Obviously I love all my holidays. But there are some trips you just know are trips of a lifetime. You know it when you book it, you know it when you're there, and you just know you'll look back on it as a trip of a lifetime in years to come. Jordan was one of those trips.
I'd wanted to go to Jordan for quite some time because Petra, one of the seven wonders of the world is there. I typically like to go for some winter sun in November and I actually ended up going around the houses with the planning. I initially dismissed Jordan because it's not normally all that warm in November, but once I did some reading on other options, it was Jordan that made my heart soar the most. To say that Ash has really only ever been an all-inclusive guy before me, I thought he'd take some convincing but to my pleasant surprise, all it took was showing him a few photos and he was on board! Especially once I explained my proposed itinerary; 2 nights in the capital, 2 nights at Petra, 2 nights camping in Wadi Rum, 1 night at the Dead Sea. I think it was the photos of Wadi Rum at night that ultimately sold him!
It also helped that everything was so cheap. We managed to get flights for £110 return each, we paid an extra £60 each to split a 32kg suitcase (my top tip is that it's cheapest to pay for heavier and share), and despite staying in 4 different accommodation places over the course of 7 nights, all of that only came to £250 per person! We also paid for airport parking and then a Jordan pass (£80pp), which essentially combines your visa cost and entries to Petra and lots of other attractions. So all in all it was a very cheap holiday to book! I don't know how much of the cost was affected by all of the unrest in the Middle East, but we did book before everything majorly kicked off in the summer with Iran and the US so I'm not sure. I think it was more likely that November is outside of Jordan's high tourism season because of the climate, but guess what? We got beautiful 27° sunshine pretty much all week!
On the subject of unrest, I'm sure a lot of people's first question about Jordan is: is it safe? In my experience, yes extremely. On the flight, we were pre-told that the seatbelt sign would go on while we flew over Israels air space, but that was literally the only thing. It was really surreal and actually kind of uncomfortable being in such close proximity to Israel, especially once we got to the Dead Sea, but it was lovely to see how pro-Palestine Jordan are. In the most beautiful ways too. Selling Palestinian scarves and crafts, cooking and telling us about Palestinian dishes, welcoming Palestinians (we met a family from Palestine on one of our excursion days). So if you're wanting to go to Jordan but are worried about going to the Middle East, I would say don't let it hold you back from visiting.
Okay, let's dive into our trip then! As I said, the flights were super cheap, which is great, until you have to spend nearly 6 hours on a Wizzair plane. Luckily, it flew by pretty fast (hah hah) and we arrived in Amman around teatime, thanks to the 3 hour time difference. The sun was just setting as we got to our apartment, which was beautiful! We had loads of space and a cute little balcony too. I'll be linking all the accommodations we went with; this one was a family-run place called Nu Fifty Two and it cost £149 for 2 nights.
We got ready and headed straight out to explore. I had decided to dress quite conservatively (for me) while in Jordan, so I went with a maxi dress and then a little scarf to cover my shoulders - this scarf was the perfect holiday purchase as it worked with everything. I wouldn't say you had to dress modestly (we saw a handful of people who didn't), but I think you would get a lot of stares in something short or revealing and it's up to you whether you would want that or not. I also personally think it's respectful and part of the experience; the same way I always stick to eating the local cuisine of wherever I am. Speaking of local cuisine, our first port of call was to find somewhere nice for dinner. Rainbow street is a famous area in Amman with lots of different restaurants, and we were staying right next to it so it didn't take us very long to stumble upon somewhere. Mijana was beautifully decorated and had loads of different dishes to choose from. Although we made the absolute rookie error of assuming the portion sizes based on cost - we ended up with SO much food! Eating out in Jordan is extremely cheap and helpfully the currency is pretty much equal to GBP so it was very easy to work out. Even though we had an absolute table full, everything was amazing and a great introduction to Jordanian food.
Alcohol is legal but fairly scarce in Jordan - obviously most of the locals won't drink due to religion, and it's quite highly taxed so I think a lot of places just don't see the point of selling it. The restaurant didn't sell alcohol for example. But we wouldn't be officially on holiday until we had cheersed to it, so we went and found a rooftop bar over the road for a nightcap. While food prices were crazy cheap, alcohol prices were pretty much level with the UK. So our round of drinks ended up costing about the same as our whole royal banquet!
