Amman itself is neither a pretty nor interesting city. One day is enough to visit it, but it can be used as the base for exploring the surrounding area. Of course, you can also stay overnight in any of the locations listed below, but we, personally, do not like to move every day and prefer to have a permanent base for a few days (children need a bit of stability). So where can you go for a day trip from Amman?

Jerash is a city located about 50 km north of Amman, which is one of the best-preserved ancient Greco-Roman cities. The city was founded in the 4th century BC by Alexander the Great, and had its most successful perriod during the 2nd century AC. In 749 the city was destroyed by an earthquake, and it was rediscovered only in 1806. The best-preserved and most famous monuments include: the Temple of Artemis, the Temple of Zeus, two theaters (north and south), hippodrome, South Gate, Hadrian’s Arch, the oval Forum and a very long Colonnaded Street and several Christian churches.
To enter the area of ​​the complex, you have to get through the “shopping center”, which is a small bazaar, where every now and then someone will want to sell you something. This is probably the only place where the sellers were really annoying. At the entrance there are also toilets and a restaurant where we were going to eat lunch, but unfortunately there were no dishes on the buffet that would be approved by our children.
To visit the ancient complex took us about 2.5 hours, including countless breaks (for drinking, snacks, hiding from the sun, etc.). It would be very interesting to have a guide with you who would tell you a bit of the history, but with children this is difficult to achieve. However, in the Temple of Artemis, we got carried away by a photo session initiated by one of the local sellers. As a result, we bought a neckless and a bracelet from him, as a “thank you” for the photos he took 🙂
Tomasz and I were very impressed by the entire ancient city, especially the well-preserved theaters. Unfortunately, the children were a bit bored, this is probably not their fairy tale. If you don’t have much time in and around Amman, choose Jerash instead of the capital. The citadel in Amman can’t compare to the temples and theaters of Jerash.
Admission to the ancient city is included in the Jordan Pass, of course parking is free. Unfortunately, we will not recommend you any place for lunch, because as a result we ate chicken and fries in a somewhat random place, where nobody spoke English and unfortunately did not try to communicate with us. But we can recommend the Alhara Alshaamia Sweets confectionery, located very close to the entrance to the archaeological complex.
Additionally, right at the entrance there is an old amusement park, which our children did not want to leave untested 🙂

The Dead Sea, is the most saline water reservoir and the lowest place on Earth. A must-see for all visitors to Jordan (unless you’ve been to Israel before). It is most convenient to use one of the private hotel beaches, because thanks to this we have the possibility to use showers and hotel swimming pools. We went to the Dead Sea Spa Hotel, where for 20 JOD per person (children 5-12 years 10 JOD) we could spend the whole day by the pool, bath in the sea and cover us with a wonderful mud from the bottom of the sea. Unfortunately, there are no towels included in the price and we didn’t bring our own. Towels can be borrowed for 3 JOD (+ 10 JOD deposit), so better bring your own. For 10 JOD, you can also eat a lunch set (salad, main course, e.g. pizza or burger and a drink) at the pool bar.
Gabriela and Adam were of course delighted to be able to use the swimming pool and the water slide for several hours. Only Gabriela dared to enter the sea with us, but she did not use the option of putting mud on her 🙂 Adam categorically refused to float on the water, it was enough for him to wet his legs (including the knee injured a few days earlier) and run away very quickly.

Madaba is a small city located 40 km south of Amman. It was founded by Christians, hence you can find there many churches (Catholic, Orthodox), and today it is famous for its very well-preserved mosaics from Byzantine times.
We visited Madaba on the last day before our departure home and the whole day was too much, but it is definitely worth going there for a few hours (you can combine it with a trip to Mount Nebo or to the Ma’in hot springs). Madaba mosaics can be admired in several places. We started with the Archaeological Park, where we agreed with the children to look for mosaics depicting animals, and we had extra points for finding a horse 😊 It helped us a lot in our sightseeing. We have often wondered for a long time what kind of bird the author had in mind 😊 Right next to the Park you will find the Madaba Institute for Mosaic Art & Restoration, where during two-year studies you can learn to design and create mosaics. Gabriela and Adam got the possibility to try their hand at creating a mosaic! Of course, to cut and arrange the pebbles according to the pattern to create a picture, you need at least a week, but Gabriela was delighted anyway, sticking colorful pebbles to the drawn pattern. Besides, we didn’t leave empty-handed and one of the Madaba mosaics will from now on be decorating our living room.
In addition to the Archaeological Park, we also visited the ruins of St. Apostles and St. Martyrs Church. Unfortunately, we gave up visiting the St. George Church, because the entrance was not included in the Jordan Pass, and we had a hard time with cash. The same thing happened when we reached Mount Nebo (the place from which Moses allegedly saw the Promised Land). It is, of course, my fault that I did not read that entry fee was not included in the Jordan Pass, and the tickets cost 3 JOD per person. So, the end of Madaba’s tour was not very good for us, because of our own oversight 😊
In Madaba, we had the opportunity to eat decent local food in the following restaurants (all of them are located on a small shopping street, which you will surely find while walking around Madaba:
Fokar & bhar restaurant – cheap and good local food
Bawabit Madaba – more expensive, but you can eat on the terrace overlooking the city, according to Gabriela the best spaghetti bolognese she has ever eaten 😊
Jaw Zaman restaurant – tasty, local food, you can eat on the balcony, they have alcohol 😉
We slept in the Mosaik Madaba Hotel, which turned out to be our favorite hotel during our stay in Jordan. We could not find anything negative about it. Very good location within walking distance to all sights. Room and bathroom large and clean. The beds were very comfortable. Tasty breakfast. The staff was very nice and helpful.
An additional attraction for our children a few hours before the night flight was the Gravity trampoline park located in the shopping center opposite our hotel. We paid 8 JOD per person for an hour of jumping (payable only in cash). We were very positively surprised by the service, the children were accompanied by the instructor all the time (Gabriela was translating from English to Adam), and when she lost her bracelet, they were very moved and probably 4 people were digging through the pool with foam cubes to find it (luckily it was found).