Jordan Bus Travel: Amman, Aqaba, Petra, Wadi Rum by JETT Bus
This guide shows you how you can travel across Jordan by bus with JETT, the country’s largest bus company, which operates comfortable buses between Amman, Aqaba, Petra, Wadi Rum, and other destinations.
Bus travel in Jordan
When you want to travel around Jordan to see the main sights in the country, you basically have three options: Join an organised tour, rent a car, or use public transport.
Since there are unfortunately no passenger trains operating in Jordan at the moment, travelling around the country by public transport essentially means taking the bus, supplemented by the occasional taxi or shared taxi ride.

JETT
The largest and most well-established bus company in Jordan is JETT (Jordan Express Tourist Transport), operating services across the country since 1964.
Needless to say, JETT serves all major tourist destinations and the largest cities in Jordan, allowing you to travel between Amman, Aqaba, Wadi Musa (the town next to Petra), the Wadi Rum Desert, the Dead Sea, Jerash, and Ajloun.
JETT also operates international buses to and from Jordan, and you can travel by bus with this company from Amman to Damascus in Syria, from Amman to Tabuk in Saudi Arabia, as well as from Aqaba to Neom in Saudi Arabia and from Aqaba to Cairo in Egypt.
JETT also operates a daily bus between Amman and the King Hussein Bridge (also known as the Allenby Bridge) across the Jordan River, which is the main border crossing to Israel and Jericho in the West Bank of Palestine.
On my Jordan trip, I would rely on JETT to take me from Aqaba to Wadi Rum and Petra, and from Petra to Amman.

Booking tickets
There are three ways to book your JETT bus ticket:
– Online at the JETT website
– In-person at one of the JETT offices in Jordan
– Through an intermediary, such as a local travel agency or your hotel
Bus tickets are generally affordable by Western standards, with a ticket for the JETT bus between Amman and Petra costing 10 Jordanian dinars (€13.24), for example.
Booking your bus ticket online
While buying your JETT bus ticket online may seem like the easiest solution, there are a few drawbacks, most notably the fact that many foreign tourists complain they were unable to process the payment at the final step of the booking process.
Reportedly, this is an issue related to payments made from outside of Jordan being blocked, so if you want to book your ticket online, you either need to use a VPN set to a Jordanian server or simply book your tickets once you have arrived in the country.
Another issue with the JETT website is that not all timetables are correct.
For example, the JETT booking tool says that a bus between Aqaba and Wadi Rum takes 3 hours, although it is actually just a one-hour drive (the reason it erroneously lists 3 hours is that the same bus continues to Petra after the stop in Wadi Rum, and it does take three hours to drive from Aqaba to Petra via Wadi Rum).

Buying bus tickets in Jordan
Fortunately, it’s very straightforward to buy your bus ticket from a JETT office once you are in Jordan.
Tickets rarely sell out in advance, and if you buy your tickets one or two days before departure, you should be perfectly fine.
In most cases, you can even buy tickets on the spot for the next bus departure, although to be on the safe side, it’s best to buy them a day or so in advance if you can.
In case of unusually high demand on a certain route, JETT often deploys a second bus at the same timeslot to increase capacity or simply uses a bus with more seats.
It’s also possible to ask your hotel in Jordan to make a seat reservation on a certain bus on your behalf, which reportedly can be done free of charge, although you would still be required to pay for your ticket before departure.

Seat reservations
Your JETT bus ticket will show your assigned seat number, and in most cases, these seat reservations are adhered to.
However, you shouldn’t be surprised if this isn’t the case, as it can happen that passengers either disregard the seating arrangement altogether or request to move in order to seat families together or ensure that local women do not sit next to unrelated men, in accordance with local Islamic customs.

JETT bus ride from Aqaba to Wadi Rum
The first bus ride I took on my Jordan trip was the Aqaba-Petra bus, which makes a stop en route in Wadi Rum to drop off and pick up passengers.
I easily managed to buy all the tickets I needed for my Jordan trip at the JETT office in downtown Aqaba a day before my first bus journey.
The type of bus used by JETT depends on demand, and as there weren’t many other passengers on my day of travel, the trip was operated by a somewhat smaller bus.
Even on this bus, only half of the seats were taken, and as the seat next to me remained empty, the extra shoulder room definitely added to my comfort.
Although you shouldn’t expect modern amenities such as Wi-Fi, or power and USB sockets on JETT buses, I was happy to see that even this small bus had an on-board toilet.
The bus made the journey from Aqaba to the small settlement of Wadi Rum in the middle of the desert non-stop.
Initially, the journey takes you along some craggy mountains, which later flatten out as you approach the sweeping sands of the Wadi Rum Desert.
Try to spot the desert railway line from the bus window, which is part of the famous Hejaz Railway that once linked Damascus and Amman with the holy Islamic city of Medina in Saudi Arabia.
In the Middle Eastern theatre of the First World War, Lawrence of Arabia and the local Arab tribesmen frequently ambushed Ottoman trains carrying soldiers, ammunition, and supplies to the front.
Nowadays, only two stretches of the Hejaz Railway are operational for freight traffic only, namely between Damascus and Amman, and in southern Jordan from Ma’an to Aqaba, where it is used to carry phosphate from the mines to the port in the Gulf of Aqaba.
About an hour after leaving Aqaba, we arrived at our stop in the small settlement of Wadi Rum, where no one left the bus and only four other tourists boarded.














