May it be a future lesson to not wait 6-and-a-half-years to start a blog post. I did write an introduction (all one page of it) in July 2019 which has helped a bit with the costs but apart from that it will be very off the cuff! Thankfully the photographs will do the trip justice, even though I had already edited them years prior and rather peeved that I no longer have the originals to do a better job with them this time around.

Jordan is nestled in amongst some…. more volatile… countries should I say? It borders Israel, Iraq, Syria and Saudi Arabia yet is one of the more peaceful countries in the region. Jordan is a 97% Muslim country although I did see some signs of Westernisation if you want to call it that. Tourists are well looked after and many young girls and women (especially in the modern shopping centres in Amman) can walk around without head coverings. It’s location also means it has close links with Christianity being a stones throw away from Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

This holiday was our first time visiting the middle-east and we have only really visited Egypt that has been somewhat similar. It can be a very big culture shock. Looking back in the summer of 2025, I cannot believe that we achieved so much with loose plans and no pre-arranged travel before we left on 27th December.

The day before (Boxing day watching Newport lose 4-1 with a few drinks), I was terrified that out trip wouldn’t even get off the ground, literally, as we had problems checking in to our flights. Having spent an hour on the phone, half-cut no doubt, the Turkish Airlines rep told us just to turn up at the airport and all will be fine. I must have had more resilience in my younger years as I would melt over the worry today!

Costs

We booked the flights and accommodation with Expedia, having been pleased with their offerings for our other annual big trips to New York, Toronto and Hong Kong over the past three years. Their website only appears to hold booking history for five years, but I’m certain we didn’t get much change out of £1,500 for return flights from London to the capital Amman and a really budget apartment for two people. I have looked for the same dates in December 2025 and remarkably (I’m genuinely amazed), the prices are somewhat similar as of August 2025.

This is where the price breakdown gets a bit ropey but I would add an extra £1,000 on to this for spending, trips and activities. You can’t be staying in Amman all week. I’ll include these along the way if that’s alright with you?

Day Zero… is here just to note that this day was spent flying from London to Amman via Istanbul, which took most of the day!

Day One – Amman

We arrived at the very modern and spotless Amman airport and queued to get our Visas (no need to get Visa’s beforehand in 2018 but check!) paying £20-40 for the privilege, and a very pretty passport stamp.

We pre-booked a taxi costing £30, which was a masterstroke in hindsight as there is no public transport and we exited the terminal at 3am! It was roughly a 30-45 minutes drive into central Amman to arrive at our apartment.

Al Jazeera Hotel Apartments (link) were indeed very cheap and we didn’t expect the Ritz but shower taps hanging off the wall, a broken bed and a portable gas heater were definitely not included in the brochure! I’ve finally turned a corner in terms of accommodation and very much use the “get what you pay for” mantra worldwide.

After a delayed start due to a sensible lie in, we headed to the number one site in Amman, being the citadel. We were a good two mile away that required a walk downhill, only to be presented with a steep hill to climb to get up to our destination. With no obvious route up we finally gave in to one of HUNDREDS of taxis who drove nearby and honked at the obvious tourists. A quid or two well spent meant we were at the citadel.

The Amman Citadel towers over downtown and considered to be towards the top of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited places with evidence dating back over 3800 years. There are several structures still visible from the Roman, Byzantine and Umayyad period.

The major remains at the site are the Temple of Hercules (the arch thing), a Byzantine church, and the Umayyad Palace. My photo’s here are not very intuitive I admit. Umm what else… entry was around £2-3 each!

After a good time seeing the scale of the capital, which we really wouldn’t scrape the surface of, we made our way to the Roman theatre pictured above.

There was some exhibition on in one of the two museums but we were more interested in scaling the steps, built in to the hill for a few photos.

I’m not sure what we did afterwards apart from arrange buses and accommodation that would take us to Petra and Wadi Rum on days 3 and 4. The bus company I remember being called JETT, but there was no way to book online or anything like that! We managed to find their nearest outlet, thankfully close to our hotel, and bought our 3 lots of paper tickets and a hand drawn map of where the departure point will be… all of which pre-dated the concept of Race Across the World!

That evening we visited the nearby very modern shopping mall, complete with Christmas tree, for some food. One of the memories of the trip was the Szechuan chicken and rice dish I had from an outlet that evening, as it would completely ruin tomorrow…

Day Two – Jerash

Back before now where I’ll always carry an emergency Immodium or eight, that evening was terrible with S&D, which would continue to the next morning and a ride to the northern city of Jerash that we arranged with the hotel.

Jerash is 30 miles north of Amman so very accessible for a day trip. Apart from the drive to the ancient Roman city (known as Gerasa) we didn’t visit anything else here. Interestingly given it’s historical importance, I am surprised it is not in the top 10 largest cities in Jordan… a paltry 50,000 inhabitants compared to 4 million of Amman!