The next day, we woke up to beautiful sunshine, ready for a big day of exploring and LOTS of walking. When I say lots, we ended up doing 18,000 steps this day. Not a bad start! Obviously we needed fuelling for the day ahead so we started with breakfast at an adorable little place called Book cafe. It was a museum slash book shop slash cafe. Amman did these artsy little spots so well - lots of streets covered in paintings, covered in lanterns, covered in plants. So we had a lovely view from the terrace where we sat.
Not all steps are born equal. As you can see, the 18,000 steps we did this day were mostly trekking up and down hundreds of stairs! Amman might actually be the hilliest city I've ever been to. And while that makes it probably not for the faint hearted, it does mean you're rewarded with gorgeous views like this very regularly.
When me and Ash go on these sorts of walking/exploring days, we tend to walk towards the furthest point first, and then do all the other stuff as we make our way back. The first place on our itinerary was therefore the King Abdullah mosque, which was around an hours walk. Obviously it took longer than that thanks to all the steps! But we passed some lovely places as we went including art murals, churches and cool souvenir shops. The prettiest of all though was this little cat who we made friends with when we stopped off at a cafe for a drink. Jordan is definitely a cat country and there's gorgeous (and friendly) kitties everywhere!
We made it to the mosque! It was so pretty and I love the vibrant blue of the dome. I'm not sure if you could go inside or not but as a non-muslim, I thought it was more respectful not to. So we essentially walked all that to say 'yep there it is' and then leave!
Thanks to all that walking, we figured we'd earned a beer. Question was, where to get one. We ended up finding an actual pub not too far away, and had a lovely couple of rounds there on their sunny outside terrace. And then like classic Brits, we went and got a kebab afterwards! Well, not completely like classic Brits, as this was actually from an extremely popular local spot, Shawerma Reem, that's been there for like 50 years. They only serve one thing (the beef wrap) and it costs 1 dinar. I could've probably eaten 2 or 3, they were so good.
The other main attractions we still wanted to see in Amman were the Roman amphitheatre and the citadel. We'd timed it perfectly as we got to watch the sunset from the top of the amphitheatre, and what a gorgeous sunset it was.
We then had a walk back to our apartment and I love that time of day when the sun has just set and all the lights start to pop. Especially when Amman is covered in these pretty lantern lights! We saw some more cool stuff as we walked back, including another mosque, and lots of markets and souks.
After chilling in the apartment for a little bit, we got ready to go out for the least-aesthetic-but-most-delicious food ever. When researching some food hot spots in Amman, we heard about Jordan's national dish, Mansaf. It's lamb slow cooked in a yogurt sauce and then served with rice, nuts, and extra yogurt sauce. Loads of places offered it but we wanted to make sure we tried the best, and it seemed as though Da7berha came out on top in that regard. Mansaf is literally all they sell, and you just order based on how many pieces of lamb you want. We went with 2 and there was literally loads! The traditional way to eat it is with your hands (their restaurant logo is literally a hand holding a ball of rice), so we gloved up and got stuck in. Ash said this was one of his favourite dishes of the holiday, and it was his favourite national dish of all the holidays we've been on (we always make a point of trying them). He said it blew paella out of the water!
Because Ash is in lots of ways a very traditional British bloke, he was getting teased by his friends about how he'd cope in Jordan without a pint of Fosters in the pub. So we figured we'd see if he'd need to cope at all, or if we could find just that. And we managed to find an Irish pub! Of course we did, I don't think I've ever actually been anywhere in the world that doesn't have one. We didn't manage the Fosters, but I reckon a draught pint of Amstel still fits the bill.
The next day was a long travel day as we were off to stop number 2, so we made sure we kicked off with a good breakfast. We chose a spot called Nabteh O Fatteh because it had a lovely view, and they served all their food over coals, which I thought was cool. They also had a very retro theme with loads of old TVs and electronics, and I felt like I was in an episode of the Flintstones or something.