JETT bus ride from Wadi Rum to Petra
Once the new passengers got on board our bus in Wadi Rum, we immediately continued our journey to Petra.
I had considered getting off the bus, as I had such a great experience here many years ago on a multi-day horse riding trip in the Wadi Rum Desert.
However, I also believe that once-in-a-lifetime experiences are often best left unrepeatable, as doing the same trip or activity a second time doesn’t always guarantee an equally great experience, and it’s sometimes better to leave it as a cherished memory.
I therefore enjoyed the amazing scenery of the Wadi Rum desert from the comfort of my seat on the JETT bus as we backtracked for a few miles to the main road before continuing on to Petra.
The bus journey between Wadi Rum and Petra takes two hours, with the JETT bus making an intermediate stop for 15 minutes at the halfway point.
At the intermediate stop, you’ll find a small shop and café where you can buy food, drinks, or souvenirs.
As I had brought some supplies with me, I simply stretched my legs and played a bit with the sweet puppies walking around the area.
After our brief stop, we continued towards the town of Wadi Musa, where the archaeological site of Petra is located.
The landscape becomes more mountainous again, and if you are seated on the left side of the bus, you can enjoy sweeping views over the valley below as the road climbs higher.
Three hours after departing from Aqaba and two hours after leaving Wadi Rum, the JETT bus finally arrived at the main parking lot of the Petra Visitor Centre in Wadi Musa.
Be sure to memorise the exact spot where the bus drops you off in the vast parking lot, as this is also where you’ll need to catch your onward JETT bus if you continue your travels across Jordan.














JETT bus ride from Petra to Amman
After spending two days enjoying the wonderful sights of Petra, I continued my journey across Jordan by taking the JETT bus to Amman.
Although I had enjoyed great weather on my trip so far, it was absolutely freezing in Petra, with sleet falling from the skies on this March day.
Fortunately, the kind parking lot attendant took pity on me and invited me into his shack to warm up by the radiator, offering me some tea.
I was booked on the 5pm bus from Petra to Amman, scheduled to arrive in the Jordanian capital at 9pm.
This time, a large bus operated the route, and I had a front-row seat that allowed me to take in the views of the road ahead.
The scenery between Petra and Amman isn’t as impressive as it is on the journey south between Petra, Wadi Rum, and Aqaba.
For most of the journey, the views are mainly of bleak, featureless desert scenery, with relatively few points of interest across the flat terrain.
Again, we made a stop for around 20 minutes at a roadside café and souvenir shop located halfway between Petra and Amman.
After watching the beautiful sunset over the desert, I dozed off and only woke up when we made the first of our two stops in Amman, at the 7th Circle in the western suburbs.
From the 7th Circle, the JETT bus continued to its final stop at the JETT Abdali Office, which is about a 4-minute walk or a quick taxi ride from downtown Amman.
I spent some time at the office petting two sweet cats who were all cuddled up on a chair before walking to my hotel near Amman’s Roman Theatre.









Conclusion
It’s easy to travel across Jordan by public transport, as the bus company JETT connects all the major sights and cities in the country, including Amman, Petra, Jerash, the Dead Sea, Wadi Rum, and Aqaba.
Although there are some challenges with booking tickets online, it’s straightforward to buy your ticket upon arrival in Jordan, as there is usually plenty of availability.
The larger buses used by JETT on the main tourist routes are comfortable, equipped with a toilet on board, and make a short rest stop at the halfway point on longer journeys.
On my bus trip across Jordan from Aqaba to Wadi Rum, Petra, and Amman, I had no complaints whatsoever, with departures and arrivals on time and good comfort on board the bus.
Trip report index
This article is part of the ‘Journey Across Jordan: From Aqaba to Petra and Amman‘ trip report, which consists of the following chapters:
1. Subsidised Flights: Why Airline Tickets to Jordan Are So Cheap
2. The Jordan Pass: Save Money and Time on Your Jordan Trip
3. Exploring Aqaba, Jordan’s Seaside Resort City
4. Jordan Bus Travel: Amman, Aqaba, Petra, Wadi Rum by JETT Bus (current chapter)
5. Wadi Rum Desert: Horse Riding in Lawrence of Arabia’s Footsteps
** rest of the chapters to follow soon **