· MIDDLE EAST · JORDAN ·
Is Jordan Expensive to Travel? (A three-week road trip budget)
Scribbled by Claire ◊ 25 Aug 2024
Are you trying to figure out how much a trip to Jordan might cost? For our recent road trip around Jordan, we have, very precisely, tallied up our trip costs. This includes food, car rental, gas, hotels, entry fees, and more, to give you an idea of what a budget to mid-range road trip in Jordan might cost you!
I’ve been asked this a lot – is Jordan expensive to travel?
The Middle East is typically not a cheap region to travel around, and Jordan is no exception to this. A strong currency and a lack of facilities that cater to lower budget travellers makes the country a potentially expensive holiday destination!
If you’ve already decided on this captivating country for your next road trip, then the subsequent question is usually ‘how much will a holiday to Jordan cost?’. Travel budgets tend to dominate a lot of the trip planning process, so we thought we’d share ours to save you a little time!
This post includes everything we spent over three weeks of our trip in Jordan, based on two people travelling together and renting a car.
IN THIS GUIDE //
Is Jordan Expensive for Tourists?
THE CURRENCY IN JORDAN
TOTAL JORDAN ROAD TRIP COST
SPENDING ON OUR JORDAN TRIP
HOW TO MAKE YOUR JORDAN TRIP CHEAPER
CASH OR CARD IN JORDAN?
FINAL THOUGHTS – IS JORDAN EXPENSIVE?
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What is the Currency in Jordan?
The currency in Jordan is the Jordanian Dinar (JOD or JD). All the costs in this guide are detailed in JOD, so check the conversion rate for your home currency.
The JOD is split into ten dirhams, and 100 piastres.
The Jordanian currency is reasonably strong, which can make Jordan an expensive country to travel in, depending on where you are from.
Currently, in 2025, the conversion rates look something like this:
1 GBP gets you 0.96 JOD
1 USD gets you 0.71 JOD
1 EUR gets you 0.81 JOD
1 ILS gets you 0.20 JOD
As you can see, with most currencies you don’t get you very much in terms of Jordanian dinars. On currency exchange alone, Jordan is expensive.
Is Jordan Expensive – Our Total Trip Budget
After totalling everything in the categories above, the total cost for our 20-day Jordan road trip was 2364 JOD (£2600/$3068).
This is a daily per person cost of 65 JOD (£72/$85) based on two people sharing.
So, Jordan is subjectively not a cheap travel destination (depending on your definition of cheap!). Although we spent very little on tours, restaurants or alcohol, Jordan is still very expensive for a typical backpacker budget.
This sum does not include international flights, or any other expenses incurred before arriving apart from the Jordan Pass.
Is Jordan Expensive for Tourists – Our Spending
Our Jordan travel budget breakdown is split into seven categories:
◊ Gas
◊ Car rental
◊ Attractions
◊ Food and Drink
◊ Alcohol
◊ Accommodation
◊ Miscellaneous
Below is some general information about their costs.
Gas Prices in Jordan
We found our gas costs in Jordan to be quite reasonable!
Although most road trips in Jordan have a fair bit of driving, the country is quite small, so most days you won’t be burning through an entire tank of gas. Our entire trip was around 1500 kilometres in total.
You will have the choice of Gasoline 90, 95 or 98. We suggest you go with the cheapest which is Gasoline 90 (unless your rental car company advises you otherwise). Gasoline 90 is around 0.92 JOD per litre (so currently, in 2025, about £0.98/$1.30 per litre). This means gas is not particularly cheap, however your mileage will not be crazy high either.
Car Hire Costs in Jordan
We hired a (very basic) two-wheel drive, automatic transmission vehicle through Discover Cars for 30 JOD (£34/$42) a day.
Car hire in Jordan will likely be a reasonably large proportion of your Jordan trip expenses. Your cost will differ based on the vehicle you select, the company you go with, how long in advance you book, and the length of your trip. Check out our post for more information on renting and driving a car in Jordan.
CAR HIRE FOR YOUR JORDAN TRIP
We always rent our vehicles all over the world, including our recent trips in Oman, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Jordan and Morocco, with Discover Cars. They’re often the most affordable, plus they paid out immediately on an insurance claim we made when our car took some heavy damage in Sicily. We fully recommend them.
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TAKE A LOOK BELOW OR CHECK CAR RENTAL
Entry Costs in Jordan
Entry costs for a typical trip to Jordan can be quite high – ours were!
