taxis, Amman

That’s probably the easiest way of transportation within the city. You can easily recognize them, these yellow cars are everywhere. Simply stand for a couple of minutes at the corner of a street and one of those will magically pop in…

Small hint: if you are staying in an international hotel, they will charge you 5JD by default if you call them directly from the hotel. However if you walk a bit and call them from a nearby street, the price will vary between 1 and 3JD depending on the destination.

Each time, you are also playing kind of a lottery as well. Either your driver will speak English fluently, either he does not! In the last case, beside the few Arabic words you can learn from any guide book, “diram” is quite a useful word (depending where you are staying). That means “circle”. In the eastern part of the city, this is an easy way to know where to go. Usually a roundabout, these circles represent indeed the successive limit of this growing city. I was staying at the 5th circle but there are now 7 or 8.

To get to the striking Adu Darwish Mosque, take service No.25 or 25 from Italian St in downtown. It is a very long and steep climb if you decide to walk, which I do not recommend.

The share taxi costs SR130 fils. and 4 pax to go.

To take shared taxi from downtown to Abdali station? Take the no. 7 shared taxi along Cinema al-hussein St. Remember some written Arabic is essential to get you around in the Middle East. For example, "V" = figure "7".

The cost of shared taxi is SR130 files.

For a taxi, in case you dont find a collective taxi or a bus, take a regular taxi. not only this, take the one of my new Palestinian friend, Sam... a cool rock musician who drives cabs during the day... and speaks a very funny English (read: not so faint Louisiana accent - and the victim of many of my jokes). He knows everything and everyone, and he's witty as hell.

Taxis are the best way to get around the city, but be prepared to pay for them. Make sure the driver turns on his meter and you see his taxi identification someplace. As a woman travelling alone, the cabs were great! However, one insisted I go have chai with him in the social centre of town. This is NEVER a good idea. Though culture is changing rapidly there, a woman and man in public is a sign of their engagement to one another. I did not go, and claimed to be married already. ALWAYS have an escort, preferably male.
Another cab became so lost trying to find my hotel from my horrible directions that he asked 3 of the major hotel doormen in Shemesseni(?) district where it was before finding the place. He spoke little English and I spoke little Arabic. The meter read 4JD before I arrived at my hotel, which should have read 2JD, max. He gave me the ride free of charge.
Women should try not to sit in the front with the driver, generally. There are exceptions, but some drivers take this as an invitation to make advances.
Meter fares are not arguable generally, do not sport with the driver's intellegence and try to haggle.

There is a company that offers ways to get from Amman to Jerusalem over Allenby Bridge. They also provide transport from amman to Tel Aviv or Petra to Jerusalem.