Travel to Jordan

Flying to Jordan

The national airline is Royal Jordanian (www.rj.com), but you can find wide availability of flights on multiple carriers into the Jordanian capital Amman from major cities across Europe, Asia and North America. British Airways (www.ba.com) also flies direct to Jordan from the UK, and Amman is also served by Gulf low-cost carriers such as Air Arabia (www.airarabia.com), FlyDubai (www.flydubai.com) and Jazeera Airways (www.jazeeraairways.com).

Direct flights come non-stop into Amman from North American hubs such as New York and Chicago. Most flights come into Amman’s Queen Alia International Airport (AMM). Some international flights serve Aqaba’s King Hussein airport (AQJ).

The major airport is Amman Queen Alia International Airport.

Airport Guides

Flight times

To Amman: from London - 5 hours; New York - 10 hours 30 minutes.

Departure tax

JD10 if leaving Jordan overland, otherwise it is included in the airfare.

Travelling to Jordan by Rail

There are no longer any scheduled passenger trains running in Jordan – the old Hejaz Railway line from Damascus has been permanently suspended.

Driving to Jordan

Jordan has road borders with Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and is also linked by car ferry to Egypt. The JETT bus company in Amman (www.jett.com.jo) runs scheduled buses to and from Cairo, Damascus, Baghdad, Riyadh, Jeddah, Madina, Makkah and other cities, along with local partners in each destination.

To reach Amman from Jerusalem by public transport requires a complicated sequence of taxis and buses; you could pay extra for VIP service door-to-door through firms such as Amman2Jerusalem (tel: +962 7 9952 0066; www.amman2jerusalem.com).

Getting to Jordan by boat

Scheduled car ferries and high-speed catamarans run by AB Maritime (tel: +962 3 209 2000; www.abmaritime.com.jo) cross between Nuweiba in Egypt and Jordan’s only port city, Aqaba. Timetables are notoriously fickle, and delays of many hours are common on this route.

Cruise ships

Aqaba, on Jordan’s Red Sea coast, is on some cruise ship itineraries, with Seabourn (www.seabourn.com) ships regularly making a stop at the port. From here you can make excursions to Petra.