Nevertheless, it is second to only Petra in terms of visitor numbers.

I was really grateful that Mikayla chose to ditch me on a bench whilst she went to explore the site that had I felt more lively, would have been really interested in.

The sites to see in the archaeological city include two outside theatres, a well-preserved former fountain, remains of a cathedral, the oval plaza (I’m in the middle of this below), a hippodrome and Hadrian’s Arch (pictured above) built in year 129.

I especially liked the avenue of pillars “Colonnaded Street” also pictured above, obviously looking back not enough to get me to walk any further than absolutely necessary though. As it was, some time during these photos I was sick just out of the way of a coach load of tourists. That’s probably a criminal offense.

We almost certainly cut our trip short via the toilets for way too long. I could not wait to get back to my broken bed quick enough!

That evening, after several hours sleep, I did manage to venture out to the nearby King Abdullah I Mosque and Parliament buildings, delighted not to have any embarrassing experiences.

Afterwards we again visited the shopping mall for an easy dinner. There was no way I was having anything other than a trusty McDonald’s tonight though, with an early bus to Petra waiting in the morning.

Day Three – Petra

Not recalling what time we set off for Petra, we arrived after the three-hour coach trip in the morning. There is a car park by a sizeable visitor centre on the edge of the small town where you get your tickets.

Upon entry, I think it was a good 25-35 minute walk between the valleys, itself rather picturesque. The walk (or donkey or camel if you prefer – they seemed well looked after) takes little effort knowing what you are walking towards, it was incredibly exciting, I’m surprised I took the time to take the photo below on the approach.

Yes, you do get to see the main event straight off the bat but we spend most of the day walking around the site.

The Treasury is unsurprisingly one of the Wonders of the World, and perhaps the one that is most off the beaten track in terms of tourism. Indeed, looking at a reference way back in 2001 from New7Wonders Foundation it was 7th of seven. As a way of introducing a fun fact – it receives less than 10% of visitors compared to the 10 million per year Great Wall of China from multiple sources I have investigated.

If you were a 90’s kid like me, you probably thought of this photo from the Indiana Jones film The Last Crusade and had no idea it actually existed or where. Jordan wasn’t a country, it was Katie Price’s model name…

It is thought that The Treasury, or Al-Khazneh in Arabic, was built as a mausoleum and crypt at the beginning of the 1st century. Entrance is forbidden but I believe it is just an empty room through the door – that we know of.

From here you take another narrow passageway to the right of the Treasury which eventually opens up to display more of the ancient city of Petra, with a few stalls and facilities.

As appealing as free Wifi and Gatorade may be, it was nothing compared to the rock faces surrounding the open plain that itself had some ruins. You could probably spend a week here searching every nook.

The Byzantine Church and Nabatean theatre were hard to miss, but we did annoying fail to walk out far enough to visit The Monastery or Ad Deir, which is Petra’s largest monument.

A full day exploring a Wonder of the World will set you back 50 Jordanian Dollars or £60/US$70 each (2025 prices) and worth every grain of dirt or sand you set foot upon.

Following our long day, we had booked a LUXURIOUS – in comparison – hotel in Petra before continuing our trip onwards to the Wadi Rum dessert tomorrow. New Years Eve 2018 into NYD 2019 was spent in the Tetra Tree Hotel for just £54 a room plus £20 each for their New Years buffet and entertainment.

This was also our 10th year anniversary of being together!

Magical. And we weren’t done yet!

Day Four – Wadi Rum

I must admit out of the whole trip, this half a day or so is the foggiest six years later. I recall bring very nervous at the Petra bus stop thinking “how on Earth are these coaches all going to arrive/depart on time” and we had very little idea where we will be without phone signal. The transport did turn up, with very little stress, and before we knew (or I remember) we were at the border of the Wadi Rum desert some two hours south of Petra.

A lot of the country is desert but this place did have a different feel about it. Proper in the middle of nowhere. At the border you kinda have to pay a toll to enter the site and in to a small village. I have no recollection of how we managed to get from there to our campsite, but I am assuming our hosts came to pick us up, arranged over a buffet lunch using Wifi.

If you try looking for our camp for the night on Google Maps, don’t bother. There are dozens and the whole place looks the same! And there’s no sodding street address in site! Fun fact: to find this place on Google I used actual coordinates for the first time ever!

One night in the “Wadi Rum Baudouin Campsite” – does what it says on the tin eh? – cost just £64 for a tent and dinner. Looking now it is double the price for NYD 2026 but still so worth it. I’ve managed to find their own website (link) and notice they’ve refreshed the tents since 2018.

One thing we weren’t expecting, was the toilet and washing facilities, but they were spot on and shared with say max 20 other guests.

