Travel Tips for Jordan

Written: 17 may 2008
Travel time: 18 — 25 may 2008
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There are very few reviews about holidays in Jordan, which gives the feeling that you are taking a tour like a pig in a poke. Therefore, without any fables for other tourists, I would like to write how the vacation really went and what are the minuses and pluses of rest in this country.
In principle, there are practically no complaints about the service itself at the hotel - it satisfies its 5 stars. Only now everything is known in comparison, and we liked the neighboring Movenpick both in terms of territory, spa-salon, and restaurants much more.
Now about the country. Of course, no one warned us in advance that upon arrival in Aqaba (flight 4-4.5 hours), another 4.5 hours would have to travel by bus to the hotel on the other side of the country (the thought was spinning all the time that it was possible to go to the Maldives and to India and Thailand and other exotic - the same 9-10 hours of flight and for the same money). In addition, the entire journey passed through a rocky desert, which inspired me personally with a deep longing for wasted money and days of rest. True, the hotel, against this background, pleased with its greenery and luxury, which is not surprising against the backdrop of a desert area. Another minus is that the Russian-speaking guide from the Southern Cross did not utter a word about the country all the way, answered only individual private questions without a microphone and no one was not heard.

By the way, again about the travel agency "Southern Cross" - and again in comparison with Movenpick, in which the Russian-speaking guide sat all day in the hotel and SPA from the host "TAIKI-TOUR" and the Russian travel agency "Artisspace", our guide from "UK" appeared at the hotel only once, when she brought us fabulous prices for trips of 120-150 dinars (the exchange rate is about the same as the euro and this is in such a very poor country! ) and only wrote down those who wanted to go on excursions - there were no more comments and help from her .
On the first day, we went to Amman - the capital and hot springs, took a taxi for 4 people, which is cheaper than from a travel agency, Amman is a terribly monotonous city, what to see there is incomprehensible, everything is the same.
Hot springs - yes, it’s beautiful, they say it’s useful, but we happened to arrive when the Arabs hung out there on a day off and I felt such glances on myself against the background of their women loaded with clothes who don’t undress and don’t bathe, that I had to sit in three deaths in dirty water instead of standing under the jets of a fresh mountain stream.
Most of all, the desire to go somewhere disappeared, especially since, as a Muslim woman, biblical places were not particularly interesting to me, and I didn’t really want to look at the historical ruins - at one time my husband and I ran into Turkey, Italy and Spain on excursions.
Another minus is the extra charge at the hotel for all services, especially for food, 26% - of which 16% is sales tax and 10% - service services (not to be confused with tips, as the guide immediately warned that tips should be given separately waiter in the amount of 5-10% of the bill, ha, but where do 10% go??? ). That is, when choosing an already quite expensive meal - 40-60 dinars (euros) for two, we actually had to give 60-80 dinars. And this is in such a poor country. Moreover, when we had dinner in Amman, there were no taxes of 16 and 10%, which once again confirmed my idea that the country is trying to knock out all possible funds from poor tourists from a dozen departments of Jordan, and this also did not contribute to my disposition towards this country

The same is true for spas. And all this against the backdrop of not such an excellent quality of services. In general, excuse me, fellow Jordanians, but Turkey will be better, not to mention Spain and even Thailand, where in December 07 I received a lot of pleasant impressions, starting from a daily Thai massage of 200 baht (rubles) (for comparison, in Jordan, an oriental massage to me adored at 65 dinars (i. e. 2300 rubles), as well as superbly organized excursions to the zoo, farm, snow-sand island, and just shopping and walking around Pattaya. . . Well, that's a completely different story. . .
As for treatment, in my opinion it’s better to hang out for a week in a good specialized sanatorium, of which there are already many in Russia, especially since the specialization of treatment on the Metvoye Sea is more skin diseases - eczema, psoriasis, neurodermatitis, etc.
Translated automatically from Russian. View original
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