Then we got a 4 hour Uber down to Wadi Musa, which is the town closest to Petra. To say it was such a long drive, it actually only cost the equivalent of about £100. They have a lot of super modern cars in Jordan so it was actually a more comfortable journey than our flight from London! Uber is only available in Jordan north of a certain point though so while we could order one to go down to Wadi Musa, we wouldn't have been able to order one back up. Worth bearing in mind if you're travelling without car hire like we chose to. Neither of us fancied driving in the Middle East! So after a long but relaxing journey, we arrived at the P Quattro Relax Hotel, which we'd booked for 2 nights to the grand total of £130, including breakfast.
Undoubtedly the best thing about this hotel was the rooftop pool. Look how gorgeous this set-up is! After arriving mid afternoon, we decided to spend the rest of the day chilling up there, alternating between lounging, reading, and daring to dip in the FREEZING cold pool. The sunny weather might've blessed us, but the short daylight hours and low UV clearly weren't enough to heat the pool. It didn't matter though because the rooftop also had an absolutely gigantic hot tub. Like big enough to seat 12 I reckon. Even though that was amazing, it wasn't enough to be my 2nd favourite thing about the hotel. My 2nd favourite thing was that they had beer on draught that they lovingly delivered to us by the pool. I love Arabic hospitality!
We hadn't wandered into Wadi Musa yet so we were excited to explore in the evening. All the staff at our hotel were so friendly and helpful and they'd given us a recommendation for a restaurant called Elan, so we figured we'd look there. The restaurant overlooked the main square and offered loads of great Jordanian dishes. Even though we were eating local every night, we still hadn't had the same thing twice yet and this night was no exception. We ended up choosing an aubergine dip, some cheese pastry parcels, a fattoush salad, a lamb stew and a Palestinian chicken dish. Everything was amazing! We also got a live cooking show of how they make their local dessert, Knafeh. Obviously we had to try some but honestly it wasn't our favourite. It's made of cheese, shredded pastry, sugar and a sweet syrup. Supposedly they soak the cheese for hours to remove all the salt but it still tasted like normal cheese to me! I was a big fan of their spiced karak tea though.
Caravan carving
Then it was Petra day! I think a lot of people mistakenly think that Petra is a single sculpture (the one you always see in photos). But it's actually more like Pompeii in that it's a whole massive site of an ancient civilisation. It's not a "there it is" wonder of the world; there's actually a whole ancient city to explore! Because it's all made of sandstone, it's seriously stood the test of time and so lots of the carvings, buildings and tombs are all in tact. Considering the whole place was constructed by the Nabataean people in the 4th century BCE, that's pretty good going (over 2,000 years ago). Although the place is pretty big, it's all set out as one direct path from start to finish. It's not a circular route so you have to go all the way in and all the way back. There are some optional other routes to do but we just took the advice of the staff at our hotel. They said it'd take us around 4 hours to complete, and we should get there nice and early before the heat of the day. So we arrived at around 8:30 and started meandering around the glorious coloured sandstone. It was so fascinating and I loved that there were so many information signs because there's bits I wouldn't have spotted otherwise, like the remainder of the carving of a man and his camels (apparently called a caravan)!
Then we arrived at the money shot! I can certainly see why the treasury is the most famous part of Petra since it's a seriously impressive feat. Apparently Petra is known as the half-built-half-carved city, and the way this impressively leaps out of the sandstone is amazing. Interestingly, it was never actually a treasury at all, or anything to do with money. It's more like a tomb and temple, but there was an ancient rumour about there being gold or silver hidden there and so the nickname was born. Props to the information signs for that one!
There was a platform higher up on the rock face that you could pay a bit extra to go up, for better views and better photos. We figured when in Rome! Which was just as well because I was testing Ash's instagram boyfriend credentials with the photos from the ground - he was struggling!