With the travel both to the desert, then onto camp, there weren’t a lot of daylight hours left. We climbed the small rock ahead of my very chilled feet on the picture below….

… before climbing the rock at the rear of the campsite. Fun fact: The photo below is one of my favourite photo’s ever taken.

Here was also the site for this baby-faced partial bonk-eyed photo below. It has been my profile picture on most things for 5+ years I think. And now with much shorter (and silver coloured) hair, I’ll be clinging on to it for as long as I can!

With the sun now rapidly disappearing behind the horizon it was time for tea as we congregated with other guests in a big tent. We actually got to watch them place chicken pieces on racks into a hole into ground to cook and by the time we had some tea and checked our phones it was dinnertime!

OK, I’m a lot less picky with food nowadays so would now have tried a bit of everything available, but it was still a pleasing offering (don’t worry this wasn’t the only plateful).

After food and a fireside chat we headed back to our tent as daylight slowly faded. One thing I don’t mind not capturing were the stars that night. You can’t see many stars at home because of light pollution. There was no danger of light pollution in the middle of a desert. Nothing like I have ever seen before, so my crap 2018 camera phone would not have done it justice.

Day Five – Wadi Run & Aqaba

After the second night’s good sleep on the trot, we enjoyed the simple but ample breakfast buffet before arranging a 4×4 tour with the hosts. We weren’t definitely going to do this, but so glad we did. The tour lasted around 6 hours and we split the cost with two Finnish people Netta and Toni that Mikayla still has as friends on Facebook.

Before taking on this increasingly daunting task of this blog, I did often try and research specific places we visited on our desert tour. With Wadi Rum being a protected area covering 720 square kilometres, it is an impossible task that no doubt put me off several times. I’ll just try and blag it using a photo of a map I took at the time, but as you can see, the sights were plentiful, and outstanding.

Firstly we headed into a crevice of a rock formation. I think the photo makes it look more dangerous than it was. At the end there was a little spring with super clear water. I think it is called Khazali Canyon.

Next was this bizarre rock formation. It might not look it from the photo but it was a good 50 meters up and I was very proud I managed to get up there whilst the rest of the gang chilled in the little cafe.

Bizarre in a different way, next our driver dropped us off here, and told us he’d be waiting at the other side. I’m surpsied I found this on the map and believe it is called Abu Khasaba Canyon.

No problem we thought, until we found out the path actually involved a LOT of rock climbing and descending. Anyone ever watched 127 hours?

We met back up with our driver (who was later than us so a short spell of panic ensued!) and had lunch, I forget what it was, next to this mushroom looking rock…. which is called Mushroom Rock. Looking at recent photos online it doesn’t look quite the good nowadays.

… whilst trying to take it ALLLLL in.

Our final stop before the camp return was to Lawrence’s House. Apparently this rock was a base for Lawrence of Arabia which was pretty cool. I took a few photos of these silly rock towers but I recall it was quite a large site with some caves etc.

What a view. If you look closely you can pick out two jeeps to the left and at the bottom, our two Finnish pals and my girlfriend-turned-wife. Cute.

After we returned to camp to collect our bags and say our goodbyes, we had one final stop at Lawrence’s Spring. Over the years the locals have created a river down the rock to go into streets that feed the camels. Impressive, but all you get is photo of said camels.

And a tree, somehow thriving, in the middle of nowhere?!

Now that our jeep tour ended, we popped in to the village to pay for it (I think it was £50 each for two people, but £40 as we were a group of 4 and prices are similar today on their website).

Another blurry moment now sorry, getting from the desert border and onto Aqaba on the southern tip of Jordon.

Google Maps tells me this is only a one hour drive, which makes sense looking at the shadows in the tree photo above (hark at ol’ Bear Grylls over ‘ere….) as it was night-time once we arrive.

Fun Fact: The entirety of Jordan’s coastline is in the south, either side of Aqaba with a length of just 26 kilometres, but before 1965 their coast was a paltry SEVEN kilometres long. They struck a deal with neighbouring Saudi Arabia to obtain 6,000 square km extending the coast to the current length, handing over 7,000 square km in the trade.

Aqaba was something we had yet to experience, a very touristy hotspot, and not just for Jordanians given there was a Coronation Street themed bar literally over the road from the bus station!

I’m baffled as to why I took so few photos, even though we would only be here for a few hours. We had a chance to walk along the beach/promenade and back looking out at the extremely clear waters.

Perhaps a little embarrassingly, my favourite part of Aqaba was the absolute feast we had in a Turkish restaurant that evening as we hadn’t eaten since our minimal breakfast back in the desert. I can’t recall leaving anything(!) and afterwards we waited for our early morning bus back to Amman and our shithole apartment. Yay…

Day Six – Sleep and Amman

I reckon our bus from Aqaba departed around 1am and we got back to Amman around 7am.

