Some places are touristy but deserve their reputation, this is one of them

Today’s post is about visiting my 56th country – Jordan! I have always wanted to see Jordan and it did not disappoint. We flew into the capital of Amman in the afternoon. Amman has a lot of beautiful sites which I will share in this, and future posts. However, its not a very walkable city so you will need to Uber (which is very cheap in Amman, I’m talking $1+ a ride!) or rent a car (note that they drive with a survival of the fittest mentality like Rome or Paris so if you are not used to it, you may want to only Uber; I’m originally from Manila so the driving was no big deal for me). Here are a couple cool things we saw on the first day in Amman:

These were taken at the Abdali mall which is like an indoor and outdoor mall. Note that although there are a lot of restaurants and stores, Amman does not have a lot of Western brands so I would say shopping is not one of its strong areas (though if you are looking for more local stuff, there is plenty to buy).

On our first full day in Amman, we started by going to the Citadel. As its on a hill, you should begin any exploration here, so that you can walk downhill to the other sites. The Citadel is definitely worth going to for the views and to see ruins.

I should also mention that we bought a Jordan pass prior to arriving in Jordan and I highly recommend you get one also. It will give you free entry into all major attractions around the country, take care of your visa, and also, save you a lot of time from having to line up to buy tickets. After the citadel, we made our way to the the Roman Theater.

After that, we made our way through downtown on the way to lunch at Hashem. Along the way, we saw more incredible ruins and art work.

I loved the whole vibe of Amman, very busy streets and beautiful things to look at like this mosque.

From here we ended up at Hashem. If you Google places for the best falafel or must eat places in Amman, Hashem will invariably come up. Every Youtuber who does a video on Amman will end up here. BUT, its one of the few touristy places that deserves its reputation. Its good and VERY cheap.

After lunch, we headed to Habibah which is another “must visit” for baklava. This place was just ok; I’ve had better.

Apparently, there are multiple locations, but we went to the wrong one. Anyway, we continued to another “must visit” place called Rainbow Street. This is basically just a long strip of cafes and restaurants. I was not impressed and would say you can skip this.

After Rainbow Street we headed back to our hotel and would later have one of the best Kebabs of our trip, at a local restaurant, which I will post about tomorrow!