Although the treasury is the most famous bit, we were far from done. We continued on through Petra until we reached the royal tomb area, and we stopped off for a lovely little fresh squeezed orange juice overlooking the amphitheatre. Petra is very heavily commercialised so there are locals working throughout the whole place, offering drinks, souvenirs, and donkey rides. We were warned against any donkey or horse riding by our hotel because it isn't safe, and after seeing them I would have to agree! All of the locals were super friendly though. They obviously have that pushy sales vibe of a lot of Arabic countries (Egypt, Morocco etc) but I've never personally minded that. It's nice to support where you can and the guy we bought the orange juice from was so welcoming and chatty and he ended up getting some photos and a cool video of us.
Once you get to Qasr al-Bint (the ruins of some ancient temples), you're pretty much at the end of the standard route through Petra. You then have a few options. First is to turn back and go home. Second is to hike up to the monastery. Third is to take a donkey ride up to the monastery. As far as we (mostly I) were concerned, the third one wasn't an option. I feel quite conflicted about using animals in this way when you don't need to, although I understand that locals who are using them for tourists are just trying to make a living. But after seeing the tiny donkeys it cemented it in my mind even more. They looked so weighed down when anyone was riding them! Even if I put my ehtics to the side, they looked super unstable and the route up to the monastery was very uneven under foot - I would be terrified if I was relying on a tiny donkey to keep me safe. So that left option 1 or 2. We were already pretty tired, it was getting to the hottest part of the day, and we knew that any walking we did would involve doing it twice, since you can't get out the other side and we would need to walk all the way back. Plus the supposed length of the walk up to the monastery got longer with every donkey-ride-seller that you spoke to - it started as an hour and a half, and it was 2 and a half by the time we got to the route! In actuality it was a tough 40 minutes each way, completely up hill and up steps on the way there, but then obviously all downhill on the way back. We reasoned that we were only there once, we should make the most of being young and fit (well, me young, Ash young-ish hehe), and we'd feel glad that we did! So off up the mountain we went...
We made it! Don't get me wrong, it was a challenging hike. Climbing 800-900 uneven stone steps up a mountain on a hot day isn't easy, although there were lots of stalls and sellers on the walk up so you could buy a water and have a pit stop if you needed one (like we did). It may be very steep and uneven but none of it felt dangerous under foot, and we were so glad we walked. The people going up on the poor little donkeys didn't look very stable or comfortable. You're safer and sturdier on your own 2 feet I'd say! It was really nice when we finally got to the top, and there were a few little shops up there with plenty of seating so you could grab a drink and have a rest. Plus there were more cats up there to make friends with!
Needless to say that the walk back down was much easier than the one up there. It was still a long walk to get all the way back out, but we were spurred on by the idea of lunch! There was actually a restaurant within Petra at the base of the monastery hike, but we felt like that would be super touristy and a bit soulless. Plus, we'd been opting for mostly street food at lunch times and we had our eye on a falafel place. It didn't disapoint! Juniper was part of the main plaza area back in Wadi Musa and so we sat outside and enjoyed falafel sandwiches for only 2 dinars each. Literally one of the best falafel I've ever had!
After 26,000 steps, we figured we were due a bit of chill time. We hotfooted it back to our rooftop pool and spent the afternoon relaxing in the sunshine. Even though our Jordanian adventure was a very jam-packed one, it still felt like we had nice pockets of chill time too.
We hadn't had a drink the night before so we were in the mood for one again, and on a mission to find somewhere to get one. If we thought alcohol was scarce in Amman, it was even more so in Wadi Musa! We did find a cool rooftop bar though called Nomads, which was actually on top of a backpackers hotel, so they obviously sold alcohol. The whole place was really cool and mostly full of solo travellers or young groups, so it had a nice atmosphere. I was very excited to be able to get a cocktail, so we had a lovely couple of hours having a few drinks (the bartender was shocked/impressed at how much us Brits were getting through). Then we went for dinner at a restaurant called Abu Elias which was recommended to us by both our hotel guy and also the bartender at Nomads. They're famous for doing camel meat so we decided to try that and it was really good (tasted exactly like beef to me).
