I can’t believe that I can finally write these words. We made it! We are in Jordan! Our last trip outside the EU was Oman in 20219, where we fell in love with the desert and numerous wadis. I wonder if Jordan will also manage to steal our hearts?

Our plan is, as always, to visit as much as possible. We will visit ancient sites in Amman and Jerash, admire mosaics in Madaba, we will take a dip in the Dead Sea and Red Sea, of course we will visit the famous ancient Petra and spend the night in the Wadi Rum desert.
We rented a car for the whole 12 days. We took advantage of the Rent a Reliable Car offer, which was already recommended by one of travelling and blogging families that we follow. We pay $25 a day for a Kia Cerato. We hope that it will work for us 😉
We will stay in several different places, we’ll post the details on our return. As always, we booked all hotels via booking.com

We flew to Amman with Austrian airlines with a layover in Vienna. We know that flights via Istanbul are popular, but we don’t know the details. 3 weeks before departure, we had a rather unpleasant situation as we received information that our return flight had been canceled. Initially, our option was to fly at 3 am with an 11 hour connection in Vienna … or to cancel the flight altogether. Fortunately, we managed to find another solution, which means extending the holiday by 1 day, but at least we will not spend the whole day in Vienna (i.e. the 11 hour option in Vienna itself is not bad, but not necessarily after a short overnight flight).

The rules related to traveling to Jordan in the current situation can be found here. As of today, the mandatory PCR test must be performed no earlier than 72 hours before the flight (children under 5 excepted, so we managed with Adam who is literally 2 weeks from that point) and the second test is to be taken at the airport in Amman, from which all vaccinated are released. Unfortunately, Gabriela had to be tested a second time. The test at the airport costs 28 JOD and must be paid for before departure. The testing itself is very fast and the result is sent to the e-mail after a few hours. In addition, you must register on this website and generate QR codes, fill out a health declaration (which no one collects or checks) and show your health insurance confirmation. There is a bit to do, but the most important thing is that there is no quarantine 🙂 The test results, vaccination and insurance confirmation were checked in detail at the airport in Vienna, while in Amman itself, we only had to queue up in the “vaccinated” or “PCR” line.

You must have a valid visa to enter Jordan. From what I have read, there is an option of a free visa if we arrange it somehow in Aqaba, but I do not fully understand what the purpose is if we want to do a lot of sightseeing. It is worth knowing that even before departure to Jordan, you can obtain a Jodan Pass, which gives you not only “free” entry to all main tourist attractions in Jordan (Wadi Rum, Petra, Jerash etc.), but also exempts us from the visa fee. Considering that a one-day admission ticket to Petra costs 50 JOD, and a Jordan Pass with just such admission costs 70 JOD, the calculation is simple. Jordan Pass can be purchased in 3 options, depending on how many days we are planning in Petra. Children under 12 years of age do not pay admission to any attractions, but require a visa (40 JOD per person), which can be paid at Amman airport.

All formalities at the Amman airport (Gabriela’s PCR test, visa purchase, passport control and additional scanning of luggage after its collection) took us about 1 hour. Then, fortunately, a gentleman from the car rental company was waiting for us. The airport itself is about 40 km from the center of Amman, so we were in the hotel more than 2 hours after our arrival. In the evening we only had time and energy for dinner.