I was in Amman for some time with my job and I found it an interesting but also a very strange place!
Getting there: I flew with Royal Jordanian from Heathrow. British Mediterranean also does direct flights. Return flights tend to cost around £300 but if you fly with an airline such as ... Read review
Location. The Kempinski Amman is located in Amman, Jordan, five kilometres from the city ... more
centre and nine kilometres from the Citadel and Roman amphitheatre. Hotel Features. This 12 storey hotel is located in the centre of Amman and features sleek and futuristic architecture. The Kempinski Amman offers guests the use of its health club, which has a 24 hour gym, two aerobic and dance studios, and a heated outdoor swimming pool. There is also a separate pool for children. The spa includes a sauna and Turkish bath, and Swedish massage and reflexology treatments are also offered. Complimentary wireless Internet access is available throughout public areas. The hotel offers several dining options. Caballeros Cuban Restaurant offers Cuban and Mexican dishes, and a cigar lounge. There is also a Cuban band and a dance floor. Via Appia serves gourmet Italian cuisine in a candlelit setting with live piano music. Le Café Restaurant offers poolside dining from a buffet of international dishes, and Le Café Lounge serves light refreshments including afternoon tea. The hotel offers five meeting rooms, the largest of which holds up to 72 persons. Strikers Entertainment Centre features an eight lane bowling alley and an arcade room which offers snooker, table tennis, air hockey, and darts. Guestrooms. The Kempinski Amman's 283 air conditioned guestrooms are decorated in warm tones and have contemporary furniture. Amenities include satellite television, direct dial phones, dial up Internet access, and minibars. Marble bathrooms include hair dryers and bathrobes. Expert Tip. The ancient Roman amphitheatre on Citadel Hill, nine kilometres from the hotel, was built under Emperor Antoninus Pius for theatrical productions and is still used today for sporting and cultural events.
Information: :Price is per double room per night and may vary depending on date booked...
Location. The Kempinski Amman is located in Amman, Jordan, five kilometres from the city ... more
centre and nine kilometres from the Citadel and Roman amphitheatre. Hotel Features. This 12 storey hotel is located in the centre of Amman and features sleek and futuristic architecture. The Kempinski Amman offers guests the use of its health club, which has a 24 hour gym, two aerobic and dance studios, and a heated outdoor swimming pool. There is also a separate pool for children. The spa includes a sauna and Turkish bath, and Swedish massage and reflexology treatments are also offered. Complimentary wireless Internet access is available throughout public areas. The hotel offers several dining options. Caballeros Cuban Restaurant offers Cuban and Mexican dishes, and a cigar lounge. There is also a Cuban band and a dance floor. Via Appia serves gourmet Italian cuisine in a candlelit setting with live piano music. Le Café Restaurant offers poolside dining from a buffet of international dishes, and Le Café Lounge serves light refreshments including afternoon tea. The hotel offers five meeting rooms, the largest of which holds up to 72 persons. Strikers Entertainment Centre features an eight lane bowling alley and an arcade room which offers snooker, table tennis, air hockey, and darts. Guestrooms. The Kempinski Amman's 283 air conditioned guestrooms are decorated in warm tones and have contemporary furniture. Amenities include satellite television, direct dial phones, dial up Internet access, and minibars. Marble bathrooms include hair dryers and bathrobes. Expert Tip. The ancient Roman amphitheatre on Citadel Hill, nine kilometres from the hotel, was built under Emperor Antoninus Pius for theatrical productions and is still used today for sporting and cultural events.
Information: :Price is per double room per night and may vary depending on date booked...
The hotel is well equipped for hosting business and social gatherings of every description ... more
and enjoys a prime location at the heart of the business and diplomatic area of Amman.InterContinental Jordan hotel offers a choice of fine international cuisine, with the largest and most unique variety of restaurants and lounges within the city of Amman. Guests can also enjoy 24 hour room service.The winner of Best Business Hotel in Amman Award of the Business Traveller Magazine.
Information: :Price is per double room per night and may vary depending on date booked...
NH Hotels, the hotel chain leader in Europe, with more than 300 hotels in 20 countries in Europe, Latin America and Africa. Enter into our web site and find the best available tariff at all times
Advantages: Cheap, cultural Disadvantages: Boring, dusty, leering men, lack of pavements
I was in Amman for some time with my job and I found it an interesting but also a very strange place!