It was time for another travel day so after a chilled morning on the massage chairs at our hotel, we were on to stop number 3. As I mentioned, Uber no longer worked so we booked a local taxi through our hotel and this trip was around 2 hours and cost us 65 dinar (again, very good value). Our taxi driver was literally such a gem. He was so lovely and chatty, speaking to us about Jordan and asking about life in England. The drive to Wadi Rum was really scenic so he'd stop every so often and tell us we were in a good photo spot. We had told him about our itinerary and how we were travelling back from Wadi Rum to the Dead Sea in a couple of days and he offered to do our return journey. At first I felt bad because it would mean coming 2 hours out of his way, and ending up around 2 hours out of his way. But he was telling us all about how life in Jordan can be difficult, especially with getting work. Knowing how cheap the food and other expenses are there, those 2 trips would probably sort him and his family out for quite some time. Plus it saved us a job of organising another taxi which was perfect. Something I would say with travelling to Jordan is that you'll need mobile data. I normally just wing it in any country that's not included in my EU free roaming, but pretty much every business runs via Whatsapp in Jordan. So having mobile data was essential for sorting taxis and liaising with our camp owner and stuff. I got a travel eSim from an app called Nomad and it cost £9 for 3GB which was enough for the week. Annoyingly I bought 1GB first and then topped up by 3GB and only used 2GB of it, but now I've test driven it so you can get the right amount. You're welcome.
We had an activity booked for sunset so we had a chilled afternoon up until then. We explored the camp and then sat chilling on our veranda. Honestly the natural landscape is so beautiful that just sitting and watching the world go by qualified as entertainment.
The activity we had booked was a camel ride! Yes, I understand the irony of a few paragraphs ago saying I didn't agree with using animals in this way but hear me out... Camels are much bigger and they were only doing a 20 minute shift! Plus they got to enjoy the sunset view. Me and Ash got to enjoy it too of course. The guy with the camels picked us up from our camp, we had a little wander to a good sunset spot and then we sat on the rocks to watch the sun go down. I'm appreciative for my lovely life always, but there are just moments where it hits you just how lovely your life is. This was one of those moments for me. Sat in one of the most beautiful places on earth, watching one of the most beautiful sunsets, sat next to the love of my life, and realising that THIS is the life we get to live together. Simply stunning.
Once we got back to camp, it got dark almost immediately and it was time for dinner. Our camp owners were so friendly and welcoming and they invited everyone to see how the food was prepared. I thought we were in for another cooking show but no... they dug it up from underground! I reckon if you asked Ash what the best part of the whole holiday was he'd say this. All the rice and meats had been buried in an underground BBQ and the results were amazing. There were also a load of extra side dishes plus salads and I honestly didn't expect to be eating so well in the desert. The only thing I didn't love about Jordanian cuisine were their olives! It's like they weren't treated for long enough so they were very hard and bitter. The non-alcoholic fruit beer went down a treat though.
We sat around the campfire for a while but then we decided to head back to our tent for some stargazing. The view from our veranda was incredible and I can definitely see why they call Wadi Rum the desert of a million stars. There was a little bit of initial cloud but that blew over so I think we got pretty lucky with the weather. I also loved that we could stargaze from our bed, and find fun pictures in the rock face (we could both see Shrek in that last picture but my family didn't see it when I sent it over so maybe we were delirious).
The view from our bed was equally beautiful in the morning. We didn't have our excursion planned until the afternoon so we had a free morning to enjoy Wadi Rum. And the thing that Ash wanted to enjoy was climbing to the top of the sand dune that we could see from our tent. Therefore, the thing I got to enjoy was watching him attempt to race up it! I didn't share in his goal to get as much sand in my shoes as possible so I went with the less steep (ie more sensible) way and we found each other at the top to admire the views and the gorgeous bright orange sand.
When we got back from our little walk, we sat and had a coffee. The coffee here was seriously strong (made like Turkish coffee) so we were definitely wide awake for our afternoon activity!
We got picked up for our jeep tour at around 2pm and then we headed off to explore more of Wadi Rum. Our first stop was this ancient wall carving and I will say that I loved our Wadi Rum tour but we didn't really learn anything. Certainly not like the amount I felt we learnt at Petra! Our tour guide spoke enough English to tell us where we were, but not much more than that. So it was mostly a day of enjoying the epic scenery, and enjoying getting blown around on the open back seat of the Jeep!
