Jordan - a beautiful country that many people in the Western Hemisphere do not know about. Ever since Petra became one of the 7 Wonders of the World, the tourism has picked up and more and more people are traveling to this interesting country. We chose to visit Jordan on our Middle East tour, spending twelve days touring around the country. It has a lot to offer all types of people, and the Jordanians were very welcoming.

Safety

When visiting a Middle East country, the word around the globe is that it’s not safe. However, this is not the case when visiting Jordan. Especially as Canadians, we felt very safe in all areas of the country, and welcomed by all the local people. It started right at the airport and continued throughout our entire trip. The local people are a little quieter with their words and gentle in their demeanour. Don't get me wrong, there are always places in all countries and cities that you should avoid, and you can do this by being aware of your surroundings. Both my husband and I have a good sense of what’s happening around us and we can usually tell if we should be leaving any situations. We did not feel this at any time during our stay. Even traveling through many refuge camps and smaller villages, we got the feeling that most people were just going on about their own business.

How To Experience All Of Jordan

For some reason we always seem to arrive in a new country very early in the morning. Our plane landed in Amman at 2:00am and we needed to find our rental car (yes, we drove in Jordan!). Unfortunately we tried to save a buck when booking our rental car and this caused us a few issues. The rental company “Auto Nation” claimed they were located in the airport, but they weren’t. It turned out fine in the end, but it was a little inconvenient to have to be shuttled to another location to pick up our car, and we still had a thirty minute drive to our hotel in Madaba. All in all we were very glad that we had our own car to move us about. Even though Jordan is small country, it is very spread out. Having a car made it easy to get to all the main attractions without the hassle of waiting for a tour bus.

We chose to spend our first few nights in the city of Madaba, located just outside of Amman. It’s location makes it easy to get to a lot of destinations without the hassle of driving downtown Amman, plus the hotel rates were a little cheaper. If you’ve never traveled in a Middle East country, prepare yourself for the standards to be lower than North America. Hotels were cleaner than some other countries, but the hot water doesn’t always work, their isn’t toilet paper in all bathrooms, and there is a lot of rubbish in the streets. After being in the Middle East countries for a month, we have become accustom to these standards, but if you’re arriving in Jordan as your first Middle East country, it may be a bit of a shock.

From our location in Madaba we were able to visit Amman, Jerash, The Baptismal Site of Jesus Christ, Mount Nebo, The Dead Sea and the hot springs in Ma’in. We spent some time in the car getting to each destination, but this was part of the fun!

Jerash

We almost didn’t visit the ancient city of Jerash because my husband and I don’t share the same passion for looking at monuments and ruins. I could visit every ancient city in the world and imagine the footsteps of the people before me and see the city in its glory. Iden on the other hand, while he appreciates visiting ruins, starts to blur them together and see a pile of rocks in front of him! We had agreed before coming to Jordan that we would skip Jerash, but on the plane a local Jordanian talked Iden into going! I’m SOOOOO glad we didn’t miss it!!!

Jerash is a beautiful roman city with so much of it preserved. My favourite part was that there isn’t a huge limitation of where you can go, climb or touch. We spent over four hours walking through the city, taking pictures and really exploring all the separate sections of the city. It was a fairly hot day when we visited, but we found shade and a breeze in one of the amphitheaters so we sat in the ancient seats, visiting, laughing and soaking it all in. It wasn’t overpacked with tourists, so we took our time and enjoyed every minute of it (even Iden!). It’s defiantly a must see, so DON’T skip it.

Amman

As far as Amman goes, we didn’t spend a whole lot of time exploring all the different areas, but we had some fun shopping!!! Amman is known for it’s great shopping malls. We were actually just looking for a grocery store, but when we walked through the doors we had entered a seven floor shopping mall! It had all the American labels, plus the hot Arabic ones, a theme park, grocery store and cinema! We visited a couple of malls, spending some time walking around, checking out some of our favourite stores and enjoyed going to a few movies during our stay.

You might not think of going to a mall on your trip to the Middle East, however, it was a great way to get in with the locals and see what they do during the evenings and weekends.

The Baptismal Site of Jesus Christ, Mount Nebo & The Dead Sea

This might sound like a lot to fit into your trip, but you can actually visit all of these tourist destinations in one day. Whether you are located in Amman or Madaba, it’s an easy drive to each of them and like I said before, the drives in these areas a part of the experience. Our hotel was only fifteen minutes from Mount Nebo, so we chose to start our day there. However we arrived in the opening hour and it was a little foggy to see any distance so we decided to come back at the end of the day. In retrospect, it wasn’t that much clearer later in the day, but we weren’t out any time as we had to drive right by it on our way to our hotel.

It was about a forty minute drive to The Baptismal Site of Jesus Christ from Mount Nebo, but it was an amazing drive down the mountain. Although it was a slow switch back highway, it was neat to see the sights around us. When you get to The Baptismal Site, you have to take a shuttle with a guide to tour you around. It’s a bit of a walk through the pilgrimage path, but along the way you stop at John The Baptists Spring, the Site where Jesus was Baptized and the Jordan River, where you can be baptized in the holy water.

Even though Iden and I do not practice any specific religion, these historical places were great to see. I love being surrounded by people who share passion, no matter what it’s for. The history that comes from these areas are very powerful in the world, and we both felt very blessed to be able to experience them.