If you opt to get the Jordan Pass online before arriving, your expenses should be significantly reduced. All the basic entrance fees to places like Petra, Wadi Rum, Jerash, the castles and more are included with the Jordan Pass. Be aware that there are some tourist sites, like Wadi Mujib, Petra at Night, and Mount Nebo which are not included in the pass.
The Jordan Pass cost us 80 JOD per person, plus a card fee of 4.53 JOD, all paid online before arrival. It is quite expensive, but this amount includes the entry visa, which is usually 40 JOD (for a Jordan tourist visa from the United Kingdom). In effect, the 40 JOD difference is the cost for the attractions including three days in Petra.
The only other expense was the Jeep hire in Wadi Rum, which was very expensive. For more information on organising and costs, check out our complete Wadi Rum guide.
We tend to avoid most organised tours, so they take up very little of our budget. If you like to book lots of excursions, then this category of your budget is likely to be even higher! Check out some general tour prices by having a look at Jordan tours on Get Your Guide.
Food and Drink Costs in Jordan
We found food prices to be quite reasonable in Jordan.
Being thrifty, budget-travellers means we are careful spenders when it comes to food and drink. We ate in few restaurants, and took full advantage of any included hotel breakfasts, and often had groceries and fresh fruit for meals to keep costs down.
We visited several very well-stocked supermarkets in Amman and Aqaba and bought a lot of bread, hummus, and dips from small local stores. The supermarket food quality is high and moderately priced. For reference, food costs in Jordan appear to be similar to standard Western European/United States norms, but more expensive than the United Kingdom.
We went to an assortment of restaurants of all standards and styles! Some price examples:
◊ A large, decent (not chain brand) pizza to share was 8 JOD
◊ A posh vegan burger type thing from a shiny mall was 5 JOD
◊ A decent sized falafel flatbread with salad was less than 2 JOD
◊ A (very large) selection of vegetarian curries that we ate over two meals was 16 JOD
We are vegetarian so cannot really advise on the quality of meat dishes; however, they are ubiquitous and reasonably priced in local restaurants.
Water and soft drinks were not excessively priced. We filter water whenever possible to keep prices low (and for the environment – we read that Jordan does not recycle plastic). I also have a minor Coca Cola habit which costs us on every trip we take – in Jordan soft drinks were not excessively priced.
When tipping in Jordan, check your bill to see if service is already included. If it isn’t, ten percent is considered a standard amount.
Alcohol Costs in Jordan
We didn’t drink much alcohol on this trip (most of it took place during Ramadan). The only time we had any alcoholic beverages was in Aqaba after spotting a bunch of exciting beers.
Aqaba has tax free alcohol and is cheaper than the rest of the country (although no alcohol in Jordan is particularly cheap!). There is a duty-free alcohol shop around the 5th Circle in Amman, although being there during Ramadan meant we couldn’t visit. We probably wouldn’t have anyway – drinking in Muslim countries where it’s not the cultural norm feels bizarre to us.
It is also possible to pick up slightly cheaper duty-free alcohol on arrival at Queen Alia International Airport.
Accommodation Costs in Jordan
We reserved our accommodation as we went along, booking on the day through booking.com.
This means that it is likely we overpaid in some cases (it is often much cheaper to reserve far in advance). We also booked a free night in the W Amman by redeeming points (absolutely loved this hotel and the absolutely insane breakfast).
In Jordan, hotel prices and value for money seem to vary unpredictably. From well-priced, locally run guesthouses to crazy expensive, ant-infested, high-end resorts (looking at you, Dead Sea area), there was a large range in terms of property quality.
Overall, I’d say that the room standards were lower for the price compared with other countries we travelled to around that same time (like Oman and Saudi Arabia). Generally, we think shoestring budget travellers will struggle with accommodation in Jordan. There are cheap options, but not necessarily good ones.
Also, be aware that the Wadi Rum camps listed for only a few pounds a night often end up being far higher when transfers, food, and tours are all included. Ensure to confirm before booking.
One major advantage of hotels in Jordan is that there are rarely any parking fees.
Miscellaneous Costs
We spent very little else that has not been included in the above sections.
The only two items were some bite cream (forgot to pack this and Petra was unexpectedly buggy!) and sim cards for our phones. At 5 JOD, the bite cream was expensive, as it seems to be in most countries.
