Aqaba · Backpacking

A hostel about five minutes from the water and the town centre, with 5-bed dorms at around 12 JD a night including breakfast, air conditioning, privacy curtains, lockers and 24-hour reception; private rooms run about 45 JD. It also sells its own boat and shore snorkelling trips, which is often cheaper than booking separately.

The city sits in its own duty-free zone, which is why alcohol, electronics and cigarettes are noticeably cheaper here than in Amman and why there is a customs check on the road north. Stock up before you leave; there are limits on what you can carry out, and they are enforced at the checkpoint.

The free town beach next to the corniche, busy with Jordanian families, shisha and football, and modest in dress code — women generally swim covered here. It is a good place to spend an evening and a poor place to snorkel; for reef you need the south coast.

The seafront restaurants price for hotel guests; the falafel counters and grills a few streets inland price for the port. The gap on the same meal can be three or four times. The same applies to bottled water and to fruit from the souk versus the beachfront kiosks.

Roughly: 12–20 JD for a hostel bed, 1–3 JD for falafel or a shawarma lunch, 5–10 JD for a downtown fish dinner, 0 JD for the public beach and the shore reef, and a few dinars for a taxi down the south coast. Around 25–30 JD a day without diving — a two-tank boat dive is 60–70 JD on its own, so one day in the water roughly triples the daily figure.