Today is going to be very short. After the bus we went to bed, waking up early afternoon in search for lunch on Rainbow Street. We chose this street because apparently it was “a vibrant and colourful hub nestled in the heart of Amman”, but in all honesty, it wasn’t that colourful or enticing after we had lunch.

I can only think that we sorted out our trip to the Dead Sea tomorrow with the apartment that afternoon/evening before again choosing the shopping mall for tea (part of me thinks I stupidly had the Szechuan chicken again but I’m alive to tell the tale).

Mad that we did so little in a day, but we more than made up for it across the week.

Day Seven – Mount Nebo and the Dead Sea

Don’t worry folks this is the last proper day! But a good one.

I forget how much we paid for our hosts mate to drive us around today (under £100 I imagine)… whatever it was it was worth it as we’d not only get to visit the Dead Sea, but would enjoy a trip to Mount Nebo beforehand and a relaxing swim and buffet lunch too.

Mount Nebo is only an hour’s drive from Amman and 700m above sea level. According to the bible, it is the place where Moses was granted a view of the Promised Land before his death.

The place is well equipped for visitors with toilets, café bar and gift shops etc and you can also visit the Memorial Church of Moses here. I didn’t take any photo’s but recall it was kind of a modern external building but with considerable ancient remains inside. We managed to pick up a Christmas decoration here (we collect one from everywhere) and God, or Moses himself, only knows where else we would have been able to find one!

We were obviously attracted to the towering sculpture near one of the edges. I’m going to unapologetically steal a description of said sculpture… The Brazen Serpent is “symbolic of the miracle of the bronze serpent invoked by Moses in the wilderness (Numbers 21:4–9) and the cross upon which Jesus was crucified (John 3:14)“.

Just alongside the sculpture was a map in front of the panoramic view of said ‘promised land’. I found this really insightful and showed the significant of the area more than just a really good view.

In total we only needed to spend an hour at Mount Nebo. We then hit the road for 30 minutes to the shores of the Dead Sea. The road was continuously downhill and winding if I remember.

Most accessible areas around the Dead Sea are privatised and for the best experience it is recommended that you pay for the privilege of getting close to the sea.

This area was nothing like I had imagined. I expected streets of hotels and bars etc along the shore but in reality you have hotels dotted around set back from the shore. Our driver played a blinder by choosing the Ramada Resort by Wyndham as this even offered a small bus to transfer you from hotel to sea. I found it bizarre that we had pretty much the whole area to ourselves and was able to “mud up” before washing off in the sea.

A REALLY cool fun fact: The Dead Sea is the lowest point on the Earth’s surface, at 414 meters below sea level. That’s a difference of 1,100 metres from Mount Nebo!

The reason it is called the “Dead” sea is due to the high levels of salt in the water, the highest of any body of water in the world. The result of this is that it is impossible for anything other than bacteria to survive.

During our half-our swim / float it was quite a surreal experience for me as an OK swimmer. If you lay flat on your back or front it is really difficult to move your legs under the water to stand up straight! In comparison, Mikayla, who is a novice swimmer at best, was more than happy to just float around knowing it would have been impossible to sink! Good fun.

The cherry on top of the trip was having our muddy salty selves transported back to the hotel for an outsider shower and a more normal swim in the swimming pool. Admittedly it was the 3rd January but I expected to share the area with more than two other guests.

After a relaxing hour here, we moved in to the restaurant for an impressive buffet lunch offering before driving back to Amman.

After we arranged our transfer to the airport tomorrow, I’m really at a loss as to what he had for tea on our last night. It would have been nice to go somewhere traditional and memorable, but we didn’t, and if I had to guess I’d say we headed back to the bloody shopping mall!

Day 8 – Jordan to Home

Today was simply an early morning flight direct back to London via Istanbul. Apparently I didn’t take any photos so can only assume everything went to plan! Having now visited both Istanbul airports SAW is a lot cheaper than IST!

Things we didn’t do…

I am glad we hit all of the top sights (Petra, Wadi Rum and Dead Sea) whilst adding a bit of Amman, Aqaba and Jerash, plus the visit to Mount Nebo, which mangled together, made Jordan one of our best trips ever. As I’m writing this in August 2025, it’s even up there with our mammoth South American honeymoon (you can read this here).

If we had another day we would have looked at visiting Israel, but as our itinerary was loosely planned already we didn’t look into this much. This obviously would not be encouraged in 2025 and it’s also worth noting that you may experience difficulties at border control in many middle-eastern countries with an Israeli stamp in your passport.

I would have liked to explore Amman a bit more, which would have been achieved if either our digs were centrally located or I wasn’t ruled out for so long hugging the toilet!

Thanks for reading!