We traveled to Jordan in beginning of November 2019 and we were super excited about our trip.

The first thing when we arrived we could feel the warm breeze from the wind and the sun shining at its full power. It was around 30 degrees C during our whole stay. We were thrilled and couldn’t wait for our vacation to begin.

We planned to stay 3 days in Aqaba and 4 days by the Dead Sea. Transportation from Aqaba airport to our hotel in Aqaba was easy, there was lots of taxi drivers just infront of the airport. The cost of a taxi to our hotel was 10 JD. Not really cheap for just few kilometers, but okay.

Mina Hotel 3* Review

Rooms

• In Aqaba we stayed in Mina Hotel 3*. The worst hotel I have ever been!
• We should get 2 superior rooms with balcony, interconnected, but after half an hour of struggle at the reception desk, the best they could give us, was just two dusty rooms with balcony, just close to each other.
• The rooms were small, dirty, dusty, with warn off furniture. Some details on pictures below:

Breakfast

• The breakfast was poor, one could have tea, milk or coffee, eggs, some arabic unfamiliar and not tasteful at all food and some boiled eggs, cheese and bread.
• The juice which was surprisingly tasteful, but that’s pretty much the only positive thing about the breakfast.
• The breakfast room is small, dirty and outdated.

Pool

• There is an outdoor pool in a hotel which no one is using – you can imagine why.
• It’s small, dusty pool in the shadow, with rusty and dusty sunbeds.
• There is a guy cleaing the pool – it seems every day, but the dirt is still there.

Staff

• Part of the staff tried to be semi-friendly, but all of them are so not organized.
• We had truble with paying the hotel fees as on the Booking site it was stated that they are accepting Maestro Card, but in reallity they are really not, just Visa and Mastercard are accepted. We solved the problem by goinig to the nearby ATM machine, but they should keep their information on the Booking site updated.

Beach in Aqaba

• There is a small bay in Aqaba, which has so much potential.

• At the time of our visit beach was full of garbage, glass, plastic and cigarets. Not really nice, especially when travelling with kids.
• There is a lot of locals using this beach, meaning that all local woman are covered from head to toes in hijap. As they were sitting right next to us, I must say that I felt a bit unconfortable being in the swimming suit, while all of them were covered at all times – even when going to the water.
• However there is no entrance fee to the beach and you can buy coffee, juice (be aware the juices on the beach are very very sweet) and some gadgets from the locals circling on the beach.
• There is also a possiblity to take the glass boat, which is literarly a regular boat with some part of the bottom from glass, so that passengers can see what is below the ship. For 30 min drive the cost is 20 JD and for 1h is 30 JD. The driver will take you around the bay, you’ll see some very small coral reefs, with tiny fishes and some garbage in the sea, such as plastic cans, bottles, tires and even a millitary tank. In addition in 1h trip driver will take you to see wheat tanker anchored in the bay and some better hotels, such as Hilton, Movenpick and Kempinski. Not really something special.

Trip to Petra

We went to Petra from Aqaba. There is several ways to get from Aqaba to Petra:

• Rent a car: prices are similar as any other place, one should just have valid international driving licence
• By Bus: there is a Jett bus driving from Aqaba to Petra every day. The cost is around 18 JD per person
• By Taxi: The cost is around 80 JD for 4 people and the driver will wait for you as long as needed. Usually when making a reservation, you’ll need to pay around 10 JD and the rest when you arrive back from Petra. The drive in one direction with taxi is around 2.5h.

Entrance fee to Petra is really high and it’s around 50 JD for 1 day. Upon arrival famillies with kids will be offered a free horse ride. There is a possiblity also to take the carriage ride to the main builidngs and the cost is around 20 JD. The tunnels leading to the main buildings are really something to see and arriving at the first main builiding, you’ll see some small shops, powered by solar panels (cudos for that) selling food, drinks and various dusty souvenirs. At the time of our visit there was a local seller sitting and yelling: »Come buy suvenirs! Happy hour! Good price! Come, buy and make my day!« It was quite funny.

The main building set in stone is really amazing to see and travelling with 5-year old we walked just a bit further and then we returned back, as she didn’t want to ride the horse and couldn’t walk anymore. So, we couldn’t see the manastery. We walked for around 11 km in total in Petra and we needed for that distance almost 3 hours (short breaks and stops to take the pictures included). Petra is really nice to see, even if the trip to it is really expensive.

Dead Sea

You can travel from Aqaba to Dead Sea also with rented car, taxi where the cost would be somewhere around 90 JD or with Jett Bus to Abdali and continue with taxi to your resort.

We decided to go with Jett Bus. The bus station in Aqaba is located by Movenpick hotel in Aqaba. The tickets can be bought directly on the station or online – click here. The price for one way ticket is 8,8 JD for adults and 6.6 for kids. The buses are well equiped and moderately clean.

You can buy juice, coffee, tea or some snacks directly on the bus during your travel and the prices are normal. The trip takes around 4,5h with one 10 min quick stop. In Abdali you can easily find taxi on the station, depending on your negoation capabilities the price to the dead sea would be somewhere between 20 to 40 JD.

When driving towards Dead Sea, one could think that we were driving through war zone. Tires, plastic and other garbage are everywhere just lying on the road. On the pictures below you can see even the buildings which seem to be falling apart.

Ramada Resort 4*Review

Entering the Ramada Resort your car and taxi driver will be inspected by security guard infront of the hotel. When passed strict security checks (they’ll check alsothe area below the vehicle) the gate will open. Arriving at the reception, you’ll need to pass another security check, where the guard will scan all your bags, to make sure you don’t have anything dangerous or some food and drinks. Yes, that’s right, bringing food or drinks from outside is strictly prohibited in this hotel.

Rooms are better than the ones we had in Aqaba. However, even here rooms are not as clean as they should be and the walls, furniture and equipment are warnoff and damaged. For example we had tea kettle in the room, where the top coat was broaken.

The pool looks amazing from far away, coming closer, it looks less amazing, as sunbeds are dirty, dusty and half of them are broken. Water in the pool is a bit cold, but quite clean for most of the time. There is a pool bar with very delicious pizzas, club sandwiches and good offer of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. The prices are quite high – for example the bottle of lower range local wine starts at 27 JD, small pizza Margherita at 8,5 JD (very girly/kids portion).

As we got a bit used on the dirt, we were ready to lay by the pool and just relax. Yup, that lasted for a second, because in the moment when you stop walking the swarm of flies will start to attack you. It’s not really possible to bear with that and God forbit to order a food or drinks, the flies will eat you alive.

There is small shutle van driving every half an hour to the private beach on the Dead Sea. The drive will last around 3-5 mins and you’ll hope the all the flies in the van will not make you crazy.

When you arrive at the beach, you feel a bit disapointed as the beach in not really tidy, there is few sunumbrellas on the beach and sunbeds are even in the worst shape than the ones at the hotel pool. However there is a free mud you can use on the beach and some showers and toilets (both not so close to the sea – one must walk for couple of minutes to go to the toilet or to use the shower). The Dead sea is warm and floating on the water feels very relaxing.

However the good part of the Ramada Resort was breakfast in the room, which was delicious. See below how our little girl was thrilled about it. There was one morning when they forgot to deliver the breakfast, but who is really counting the issues 🙂

To conclude…

We had an amazing weather during our stay, but it was ruined by the lack of organization and dirt in both hotels as well as all around the place. I believe that Jordan has so much potential, but first they’ll need adopt higher standards for cleanliness and organisation.