Middle East - Anthony Ham [326]
Royal Yacht Club Restaurant ( 2022404; www.romero-restaurant.com; mains JD6-12; noon-4.30pm & 6-11pm; ) Situated in the Royal Yacht Club, and with views of the marina, this classy Italian restaurant is a romantic place to enjoy a drink and watch the sunset.
Drinking
Al-Fardos Coffee Shop (just off Zahran St; coffee 500 fils) A traditional outdoor café where local men sip coffee, play backgammon and watch Arabic music videos. Foreign women are welcome.
Friends ( 2013466; upper storey, Aqaba Gateway; beer JD2.500-3; 3.30pm-3am) This is a relaxed and friendly place on a breezy terrace. Try the Dizzy Buddah cocktail (JD7); have two, and you may as well sleep over.
Getting There & Away
For information about crossing the border to/from Israel and the Palestinian Territories, Click here.
AIR
Royal Jordanian ( 2014477; www.rja.com.jo; Ash-Sherif al-Hussein bin Ali St; 9am-5pm Sun-Thu) Tickets to Amman cost JD55 one way.
BOAT
For details of boat services between Aqaba and Nuweiba in Egypt, Click here.
BUS & MINIBUS
JETT ( 2015223; King Hussein St) operates buses (JD7, five hours, five daily) to Amman between 7am and 5pm.
Trust International Transport ( 2032200; An-Nahda St) has buses to Amman (JD7.500, four hours, six daily) and Irbid (JD11, 5½ hours, 8.30am and 3.30pm).
Minibuses to Wadi Musa (for Petra), (JD4, two hours) leave when the bus is full between 7am and 2pm; you may have to wait up to an hour for a bus to leave. Otherwise, get a connection in Ma’an (JD2, 80 minutes).
Two minibuses go to Wadi Rum (JD1.500, one hour) at around 6.30am and 11am. Alternatively, catch a minibus towards Ma’an, get off at the turn-off to Wadi Rum at Ar-Rashidiyya and hitch a ride to Rum village.
Minibuses leave from the main bus/minibus station on Ar-Reem St. Minibuses to Karak (JD2, three hours), via Safi and the Dead Sea Hwy, are the exception, leaving from the small station next to the mosque on Al-Humaimah St.
For details about getting to Israel and the Palestinian Territories, Click here.
TAXIS
Chartering a taxi costs at least JD40 one way to Petra (1½ hours) and JD25 to Wadi Rum (one hour).
Getting Around
Handy minibuses (a trip costs around JD1) leave from near the entrance to Aqaba castle on King Hussein St for the Royal Diving Club via the southern beach camps, dive sites and the ferry terminal for boats to Egypt.
JORDAN DIRECTORY
ACCOMMODATION
Jordan offers a range of generally good-value accommodation. In this chapter, budget hotels are defined as those charging less than JD30, midrange hotels as those charging from JD30 to JD80, and top-end as hotels charging above JD80. These prices reflect a double room in peak season (September to October, and from March to early May), generally including breakfast and with a private bathroom, unless otherwise indicated. In Wadi Musa, you can sleep on a hotel roof in summer for around JD3.
The RSCN (Click here) offers some of the country’s most interesting accommodation options in nature reserves. These need to be booked in advance during peak seasons.
Note that holiday weekends are extremely busy in Aqaba and the Dead Sea. Outside these periods in nonpeak seasons, you can often negotiate discounts on published rates.
Some accommodation options offer ‘half board’, which includes bed, breakfast and one main meal.
ACTIVITIES
Diving and snorkelling are popular pastimes in the Gulf of Aqaba – Click here for details.
Hiking is well organised in Dana Nature Reserve, Wadi Rum Protected Area and Wadi Mujib Nature Reserve. Wadi Mujib in particular offers some great canyoning and rappelling. Wadi Rum is the Middle East’s premier climbing destination.
For details of outdoor activities in Jordan’s nature reserves, contact the RSCN.
BOOKS
Lonely Planet offers a detailed Jordan guide.
Seven Pillars of Wisdom, by