Jordan

Rainbow Street is the center of Amman’s contemporary café culture, with rooftop restaurants and art galleries housed in restored early twentieth-century buildings. The Jordan Museum downtown displays artifacts including some of the world’s oldest known statues. Downtown’s gold souks and the King Hussein Mosque add to the sensory mix of old and new that defines the capital. Amman makes an easy, welcoming base for exploring the rest of Jordan’s ancient sites.

Beyond the Treasury, the Street of Facades, the Roman-style theater, and the Monastery reward visitors willing to walk further into the ancient Nabataean capital. Climbing the eight hundred steps to the Monastery is demanding but offers the site’s most rewarding view. Petra by Night, held several evenings a week, lines the Siq with candles leading to the Treasury for traditional music under the stars. Few archaeological sites anywhere combine dramatic setting and historical scale the way Petra does.

Aqaba Fort and the old town’s waterfront promenade give a low-key counterpoint to the diving and beach scene, with fresh seafood restaurants lining the corniche. The city also serves as the launch point for desert excursions into nearby Wadi Rum. Wadi Rum’s dramatic red-sand valley, reachable within an hour, offers Bedouin-guided jeep tours and overnight stays in desert camps beneath extraordinarily clear night skies. Aqaba pairs Red Sea diving with easy access to some of Jordan’s most striking desert landscapes.