Getting there: I flew with Royal Jordanian from Heathrow. British Mediterranean also does direct flights. Return flights tend to cost around £300 but if you fly with an airline such as Romanian Airlines via Bucharest you can find flight as low as £200. The flight time is around four and a half hours.
Arrival: I arrived ... .../>
Geography:
Amman is located in a very hilly area of north-western Jordan. The city spans over an area of nineteen hills. Most regions of Amman have gained their names from the hills and mountains on whose slopes they lie.
Population:
About 2 million people. The population is constantly expanding due to refugees from Palestine and Iraq.
Getting around:
Most of the pavements are broken or lead ... more
I was in Amman for some time with my job and I found it an interesting but also a very strange place!
Getting there: I flew with Royal Jordanian from Heathrow. British Mediterranean also does direct flights. Return flights tend to cost around £300 but if you fly with an airline such as Romanian Airlines via Bucharest you can find flight as low as £200. The flight time is around four and a half hours.
Arrival: I arrived early in the morning into Queen Alia International Airport. Everything was closed and we waited for our visas patiently. Baggage reclaim was better than the UK, quick and easy with an array of porters around to get your bags off the carousal and help you with them. Your bags have to go through another X ray machine as you exit the terminal. The airport is 30 miles south of the city and you can either catch a bus or take a taxi.
I wasn't too impressed with Amman. I did go during Ramadan though so perhaps it's better at other times of the year! The shops had odd opening times due to this and you ended up in lots of afternoons with nothing to do. I would advise against going during Ramadan if you want to do the touristy things.
Even when I covered up and ignored all the men I still got comments, men trying to grope me and being followed which was not particularly fun. As it is a Muslim country it is important that you dress modestly, I suggest for ladies, loose trousers, loose light tops and take plenty of shawls/pasminas with you. I would advise women to not go into a bar alone, wear a wedding ring to make you appear more respectable and do not go out with wet hair as this apparently implies that you have recently had sex!
It was not a pretty place. Lots of dust, rubbish and wasteland but the city is apparently being regenerated and there is a lot of building work going on.
Geography: Amman is located in a very hilly area of north-western Jordan. The city spans over an area of nineteen hills. Most regions of Amman have gained their names from the hills and mountains on whose slopes they lie. Population: About 2 million people. The population is constantly expanding due to refugees from Palestine and Iraq.
Getting around: Most of the pavements are broken or lead to no-where. There are buses but we were advised not to use them. All writing is in Arabic and there are no timetables. The main wait to get around Amman is by taxi. It's very cheap with a 10-minute journey costing the equivalent of 50p. Beware-the drivers will try and rip you off. Always insist on the meter being put back to zero when you get in, do not believe if they tell you it's broken!
Tourist Attractions: I would definitely recommend a visit to the Roman Amphitheatre down town. It was built in around 2nd Century AD and at it’s peak could hold 6000 people. Also in here is a museum, which is very interesting and has Jordanian folk weavings, pottery and traditional clothing. The entrance ticket is 2 Dinars which is about 70 pence.
North of Amman is the Jordanian Archaeological Museum. Highlights include the Dead Sea Scrolls and other artefacts.
Terrorism: The current Foreign Office advise is: “You should be aware of the threat from terrorism in Jordan. British and other Western interests may be particular targets although attacks could be indiscriminate.” If you are planning a visit I suggest you visit their website.
Unfortunately there have been a couple of recent incidents. In September 2006, a shooting incident in downtown Amman near the Amphitheatre left one British national dead and a number of other tourists injured. In November 2005, suicide bombers killed 60 people and injured almost 100 in hotels in Amman.
My personal view is that nowhere is really safe from terrorism (especially not in the UK) and Amman is not an unsafe place to visit, but I would follow any government advice and remain vigilant.
Communication: I posted some letters from Amman and they took over a month to reach the UK and were very battered and somewhat dirty on arrival! Most mobiles will work but check with your provider. Expect to pay around 50 pence to send a text message. There are a lot of Internet cafes dotted around and you can expect to pay between 1-3 dinars an hour.
Eating: I ate a lot of Macdonalds (awful I know) but the local restarants are great. I suggest the Wild Jordan Café, Downtown. They do organic food-very light and healthy and the terraces has nice views. Fakr el-Din for Lebanese food in a very stylish villa and Noodasia in Abdoun Circle for delicious Asian food.
You will find a couple of Starbucks (yay!) but for the local coffee bar experience try Gerards at Abdoun Circle for waffles, coffee and pastries.
