Yes, Jordan is one of the easiest countries in the Middle East to backpack on your own, with English widely spoken along the tourist route and hostels that arrange onward transport for you.
Buy the Jordan Pass (JOD 70 to 80, about US$99 to 113) before arrival; it waives the visa fee if you stay at least three nights and covers Petra, Jerash and Wadi Rum. Dorm beds in
Amman and
Wadi Musa cost JOD 8 to 15, and the JETT bus from Amman to Petra takes about 4 hours for JOD 10 to 11. The gaps, such as the King’s Highway and the eastern desert, need a shared taxi or driver at JOD 40 to 80 a day.
Ten days is the right length for a first trip to Jordan, enough for Amman, the Dead Sea, Dana, Petra and Wadi Rum without rushing.
With 5 days, stay in the south: 2 nights in
Wadi Musa for Petra, 1 night in
Wadi Rum and 1 in
Aqaba. With 15 days you can add the north, with
Jerash,
Ajloun and
Umm Qais, plus a day loop to the Desert Castles. Give Petra at least 2 days on its own. Distances are short by most standards: Amman to Aqaba is about 4 hours by bus, and Petra to Wadi Rum about 2 hours.
Yes, you can travel around Jordan without a car on the main north to south route, though a few stretches need a taxi or hired driver.
JETT buses link
Amman with
Wadi Musa (about 4 hours, JOD 10 to 11) and
Aqaba (about 4 hours, JOD 11). Minibuses from Amman’s North Bus Station reach
Jerash in about an hour for JOD 1 to 1.5. A single early minibus runs from Wadi Musa to
Wadi Rum around 6 am (about 2 hours, JOD 7 to 10). For the King’s Highway via Karak and Dana, the Dead Sea and the Desert Castles, budget JOD 40 to 80 a day for a driver.
In Jordan,
Petra and
Wadi Rum come first; nothing else in the country matches the scale of the rock-cut city or the sandstone desert to its south.
Give Petra 2 days so you can walk the 1.2-kilometer Siq to the Treasury and climb the roughly 850 steps to the Monastery. Spend at least 1 night in a Wadi Rum camp (JOD 25 to 60 with dinner). After those, add the
Dead Sea for a float about 430 meters below sea level, the Roman streets of
Jerash, an hour from Amman, and the canyon trails of
Dana, about 1.5 hours north of Petra.
If time is short in Jordan, skip the eastern Desert Castles loop, Abdali Boulevard and most of Amman’s specialist museums, and spend those days in Petra and Wadi Rum instead.
The Desert Castles take a full day with a driver (JOD 50 to 70) for a few scattered buildings.
Abdali Boulevard is a modern mall strip similar to any Gulf city, and the
Royal Automobile Museum and
Royal Tank Museum suit fans only.
Aqaba can drop off a 5-day trip unless you want to snorkel, and you do not need a Dead Sea resort night: a day pass (JOD 20 to 40) from Madaba or Amman is enough.
Yes, our itinerary-planner does exactly that. Set your trip length in days, give your interests and travel style, optionally give start- and end location and/or some mandatory stops you would like to include and the itinerary planner creates your personalized routes for Jordan in seconds. Try it out!
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