Pass. With two days, you can see why the Pass makes financial sense.
From Amman: private day trip to Petra with pickupThe Dead Sea: weirder than you think
After Petra we drove north to the Dead Sea, which took about two hours from Wadi Musa. The Dead Sea is the lowest point on earth — 430 meters below sea level — and is so dense with minerals that you float without trying. You know this fact intellectually before you arrive. You don’t believe it until you sit down in the water and your feet come up.
We stayed at the Mövenpick Resort Dead Sea, which is one of the hotel zone’s more established options. It has private beach access and a pool fed partly by the sea itself. Rooms run from about 160 JOD a night, which feels expensive until you factor in the beach access that would otherwise cost 25-30 JOD per day at public beaches. For a one-night splurge after two days of hiking Petra, it was the right call.
The Dead Sea mud is free. You scoop it from the shore and cover yourself and bake in the sun and then wade in and rinse off and wonder why you don’t live like this all the time. Your skin feels genuinely remarkable afterwards.
The strange fact nobody warns you about: your eyes. Do not splash. Do not dip your face. The salinity (about 34%) makes the water feel like liquid fire on mucous membranes. A gentle float is meditative. An accidental face-dunk is an emergency.
Amman: Dead Sea day tour with optional entry fees and lunchWhat things actually cost (April 2018)
We tracked our spending obsessively because we were writing this up. Here’s what a week actually cost us, per person:
- Flights (not included — depends entirely on origin)
- Accommodation: 35-160 JOD/night depending on hotel (averaged 60 JOD/night pp)
- Jordan Pass (3-day Petra): 80 JOD (includes visa)
- Food: 15-25 JOD/day if eating a mix of Hashem-style and sit-down restaurants
- Petrol (rented a car for 5 days): 8-12 JOD/day fuel
- Car rental: 25 JOD/day (small automatic)
- Incidentals, tips, site fees: 10-15 JOD/day
Total per person over 7 days, roughly 600-700 JOD including accommodation, excluding international flights. That’s somewhere around 850-1000 USD at 2018 rates.
Jordan is not cheap. It’s mid-range, solidly. Budget travelers can do it for less; don’t believe anyone who says 30 USD/day is realistic unless you’re camping and eating only hummus.
What we got completely wrong
We underestimated the driving. The Desert Highway from Amman to Petra is fast and easy — three hours on a good road. But we kept stopping. The King’s Highway is slower but worth it (add an hour at minimum), and we tried to do too much in one day. Build in buffer.
We forgot to bring cash. ATMs exist in every city and large town, but in the Wadi Rum area they’re sparse. The ATMs in Wadi Musa (the town next to Petra) are fine. Carry JOD.
We underestimated the heat. April in Jordan is mild — perfect, actually — but Petra involves 10+ kilometers of walking. Sturdy shoes are not optional. We saw people attempting the Monastery hike in flip-flops. Two gave up halfway.
We brought too many clothes. Jordanians dress conservatively but not punitively so. Cover shoulders and knees at religious sites. For everyday city life and tourist areas, smart casual is fine.
What surprised us most
The ease of it all. We had worried — vaguely, irrationally — about traveling in an Arab country. Every single interaction we had with Jordanians, from taxi drivers to hotel staff to the Bedouin man who offered us tea in the Petra back-country at no charge whatsoever, was warm, generous, and without agenda.
The country has absorbed millions of refugees, sits in one of the world’s most geopolitically complicated neighborhoods, and somehow maintains a social fabric of extraordinary hospitality. That’s not a guidebook platitude. It’s just what we found.
We came back the following year. Then the year after that. This site exists because of that first week.
If you’re planning your own first week, our 7-day Jordan itinerary covers the practical logistics in more detail. The Amman destination guide has hotel and restaurant recommendations updated for 2024. And if you want company for the Amman streets, the walking tour below is run by locals who know which hidden courtyards to find.
Amman city walking tour: local culture, hidden places & foodWe hope you fall in love with it the way we did.