I was in Jordan for just under two months, immediately after the pandemic, so it’s fair to say I didn’t see the country at its most vibrant and flourishing. Despite that I found it to be an intriguing place, with many different subcultures worth exploring. 

For one month of my time there, I lived a pretty ordinary life in the capital, Amman, where I caught up on work and enjoyed the duality of the city before setting out to explore the most popular tourist attractions for the other month. 

Like many Middle Eastern countries, Jordan is rapidly modernizing and growing economically. This of course has a major impact on the local culture, and nowhere had I noticed this as strongly during my time in the Middle East as I did in Jordan. 

The city’s downtown neighborhood was very traditional; filled with colorful stores, the delicious smells that wafted from various street vendors’ carts, and frequented by locals in traditional attire. I felt totally foreign and captivated when I ventured downtown, though I found a few quirky cafes and community projects where I worked and met intriguing locals. 

On the other hand, there were neighborhoods in Amman that were very westernized. In the neighborhood where I was staying there was a cafe across the road that was a hotspot for university students where, to my surprise, most of them spoke amongst themselves in English rather than Arabic! 

In general, Jordanians are well-humored, chatty, and helpful. One evening I was rather stranded in the city center trying to get a taxi home during the traffic rush and two police officers waited with me until we had flagged down a taxi and I was safely on my way home, and another time I walked into a local knife-crafting shop and didn’t walk out until about two hours later after chatting with the owner and being given a full tour of his workshop, he even let me have a go doing some knife carving of my own!

One thing that intrigued me about Jordan was how they show their wealth – their cars! At least twice a day flash cars would come revving down my street, alerting me to the arrival of the next casanova to the local university hangout across the road. On various occasions, I saw billboards urging hard workers to “Show off their wealth with the latest car”. 

In the city’s downtown, it’s hard to get a grasp of the fancier side of the city, but if you head to Abdali Boulevard you’ll get a glimpse of the wealth Jordan possesses, and of the luxury tourism that Saudi Arabians are attracted by!

Whilst there’s plenty to see in Amman itself, like the Roman Amphitheater and Amman Citadel, a little further a field wonders like Petra, the Dead Sea, the Ma’in Hot Springs, and the Wadi Rum desert await!

Overall, Jordan isn’t as cheap as popular nearby countries like Egypt and Morocco, but it’s by no means expensive either. I also felt that the prices in Jordan always reflected the quality of what you got – whenever I paid more for food or accommodation it was well reflected in my experience. I’d say Jordan is a fairly priced country that can be traveled on a range of budgets.