Amman is a large city, with a bustling center, heavily gridlocked at many hours of the day. Owing to this, more and more commerce and leisure options are appearing in the suburbs.

Sights & Culture

Downtown Amman is hectic, shops spill out into the streets and street vendors setup tables anywhere there is space. Like many developing nations, similar types of stores seem to cluster together, near the restaurant we at at on our final night is a row of six pet food shops, all selling more or less identical items. I cannot recall seeing a single pet store anywhere else in Amman.

Amman’s previous uptake in tourism, prior to the war in Syria is evident in a numerous souvenir shops selling various tat, generally identical and generally produced in China. Any organised tour you go on will take you to at least one, and the game between vendor and guide, where the guide tells the group before hand he’s going to say what a good deal you get from a particular vendor and you should reply ‘no thanks’ is well understood by all parties, but it persists as there is no such thing as bad publicity.

Downtown has very little in the way of international shopping, this is left to the suburbs and the malls.

Cultural & Islamic Villages

As part of the same complex as the Automobile Museum and the Children's Museum is the Cultural and Islamic villages. A collection of ruins, in various states of repair that visitors are able to explore including a amphitheatre as well as a number of shops (largely tourist focused) and a small cinema.

It is a popular venue, when the sun is out, for families to picnic or otherwise spent time in a green space outside of the busy city.

Museums & Galleries

The Royal Automobile Museum

Set in a park, along with the Children’s Museum and the Cultural Village, the entrance to the museum is preceded by the vehicle used in the film The Martian, filmed in the Jordanian desert of Wadi Rum.

Inside is a collection of automobiles and motorbikes owned by the previous Jordanian King, King Hussein. It is a remarkable collection, all in pristine condition and with clear evidence of regular maintenance and cleaning.

Also part of the exhibition is a room detailing the building of the Hejaz railway that was so important to Jordan during the two world wars

The Jordan Museum

The Jordan Museum is set over two floors and its most famous draw is the Dead Sea Scrolls. These ancient documents still hold mysteries and they are remarkable to see.

The museum also has a permanent exhibition on the history of Jordan, with a number of the missing relics from the small museum in Philadelphia on display as well as a wealth of other treasures. Highlighting the long history of this area and the many cultures who have been a dominant force in their development. There is even a statue, thought to be the oldest human representation ever created.

The top floor of the museum is aimed more at children, and goes through a history of famous Arabic people through history, and their contributions to fields as diverse as surgery, mathematics and astronomy. The theme is vaguely reminiscent of Doctor Who with a Tardis like introduction room with a film with Sir Ben Kingsley acting as the narrator and a famous figure of history, which then opens a hidden door to the past. There are a number of interactive displays through this exhibit as well as activities to take part in such as searching the moon or colouring in animals from an ancient bestiary.

Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts

Housed in two buildings on opposite sides of a oval park, the National Gallery of Fine Arts has a focus on local talent and does not crowd the space. The museum is well curated and the pieces are good. On the top floor is a library and cafe space, frequented by local artist and students..

Parks & Gardens

AlHussein Public Parks

A larger park housing the Cultural Village, and the Automotive Museum. Worth exploring.

Restaurants & Bars

There is a wide range of restaurants outside of the city center, though less so for bars which tend to be central and fairly rare as it is a muslim majority country. International chains like Pizza Hut, KFC and McDonalds are surprisingly common and seem to have more of a cache to them than they do in Europe. This is reminiscent of my visits to Russia twenty years before when crowds stretched out the door in Moscow for the first and only McDonalds.

The majority of eating options in downtown are local style restaurants, offering traditional middle eastern food, heavily served with olive oil. Our guide remarked a day without olive oil is not something a Jordanian will ever experience, he himself ensures he starts his day with a shot of olive oil.

The prices are low, the ambience is friendly, boisterous and welcoming and the food is good. Alcohol is almost impossible to get at most restaurants.

Compared to the UK, there are very few bars in Amman, though Books@cafe, a gay bar and nightclub above and through a book store and Sekrab a dive bar with its menu printed on number plates deserve a mention for being opposite ends of the spectrum. Books@cafe has a relaxed up market attitude and, whilst homosexuality is not illegal in Jordan, its not exactly encouraged either, ensuring Books@cafe is low key enough most of my companions had not realised we were in a gay bar until they were told a few days later. Sekrab has a pool table, beer on tap, burgers and is aiming for a US vibe that it never quite hits due to the hookahs and a few other local anachronisms. It is however a fun bar to spent a few hours.

Shoppping

There are a number of shopping malls in the outskirts of Amman, the primary amongst them being the Abdali mall and the Boulevard.

Abdali mall

is a large modern mall, with all the international shops you’d imagine and a reasonable food court.

Boulevard

The Boulevard is a gated street with upmarket restaurants and shops on two levels. During my time there they also had a series of Christmas items, such as a huge tree and a sealed room full of snow for snowball fights as it rarely snows in the middle east.

Surrounding the city, a series of malls exist in the circles to give easy access to residents without having to do too much travelling. Outside of the city, the malls are the primary shopping method and whilst the city center has many local stores, outside International ones are more common.

Amman