Amman is worth a visit; you will probably enjoy a couple of days there. Personally I would use it as a base from which to explore Petra, Jerash, The Dead Sea, Aqaba and Wadi Rum. Buy yourself a couple of guidebooks such as the Lonely Planet and the Rough Guide, learn some basic Arabic and go with an open mind!
Advantages: I really don't know Disadvantages: I really don't know
Amman is the city capital of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Its origins are dated back to the Neolithic age (about 6500 BC) as proved by the archaeological finds in the area.
Amman, like Rome, lays on seven hills that here are called "Jabal".
Amman has seen the rising and the falling of many civilizations.
In the 3rd century BC its name was Rabath Ammon; then was dominated by the Assyrians followed by the Persians. The Greeks crossed the Aegean ... ...like earthquake.
In 1887 Amman was elected as the city capital of the Circassian Kingdom.
2 March 1921: the Prince Abdullah nominates Amman capital of the Hashemite Kingdom.
And after this brief history of this city, we can start our tour.
Moving around Amman is easy. Just take a taxi, they are cheap and most of the drivers speak English. We can start visiting the "golden souk" or gold market: a complex of alleys with hundreds of small shops ...
traveller55 22.05.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Amman (Jordan)
Amman was known as Philadelphia by the romans who have left their mark here with many ruins to explore and cretainly one of the best preserved amphitheatres I have seen.This is in the downtown area of Amman and can easily be got to by Taxi, do get a Taxi from your Hotel asd they will ensure a good taxis that will treat you well, nevere ever pay more than £3 for a trip within the city!!. Make sure the meter is running too. Shopping in this city is ... ...and downtown, each have their specialist shops such as Patchi a great chocohlics shop, Mexx for great clothes and each of the individual shops that are selling everything imaginable,but do not haggle in these shops they are priced Items ,Also look for a Cermaics shop called Silsal who produce authentic Jordanian ceramicware it may seem a bit pricey but each piece in individually a piece of art. In downtown at the markets you can haggle a little. ...
iainkay1 22.10.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Amman (Jordan)
Advantages: great experiences for low prices Disadvantages: lots of sand :D
i was born here and have visited a few times since leaving when i was young. it is a very cultural city and the people will definitly eye you out if you look foreign. the men can indeed be leering but they never do any real damage. when it comes to shopping, don't be afraid to try and bargain with the shopkeepers, they will budge if you try hard enough. the food is delicious, so it would be smart to lose a few pounds before going to Amman. Mecca ... ...the top floor with the best dessert. around the same are of abdun mall there is the Tigris resteraunt which is amazing! 2 other places to look out for are Whispers and Blue Fig, they are resteraunt/bars and they are very nice! at most resteraunts there are belly dancers and dancing so there is always something fun to do at night. the best places for bargain shopping are swefia and downtown amman. definitly bargain with the shopkeepers there! oh and ...
n4ballack 31.08.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Amman (Jordan)
Advantages: A good capital but I didn't find it very interesting Disadvantages: Nothing much to do.
...ideas on going to places in the middle East then I strongly recommend that you go to Jordan but don't really spend that long in Amman because their aint that much to see!! If you want to learn more on Jordan then see all my other reviews on Jordan. ...
Inferno 07.12.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Amman (Jordan)
Value for Money
Shopping
Nightlife
Ease of getting around
Family Friendly
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and went to the main desk and got checked in quickly. Now I just go to the main desk.
The rest of the lobby area comprises mostly a large lounge. Many of the columns have a sofa circling the base. There are clusters of tables and chairs. At the far end of the lobby is a cafe. To the left is one set of lifts and some more shops. To the right, down a corridor and round a few more columns, are a souvenir shop, a couple of restaurants and another set of lifts. It is all very labyrinthine.
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I read the first review of the Intercontinental Hotel in Amman and it gives a pretty good description of it so I will just share my own impressions here.
In general, I liked it. Despite being quite old, this five-star hotel looks quite impressive from the outside and has been refurbished inside. My husband and I stayed in a big room with a king size bed, a bedside table, a desk, a coffee-table, a TV, two armchairs and a mini-bar. The disappointment was they didn?t have any tea/coffee-making facilities but they did have complimentary fruit and water. The room was overlooking a pool which, unfortunately, was empty. And, of course, you could see a great big mosque on the horizon. That mosque drove us both completely mad. We had calls to prayer four times a day, with the earliest around 4 o?clock in the morning. As the room was stuffy as ...
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