Overnight layover in Amman
 

Our flight from Istanbul arrives in Amman at 22:50. We depart the next morning (to ORD) at 10:30. Business class both legs.

Does anyone have suggestions on the best way to handle this overnight comfortably? A couch in the RJ Crown Club Lounge will not cut it. I'm with my wife, so we will need a real room with a real bed.

Thanks.

You automatically get put up at the airport Golden Tulip Hotel. It's an ok place with a few negatives. You're also free to get your own hotel in town but of course you have to pay for it yourself and you have to get your own visa.

If you want to avail of the Golden Tulip just go to the transfer counter.

hi, would the same apply for a 21hr layover, incoming from London around midnight, leaving at 2100hrs. Both in J on RJ ?

thanks

Golden Tulip
 

Golden Tulip adequate. Ask where the FREE transfer bus leaves from outside the terminal. You may want to get an east-facing room (since you'll be gone by 8:30-am) as the sun can be murder, and the ventilation system is sketchy.

Curious about this. Since we'll be arriving at the hotel after 11pm, are you saying that the west-facing rooms will still be stifling from the setting sun?

Assuming that you wish to go elsewhere..

Marriott- Down Town or Dead Sea, both very nice and about 20JD each way by airport taxi.

The Golden Tulip is basic, and whenever I have tried to book, was full......

Ian

Why would he go to dead sea for a night? ! i would suggest going downtown for a night for a nicer hotel..there are plenty of nice hotels in Amman. it all depends on what you wana pay i guess .

Report on the Amman Airport Hotel, formerly the Golden Tulip.

We arrived at AMM around 11:30 pm on an RJ flight from Istanbul, and walked directly to the Transfer desk. Three(!) employees were still around to handle all the passengers who were connecting on RJ the next morning. We were given hotel vouchers, shepherded through customs and passport control, put on a shuttle, and taken to the hotel. You are given an "in-transit" card which the hotel takes at check-in, then returns to you in the morning. This card also gets you into a special passport control line, to re-enter the secure area of the airport. Took about 30 minutes in total.

The hotel has recently undergone a major renovation, which is mostly complete. The main-floor public areas are beautiful. We were given a room on the 5th floor (the "club" floor), and it could not have been more comfortable, chic, and modern. The bed was superb. The bathroom was somewhat small, but absolutely gorgeous and beautifully functional.

In the morning we were given vouchers for the deluxe buffet in the Millineum Room. This was as good a breakfast buffet as you'd find in any upscale hotel. Got on the shuttle back to the airport around 8:30am, and we'd made it through security and passport control by 9:00.

It's notable that there is an initial security screening at the doors of the airport, just to get to the "non-secure" landside area of the airport. Then comes a boarding pass check, then passport control, then a more thorough screening a la the TSA. It's also worth noting that there is still a third screening at the gate, just prior to boarding. This was by far the most onerous, as they opened and pawed through everyone's carry-on luggage.

I have nothing but high praise for the way RJ handled our overnight transfer, and for the (free) accommodation provided.

Thanks for the info Alfonso.

I have a 23 hour connection coming up in AMM that I specifically booked so I can spend the afternoon in AMM (probably won't go to Jordan again anytime soon).

If you take the RJ offered overnight hotel room, do you still need to get a Visa or are you in transit and somehow get out of it? Do they still stamp your passport? I guess the question is... if you're in transit, what's to stop you leaving the hotel!

My flight out of AMM in the morning is at about 10am, so I thought I'd check into the hotel, spend the afternoon and evening in the city and get a cab back to the hotel late so I'm already at the airport the next morning

Daniel, I can't answer you definitively, but I'm pretty sure you don't need a visa if you're just in transit, even though you're spending time landside.

I can't be definitive because we'd been in Jordan earlier that month and did have a Jordanian visa already in our passports.

The process is:
- after de-planing, go to the RJ Transfer Desk, airside.
- They'll give you a green transit card which you present to Passport Control.
- They stamp the card, and your passport, then you're free to go landside, but only to the hotel. RJ escorts you to the hotel shuttle.
- The hotel KEEPS the transit card until you check out, then returns it just before you get on the shuttle back to the airport.
- Back at AMM, you go through a special Passport line for in-transit travelers who are holding the green transit card.

My sense is that the transit card serves as a 24-hour visa. That said, if you're theoretically "at the hotel" for 23 hours, I don't see why you couldn't hire a cab or driver to take you into Amman. However, my preference would be to instead go to the Dead Sea for the morning, or up to Jerash. Jerash is about an hour north of Amman. There are some incredible roman ruins there, which take a couple hours to see.

The Dead See resorts are about an hour west of the airport. If you go to the Dead Sea, you might need to arrange beach access since they're mostly privately controlled by the hotels. But the hotels all seem to sell day passes for a fee, which includes a towel. Bring your own suit. Floating in the Dead Sea is a blast. Take a mud bath on the beach. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Resort Dead Sea, an absolutely beautiful hotel. It's also the closest to the airport.

My problem with this hotel is their bizarre stinginess about using the air conditioner. It seems they only want to use it for half the year. I was there on a day in April, when the high temperature had been about 31C (88F). That made it plenty hot in a closed room with no ventilation. I was told the air wasn't going to be turned on until later in the month. The window was bolted shut, but housekeeping came around with tools to unbolt it. It still didn't help much. Eventually I and the people across the hall opened our doors to try and get some cross breeze. It never really got comfortable so I just escaped to the outdoor bar until closing time.

During the middle of the summer I suppose they have to turn the air on. But in spring and fall and even unseasonably warm winter days you may be sweltering.

As for the visa-free entry, I was told that I was only allowed in the hotel and airport grounds. I don't know how well they police this, but that was the official requirement as of late last year. I suppose you could get away with taking a taxi to the Dead Sea or downtown. But if anything happens to make you 'show your papers' (accident, altercation, or just a curious police officer) then you could be in some trouble.

This makes sense. It does seem like the purpose of the transit card is just to allow you to stay at the hotel for one night.

I suppose one could ask at the hotel front desk, then assess the risk of going AWOL. Alternatively, when you enter the country through Passport control, you could just get a real visa (20 JD, about $28 US). They only accept cash, in JD. There's a currency exchange in the far back corner of the arrivals hall, and right next to it is an ATM.

Thanks for the info. I might just buy the Visa to cover myself a little. I'm assuming RJ will still provide the hotel room, but not the transit pass.

You'll probably have to explain to the RJ personnel what you're doing, and why.

Because once you present yourself at the airside Transit Desk, you're pretty much tied to a couple of RJ handlers. Their job is to ensure you get through the "In-transit" Passport line, then onto the shuttle, then to the hotel. No deviations.

I don't know if RJ actually pays anything for the 24-hour in-transit visa. It might be a governmental courtesy to the company.

But given that you've got 23 hours in Jordan, and explain your intentions, I see no reason why RJ should object if you obtained a real visa and used it to go off hotel grounds. Especially if it saved them a few JD.

Just gonna post on this old thread instead of creating a new one.

Planning to visit Isreal/Jerusalem by crossing KHB/Allenby while transiting AMM on Royal Jordanian. Will I have to get a regular visa or will the "transit card" allow reentry back through KHB/Allenby bridge on the way back to Jordan?