Our next stop was the Um Frouth Rock Arch and when we first arrived and the guide said we could climb up and get our picture up there, we were all for it. That is, until we saw how you get up. Do you see the photo of people doing a mountain goat routine and climbing up a sheer rock face? Yes - that is how you get up there. Because we didn't fancy risking any broken bones, we thought a photo from the bottom was a safer bet, and sat and had a coffee instead (meeting another gorgeous angel while we were there).
The next couple of stops were Lawrence of Arabias house and this cool rock that looks like a face. There were also plenty of souvenir stands dotted around that offered up free karak tea in these cutesy tiny mugs!
Then we stopped off at this rock that's dubbed as nature's blusher for reasons that you can probably see with the chalk on my cheeks! We also saw Lawrence of Arabia's rock which, again with very little context, was really just a rock with a small carving in it.
The spot that our guide took us to for sunset was what he called "the most beautiful spot in all of Wadi Rum" and I have to say I agree with him. We had beautiful 360 degree views, and the sunset one was so pretty. We had a slightly cloudier day so not as perfect as the day before, but still a pretty epic view as views go!
That evening was much of the same as the night before. BBQ meats, a cosy campfire, and a spot of stargazing. Again, it was slightly cloudier so I'm so grateful we got such an immense view the day before. The slightly annoying thing about Wadi Rum is that 2 nights was mildly too long to spend there, but 1 night would've been nowhere near enough. Because you're so remote and there's nowhere to go, it means that dinner isn't much of an event, and there's obviously nowhere for a drink after. So there doesn't feel like much of an evening "thing". I guess it's lucky that Ash and I don't just love each other; we also really like each other. So spending lots of intense time together alone in the desert with nothing to do was really not a problem, even when we did end up with loads of free time both in the day and in the evening. Despite the fact we still had loads of fun, I do think we were there slightly too long. But if we'd only done 1 night (like most people do) then we would've missed out on the Jeep tour, which was amazing. I guess I'm happier that we left feeling like we'd seen everything, rather than leaving desperately wishing we had a bit longer! So anyone planning a Jordan trip, those are essentially your 2 options with Wadi Rum.
It was time to leave Wadi Rum for our fourth and final stop, so our taxi friend picked us up bright and early in the morning. This leg of the journey was the longest at 4 hours, and he still only charged us 100 dinars. He also went and bought us drinks from the shop which was so sweet of him! The journey actually flew by and we'd set off at 7am so that we'd get to our next hotel nice and early. Our final stop was the most classic "holidayish" one, as we were at a luxury resort at the Dead Sea. We'd booked the Movenpick and it was £130 for 1 night, so you can quickly tell the difference in cost between the Dead Sea and the rest of Jordan! The logic behind us setting off so early from Wadi Rum was that we'd arrive at our hotel by late morning, either check in or store our luggage, and then head straight round the pool and make the most of the day...
Which we technically did. We did head straight out and go round the pool. The only problem is that our good grace with the weather had evidently run out. Approximately 10 minutes after we arrived (bearing in mind that the weather had held for all 4 hours of our car journey), the heavens absolutely opened and the pouring rain didn't stop all day! Me and Ash are both optimists, so we weren't going to let a little rain ruin our mood. We're glass half full, so to speak. And more importantly, we were glass full full about 15 minutes after we got there... full of alcoholic beverages. I love a drink and always have but I figured I'd be fine without any on this holiday. Our 2 nights in the desert were completely dry (very apt) and so never have either of us craved a drink like we did this day. So yes it was raining, but we had beer and wine. Swings and roundabouts.
We didn't want to feel like we were essentially sitting around waiting for the rain to pass. So we decided to go for a little spa day instead! The spa was lovely and had loads of indoor and covered pools. It also had this amazing pool which mimicked the Dead Sea and was rich in minerals and stuff. We sadly both made the mistake of getting the water on our face and wow did it burn!
Our room was ready by the time we came out the spa and I could see why this hotel was so much more expensive than the others. Our room was massive, and the resort as a whole was huge, sprawling and had everything. If I had to pick a leg of the trip for it to rain, this was the most ideal because there was plenty to do. Imagine if it had rained heavily on our day walking round Petra or exploring Wadi Rum!