After spending our morning touring around the historical areas, we drove to the Amman Beach at the Dead Sea to relax for the afternoon. This is probably to coolest body of water we’ve ever been in! It’s the lowest body of land on earth and the salinity is 34% which makes it almost impossible to stand in the water. When people tell you that you float in the Dead Sea - they aren’t lying!!! As soon as you start to step into the water you can feel your feet and legs having a hard time stepping towards the ground. Only a few feet in you can sit in the water and float without any effort. The water has an oily feel on your skin, and if you have any lesions - be carful!!! The water will help heal them, but you’ll feel the burn! I had a small cut on my leg, and oh boy, I new it was there once it was submerged!

It’s not recommended to spend a long period of time in the water, so we had our fun floating around and then made our way to the showers. You have to pay to get into the beach, so if you’d like you can spend time sunbathing and swimming in the pools. There are a lot of resorts around The Dead Sea, but I don’t think it’s necessary to pay the high price to stay there, unless you are wanting a relaxing resort feel. Don’t miss a visit to it though - it’s an experience like no other!

Hiking

I have to say, the day we spent hiking in Wadi Zarqa goes in the books for being one of the best days of my life. Now you have to like hiking, which I do, and be up for a challenge. Oh ya, you also have to be ready to get wet!

Jordan is known for it’s amazing valleys to hike and climb in and with very little research I found a website that listed a few areas to visit for this. I was intrigued by this spot because it said that you could expect river and waterfalls during the hike. The instructions to find the location to start the trek into the valley was to stop on the side of the Dead Sea Highway where there was a small parking lot and a bridge. So that’s what we did! The entrance was not inviting at all, and if it hadn’t been for one other hiker venturing in, I think we might have turned around (like the two girls that entered before us!)

I’m so glad that we took the risk and dove right in. Literally! The day was filled with climbing over boulders, trenching through rivers and playing in small waterfalls. The water is a hot spring, so it was warm all the way and created steam in some areas. In total we only walked about 8km but there was lots of challenging spots that we had to problem solve in order to keep going. My other favourite thing is that it was just the two of us for almost the entire day. We came across a handful of people, but most did not make it to the end. If you like to hike, I suggest finding a trail that suits your needs. It was a completely tranquil day.

Petra

Now lets be honest, Petra is the main attraction in Jordan. This ancient city did not disappoint us either although the atmosphere did. After fighting your way through the horses, donkeys, camels, and their faeces, you find yourself in a very important ancient city, built like no other.

The most well known attraction is the Treasury, carved out of the sandstone mountain but Petra is so much more. The magnificent sights from Royal Tombs and multiple look outs lends your eye to beautiful facades, caves, and tombs.

We went to Petra three times, each time experiencing a new part of the city. If your up to the challenge you should visit the Monastery when you first get there. It’s an 8km hike, including about 1000 stairs cut into the mountain, but it’s amazing to see the 43 meter high facade and look over the rest of Petra.

Petra at Night is another experience we decided to take part in, and if you decide to include this in your experience be ready for the evening to be anticlimactic. The entire Siq is lined with paper covered candles, lending very little light to guide your way. We found it quite romantic, but it was a struggle for others. It’s hard to see where your stepping and the ground is very uneven. We stopped and helped a woman who fell at the start of the Siq and I’m sure she wasn’t the only one. The best part was there were no horse carriages blasting their way by you, so we were actually able to walk hand in hand all the way to the Treasury. This is where the romantic part of the evening ended. We were one of the first couples to arrive and see the Treasury all lite up, but soon we were bombarded with hundreds of people coming in late, talking loud and flashing their cameras. And the smell was a constant reminder that we were sitting on the ground where the camels and donkeys had defecated all day. As for the show, it was a simple flute player, singer and a flash of light on the facade before they rushed you out. I’m not saying you shouldn’t go, just know that you will pay a high price to get a unimpressive series of events.

After all of that being said, I was sad to leave Petra that night. These are the types of places most people only see pictures of or visit once in a lifetime, so it’s always important to me to make sure I am grateful for being there, even if the people around you create a less desirable atmosphere. I don’t want to discourage anyone from traveling to these sights - just prepare you for the reality that will surround you when you arrive.

Wadi Rum

In the southern part of the country tourists can experience camping in the desert! There are many camps to choose from, all with great locations that are easy to get to by car. Traveling all the way down the main highways was another interesting experience. Most of the highways are in decent condition with gas stations about every 15 minutes. Be prepared to slow down at any moment though because for no apparent reason you’ll find large speed bumps across the highway. It’s also fun to see the different signs such as ‘Camel Crossings’!

Visiting these camps was a great experience. They are set up for anyone to enjoy a bedouin life, with all the modern convinces. Take a camel ride, go on a jeep tour, see the sunrise and sunset along with traditional bedouin food prepared in the traditional way. It was a great way to enjoy nature and relax before leaving the country.

Creating Memories Through Travel

Different people like to travel in different ways. Some prefer all inclusive resorts. Others like to book tours with guides. If you’re like us, you like to find your own way and experience life as the locals do. This is all available to you in Jordan. Just remember that no matter where you travel it’s important to remember that you’re the guest and you should be on your best behaviour. it hurts my heart when I see tourists not following the rules at the attractions and taking pictures and videos of locals at inappropriate times. I too want to capture many moments of my travels through a lens and be tactile with as much as I can, but it’s important to no let that get in the way of just experiencing where you are.

We found lots of moments to take pictures and videos throughout our visit to Jordan so we can share what this country has to offer. More importantly we took lots of opportunities to leave our phones behind and just exist in the moment.