The sim cards from the Orange kiosk at the airport were also relatively expensive. They cost 15 JOD each for 20 Gb of data, unlimited local minutes and texts for 30 days. Although expensive, the data speeds and coverage were great, plus the kiosk staff were amazingly helpful, with fluent English.
A more affordable option is an e-sim with Airalo, which, for coverage in Jordan, is currently $5 for a week (great for shorter trips). We’ve used Airalo literally hundreds of times and they’ve not let us down yet – check them out.
How to Make Your Jordan Trip Cheaper
We are not shoestring-budget backpackers. The itinerary we did was very comfortable and mid-range (we think!), all done without pre-booking.
Lodging costs | these could have been significantly less (we always overspend on accommodation – it’s our biggest weakness). There are good local guesthouses for modest nightly rates in most cities that were cheaper than the places we chose. Booking ahead helps significantly with reducing costs (most of the time).
Car hire | Reserving your car as far ahead as possible almost always saves money (we went on a whim, so this was not an option and booked our vehicle just a few days in advance). Using public transport and JETT buses is a great choice if you cannot drive or want to reduce costs further. The more people who are sharing a car, the better value, obviously.
Sharing | by splitting the Jeep costs at Wadi Rum with a group of people might well save you a lot of money, too.
Beer | I got curious about those crazy 13% Petra Beers they were selling in Aqaba. I had too many. I then ate a pizza. You could easily make better decisions than me and save money!
This means there is a fair amount of money you could shave off this budget. Choosing cheaper accommodation and booking ahead, reserving a better value car, and not drinking alcohol are all ways that would be easy to reduce this total.
With high prices for tour costs in Wadi Rum and the Jordan Pass though, Jordan is expensive no matter how you frame it!
IS IT BEST TO USE CASH OR CARD IN JORDAN?
Credit and debit card facilities are widespread across Jordan. Gas stations, most shops, hotels, and restaurants all took card, however we mostly used cash because it’s the only way we manage to budget anything. Roadside fruit stalls and a few small village stores did not accept card.
It goes without saying but take cash into Petra; the vendors do not take card. Also take all the money you will need into Wadi Rum, most places are unable to process payment by card.
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RELATED POST // TOP TIPS FOR DRIVING IN JORDAN
Final Thoughts – Is Jordan Expensive for Tourists?
We loved our Jordan road trip and wouldn’t alter what we did or the amount we spent (to be fair though, we had zero plan and no budget). After our trip, the pound sterling to Jordanian dinar tanked, so we were lucky that our trip cost a fair bit less that it could have!
Jordan is definitely an expensive country to travel in, however it is not impossible to get great value for money with some thoughtful planning and a little insight. It is also worth every penny!
We hope you have an affordable trip!
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Thank you, Claire + Nick
great article and useful for our trip in April 2023
Hi, that’s lovely to hear, thanks so much! I hope you have an amazing trip to Jordan!
Hi Neil
My wife and I arrive in Amman on April 1st. We will spend 3 nights (to fulfil our Jordan pass requirements) before heading to the WestBank for about 10 days then make our way back to Amman and to Petra etc.
We are from Australia.
Thanks for sharing this detailed experience of your travel expenses to Jordan. I have a planned trip for March,2023. Your article is really gives me an useful insight, and should help plan my spending when in Jordan. I’ll also be going from the United Kingdom. A bit surprised with the strength of their currency though, albeit the exc rate is still relatively the same as referenced in your article.I would like to know more about the internet coverage in places like Petra & Wadi Rum. Also, is best to exchange ££s there in Amman or locally before travelling into Jordan. Thanks for the informative article.
Hi, from memory our coverage on Orange wasn’t great in Wadi Rum and was intermittent in Petra depending on where you were. In Wadi Musa the coverage was fine.
We took cash out of ATMs (we’d prefer not to carry lots of cash) so didn’t actually do any currency exchanges, however from general experience, it’s almost always worth exchanging in the country you’re travelling to. Avoid changing cash at the airport though if possible – it’s terrible and they charge! I think it would depend on where you are flying to and your plans.
Great article, thank you. I am planning on going in June 2023, and got a little bit scared about the costs. However, I think that accommodation cost isn’t too bad, and I think we will fit in the £80 per person, per day limit if we stay smart with food! Thank you so much for sharing.
Thank you so much for your comment! You can absolutely 100% do it on that budget. We aren’t even that cheap and managed pretty well in Jordan, it’s not as expensive as people make it out to be! I hope you have a fantastic time on your trip in June 🙂