Every savvy traveler knows a well-packed bag is essential to enjoy your journey to the max. However, when visiting the Middle East and countries like Jordan, many travelers are stumped with what to bring: which outlet is used in Jordan? What should you wear? How much cash should you bring? Well, we’re here to help. Here are 10 essentials to put on your Jordan packing list.
1) Passport
First among your Jordan tour essentials, is your passport. You’ll need this to enter the country, for checking into hotels, proving your age in bars (if you like to drink), and to provide identification, if neccessary. Also keep in mind how easy it is to take a trip to Saudi Arabia or Israel from Jordan, so make sure you have your passport handy throughout your trip if you’d like to go on a spontaneous day trip across the border to Jerusalem.
2) Sunscreen
Jordan’s beaches, including Coral Beach and Amman Beach, are some of the best in the Middle East. They hug the Red Sea and Dead Sea and are perfect for sunbathing and enjoying the tranquility of the waterside. To protect your skin, sunscreen is definitely one of the things to pack for a Jordan vacation. This is also one of our Jordan travel tips for outside of the beach as well, as it’s a sunny country, averaging 310 days of sunshine per year!
3) Power Adapter
When making your packing list for Jordan, one of the most important things you’ll need is a power adapter, so you can keep your phone and other devices charged to take beautiful pictures of the wondrous sites in Jordan. Jordan uses the Type F plug, which is the two pinned socket and compatible with European devices, and also compatible with type C and plug E. In Jordan, sockets are standardized to 230-volt power and 50Hz.
4) Cash: Jordanian Dinar
Inside Jordan’s big cities like Aqaba and Amman, you might be able to get by with a credit card; but in general, cash is preferable to credit card in Jordan. Many street food spots around Jordan are cash only, You won’t find many vendors in the souks of Amman who accept credit card – and anyway, what’s the fun in bartering for a lower price without physical cash?
1 Jordanian Dinar costs around 1.4 US Dollars, but check the conversion rate at the time of your trip. If you want to avoid spending all your cash at once, we recommend you pre-book an airport transfer ahead of time, so you don’t need to worry about dealing with cash on the spot when you arrive. Check out our full travel advice for spending money in Jordan.
5) Camera
A picture paints a thousand words, so this packing guide for Jordan wouldn’t be complete without telling you to bring your camera to get those perfect shots of Petra, the Seventh Wonder of the World. If you use your phone’s camera, then you could consider investing in a waterproof case, to allow you to take pictures of yourself floating weightlessly in the Dead Sea.
6) Reusable Water Bottle
Staying hydrated keeps your energy levels high. One of our top Jordanian weather and packing tips, which is applicable in general when considering what to pack when traveling to the middle east, is that it can get hot here, especially during the summer months, so you’ll want to drink water frequently. Bringing a reusable water bottle will help you do this, even when you’re not near stores or restaurants. If you’re wondering whether it’s safe to drink the tap water in Jordan, the answer is, yes it is! However, some people find it has a mild salty taste, so you may want to buy bottled water during your trip.
7) Hiking Shoes & Sandals
Many of Jordan’s best sites like Petra, the Jabal Umm ad Dami mountain, and the Wadi Rum Valley must be expired on foot, so you’ll want some sturdy footwear to walk around in. A good pair of hiking shoes or sandals is a must, when deciding what to wear in Jordan; we recommend bringing some water shoes too, so you can explore the incredible desert oasis of Wadi al-Hasa. If you choose to camp in a Bedouin tent, the floor will be cold, so you may want to bring slip-on shoes, sandals or flip-flops, for those late-night trips to the bathroom. And if you want to bring your Nike Air Jordans, because they have the same name as the country, that’s up to you!
8) A Good Book
For those lazy days lounging by the hotel pool or even in the Dead Sea, a good book is the classic way to pass the time, and catch up on some reading. We recommend “A Leap of Faith,” a memoir by Jordan’s Queen Noor, or “Appointment with Death,” a classic detective novel set in Jordan by Britain’s most famous mystery writer Agatha Christie.
9) Middle East-Friendly Clothes
Jordan’s temperatures range from cool at night to mild during the day in the winter months, to scorching all day long in the summer. Even in the height of the summer heat, you’ll need to bring modest clothing, to fit in with the local culture and to be able to enter certain places, such as mosques. In late fall, winter and early spring, you should bring a warm sweatshirt or jacket. It’s also a good idea to bring clothes that can be layered, during late fall, winter and early spring. Read more about what to wear in Jordan.
10) A Sense Of Adventure
What will elevate your visit from simple tourism to an unforgettable trip-of-a-lifetime is your sense of adventure. This costs nothing, takes up no space in your suitcase, and you get to carry it everywhere you go. Don’t know where to start? We have you covered; take a look at the best places to go in Jordan, or browse all our Jordan day tours and package trip experiences to make your trip amazing!
Time to Make Your Desert Kingdom Packing List!
After deciding on the places to see in your Jordan sightseeing essentials list, you’ll want to plan your packing list for Jordan. Including the right gear will let you not only pay respect to the local traditions but also keep you comfortable, energized, and safe, and will help you create joyful memories and record it all – and make your friends jealous! – with the perfect photos that captured the whole experience. This was our Jordan travel checklist. If you’d like to learn more, you might consider checking out these guides on the Lost City of Petra, and the best things you can only do in Jordan.
