Amman · Backpacking

A small budget hotel in the middle of the souk, a few minutes from the Roman Theatre, taking up to about 50 guests and run as something between a hostel and a guest house — breakfast, air conditioning, hot water and a desk that arranges transport. Central enough that you can skip taxis for the downtown sights.

The Ministry of Tourism's own pass bundles entry to more than forty sites — Petra, Jerash, Wadi Rum, the Citadel, Aqaba's castle — and waives the tourist visa fee. It must be bought online before you arrive for the visa element to apply. If Petra is on your itinerary it pays for itself; if you are only seeing Amman, it does not.

Shared taxis and minibuses run fixed routes between the circles, downtown and the outlying stations for a few hundred fils, and are how most of the city moves. There is no printed network map and destinations are shouted or written in Arabic, so ask which vehicle before boarding. Ordinary taxis are metered and still cheap.

Public buses run north to Jerash from Tabarbour North Station for a fraction of a day-tour price, taking under 90 minutes. Go early, agree the return departure before you leave the bus, and be aware that services thin out sharply in the late afternoon and stop entirely on Fridays.

Roughly: 12–20 JD for a dorm or basic double, 1–2 JD for falafel and hummus, 2–4 JD for shawarma or a plate lunch, 0.5 JD or so for a service taxi hop and 2–4 JD for a metered taxi across town, 3 JD for the Citadel. Around 25–35 JD a day covers a frugal stay in Amman — sites elsewhere in the country are what push it up.