TRIPS AROUND JORDAN

hi mom!!

Sorry, we never used a tour company, but I'm sure that most will do you well. October is a fine time to visit, still warm enough to swim in the Dead Sea, yet cool enough to make Petra bearable. Have a great time!

Magic Carpet Ride, I should have followed up on your 2/4/07 comment but frankly forgot about this website until I got notice of a new post. My wife finally got comfortable with a Jordan trip after talking to a Jordanian doctor at work. I'm sure your post helped too, but having his contact information and hearing directly from him about the safety issues really did the trick. As I predicted when trying to talk her into the trip, it was one of the best trips of her life and she talks about it frequently. She even admitted to me that she was wrong to be afraid and that I was right about what a great vacation it would be - that's really saying something! We arrived after dark and picked up the rental car at the airport. I had a good city map of Amman but wasn't aware of how the traffic circles worked or where to get off the highway to go through the city. I had visions of driving around Amman all night but we saw a hotel that we located on the map. While we were stopped trying to get our bearings a hotel worker walked by and I asked him where the Marriott was. He really didn't know but suggested we go to the Medina Circle and ask there. Since he pointed in a general direction I just did a u-turn and started winding through city streets in that general direction. After a few minutes my wife saw a hotel that I recognized as being about a block away from the Marriott. I'd actually scouted out this hotel on Google Earth since it had a Rotary meeting while we were there and looked to be within walking distance of the Marriott. Sure enough I drove another block and we saw the Marriott. All-in-all we spent less than 15 minutes looking for the hotel once we got into the city. I drive many places in the world and don't have any problems because I quickly learn the local rules of the road and go native. After a couple of days we even learned our way around western Amman and had no problems going out to eat, shop or to the closest Safeway. We spent two weeks in Jordan and saw every major tourist attraction and a number of minor ones. On the spur of the moment we even did a day trip to Jerusalum. We only got to spend a couple of hours in the old city but it was worth it. The people couldn't have been nicer and we had a number of locals welcome us to their country and offer assistance. Having been to a number of countries where offers of assistance are ploys to sell or scam I was initially very wary of these offers but eventually learned that they were genuine. We loved the food and are now keeping a tub of hummus in the refrigerator at all times. I was glad to see Petra get voted as one of the new Seven Wonders and hope that this will help increase tourism and bring some needed cash to this great country. Thanks for your help.

I would like very much to travel independently to Jordan in late March or early April. I am an American. My wife is afraid of travel to Jordan because of the Consulor Information Sheet in the U.S. State Department's website warning of possible terrorist acts. I personally think the odds are less in Jordan than in most other places in the world, U.S. big cities included. Can you offer any advice on the advisability of doing independent travel in Jordan at this time? We've done extensive independent travel in Europe and Asia. Thank you.

My wife and I will be traveling to Egypt in Oct on business. We would like to visit Jordan for a 3-4 day trip before returning to the US. I guess Oct isn't the best time to travel but we don't have any choice on that. Could you reccomend a good company to arrange our trip through. Thank you.

Late March or early April is a great time to come to Jordan. I am a blonde American with two blonde girls, and we have been everywhere and have no security issues. There are soldiers armed with semiautomatic weapons on pretty much every street corner, and every major building has an airport-style security check. Jordanian security police are extremely solid. The head of the FBI here is a friend of ours, and he has his four children here. The tourist sites in Jordan are very developed; at every site, you can hire a personal, official guide who speaks English and has studied Jordanian history in college. The Royal Society for Conservation of Nature runs extremely beautiful nature reserves, some of which you can camp at, and they'll cook for you, they open in April mostly. See their website for info. Almost everyone in Jordan speaks English and are very friendly and helpful; none of the "baksheesh mentality" of Egypt. Public transportation is not so organized, and driving is kinda crazy, but you can rent a car, and taxis will take you anywhere and are a relative bargain. I would not spend a lot of time in downtown Amman, and avoid mosques on Fridays from 11 to 3, when large crowds of men are around. But have a great time, because Jordan is a fantastic place.