We basically then hit up all the cool stuff that the resort offered! They did something called chocolate hour, where they bring out a load of hand crafted chocolates, and then it was happy hour so we went to the bar and enjoyed a few drinks. Because I'm always on-brand and very consistent, I managed to choose pretty much the only drink not on the happy hour offer oops!
After a couple of casual nights in the desert, it was nice to get all dressed up for our last night. Since we were in a resort bubble, I also dropped my conservative dressing (just in case anyone thought I thought this outfit was conservative). There were plenty of restaurants to choose from at the hotel but most of them were not Jordanian (Asian, Italian etc). We obviously knew that the food here wouldn't be the most authentic that we'd had during our trip, but we stuck to Jordanian anyway and had a lovely selection of meze bits. We then headed back to the bar for a couple more drinks to round off the night.
Opening the curtains that last morning was a bit of a tense moment. One day of rain is fine we can laugh it off, but ending the holiday on a second day of rain would've been a bit of a bummer. Luckily, the tides had turned back in our favour and we woke up to gorgeous blue skies. The day just kept getting better and better from there as well because we had an absolutely amazing breakfast - just look at that selection of sweet treats! They literally had everything you could ever want. I was starting to understand why it was priced as it was (which, for that kind of holiday, I still don't think £130 a night is too bad).
The hotel had a few different pool areas. The main one was surrounding a "summer pool" (unheated) and a "winter pool" (heated) and there was also a hot tub there too. The other pool was the infinity pool halfway down to the sea which we'd sat at for lunch the day before. We decided to set up camp round the summer pool area but we weren't there for long because we had our sights set on the Dead Sea!
The Dead Sea was such a cool experience! I've been in hypersaline water before when I went to a salt mine in Cape Verde but this was even cooler because it's natural and you can feel all the minerals in the water. Again, gotta be very careful not to splash any anywhere near your face. We had loads of fun floating and bobbing around. Ash was absolutely loving life! It felt like something cool to tick off the bucket list too as it's the lowest point on earth. Which we definitely felt by the amount of stairs we had to go down to get to it! Because Ash is an absolute 10/10 boyfriend, he did all the steps twice because I hadn't taken my phone down with us and realised halfway in that it actually would be cool to get photos of us in the Dead Sea. And it's because of that 10/10 boyfriend behaviour that I won't pass comment on the quality of the photos he got of me in the Dead Sea (no comment at all).
Can you believe how much we managed to pack in to our going-home-day? Our flight wasn't until the evening and we were only an hour away from the airport, which meant we had until 1:30pm to soak up every last drop of goodness. We had iced coffees, we went in the freezing cold pool, we sunbathed, we went in the hot tub, we had cocktails, we went in the heated pool. We basically lived a whole week of some people's holidays in just a morning! A very very very perfect morning.
The good vibes continued. At the airport we got to try Jordanian McDonalds (foreign McDonalds is always fun isn't it) and then we were blessed with seats in front of each other without paying for seat selection! I was even more blessed because my seat was an extra leg room one (dreamy). We could've been blessed with seats together as someone offered to swap but come on, am I a rookie? I wasn't going to give up my extra leg room seat to sit next to my favourite person in the world - I'd just spent all week with him!
Honestly what a perfect week it was. It felt like such a special and magical holiday for us to share together. It was a brand new country for us both, lots of brand new experiences and we went to so many amazing places. I really feel like our itinerary worked out perfectly, I loved every single place we stayed and we just had the best time. We definitely left feeling like we wished we had just a tiny bit more time at the Dead Sea, but I think if we'd been able to enjoy our rainy day to the max then we would've timed it all perfectly.
Jordan is such a beautiful country and one that I will be recommending to everyone! There are still plenty of stops we didn't have time to cram in too, so who knows - maybe we have another Jordan trip in us some day. Until then though, I will get on with convincing Ash about next year's weird and wonderful destination. This holiday is the perfect case study on how going somewhere a bit different can be the best decision ever!
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