Jordan Pass: Is It Worth It? Prices & What's Included (2026)

Every Jordan trip-planning thread eventually turns into the same exchange: someone asks if the Jordan Pass is worth it, and someone else replies "just get it, it's basically free." That is true often enough to become received wisdom, and it is also not universally true. The pass saves real money on a normal multi-day itinerary. It saves nothing at all on a two-night weekend stop that skips the visa waiver's minimum stay. Below is the actual math.

What is the Jordan Pass, and who is it for?

The Jordan Pass is an official government tourism product, sold through the official Jordan Pass site, that bundles pre-paid entry to more than 40 attractions across the country, Petra included, with a waiver of the standard visa-on-arrival fee for anyone who buys it before landing.

It exists to solve two separate problems at once: the hassle of paying individual entrance fees at dozens of sites, and the 40 JOD visa fee every non-exempt visitor otherwise owes on arrival. For anyone spending more than a couple of days seeing Petra plus a handful of other sites, that combination usually adds up to genuine savings, not just convenience.

What are the three Jordan Pass tiers, and how much do they cost?

There are three tiers, priced by how many consecutive days of Petra access they include: Jordan Wanderer at 70 JOD covers one day at Petra, Jordan Explorer at 75 JOD covers two consecutive days, and Jordan Expert at 80 JOD covers three consecutive days. All three include the same 40-plus other sites and the visa fee waiver.

The five-dinar step between tiers is easy to underprice in your head: for an extra 5 JOD, roughly 7 US dollars, Explorer buys you a full second day inside Petra, which is a genuinely large amount of site for a small amount of money, especially once you have already paid for the flights and the driver to get there. Most people who plan to see the Treasury, the Royal Tombs and attempt the climb to the Monastery in one visit are better served picking Explorer over Wanderer from the start rather than trying to cram all of it into a single day.

Does the Jordan Pass actually waive the visa fee?

Yes, but only under two conditions: you must buy the pass before you land in Jordan, and you must stay in the country for a minimum of two full nights (three days). Meet both and the standard 40 JOD visa-on-arrival fee is waived entirely. Miss either condition and you pay the fee as normal.

This is the detail that trips people up most often. A pass bought after arrival does not waive anything, since the waiver is processed against your entry record before you land, and a short stopover of one or two nights falls short of the minimum regardless of when you bought the pass. If your Jordan stop is a genuinely brief one, our separate guide to Jordan's visa-on-arrival rules covers the fee on its own, without the attraction bundle, which may be the simpler option for a short visit.

What exactly does the Jordan Pass include beyond Petra?

Beyond Petra, the pass covers entry to more than 40 sites nationwide, including the Jerash archaeological site, the Amman Citadel, and entry to the Wadi Rum Protected Area, along with numerous smaller museums, castles and nature reserves across the country.

It is worth being precise about what "entry" means here. The pass covers the Wadi Rum Protected Area entrance fee, not the cost of a guided jeep safari, a Bedouin camp stay, or an overnight tent, all of which are booked and paid separately, usually as part of a tour package. The same logic applies to Jerash's Roman ruins: the pass covers the roughly 12 JOD entrance fee, not any optional add-on like the Roman Army and Chariot Experience show. Think of the pass as covering the door, not the extras behind it.

How much is Petra's entrance fee without the pass?

Without any pass, international visitors staying overnight in Jordan pay 50 Jordanian dinars for a one-day Petra ticket, 55 JOD for two consecutive days, or 60 JOD for three, bought directly through the official PDTRA ticketing site. Visitors not staying overnight in Jordan, day-trippers crossing in from Israel or an Aqaba cruise stop, pay a steeper 90 JOD flat rate for a single day.

That non-accommodated rate matters more than it might seem. It exists specifically to distinguish tourists based overnight in Jordan from day visitors crossing the border and leaving the same day, and it is one of the more commonly searched Petra cost questions for exactly that reason. If a same-day border crossing is part of your plan, our guide on visiting Petra from Israel covers that route and its costs directly, since the Jordan Pass math below assumes an overnight Jordan stay.

Set the overnight rates side by side with the pass and the comparison is straightforward: a single day at Petra alone costs 50 JOD, or 70 JOD through Jordan Wanderer once you add the visa waiver and 40-plus other sites on top. The pass only loses that specific comparison if Petra is the only site on your itinerary and your stay is too short to qualify for the visa waiver, which is a narrow case in practice.

Is the Jordan Pass worth it? A worked example

Take a traveller spending four nights in Jordan, visiting Petra for one day and Jerash for one day, who would otherwise pay the visa fee on arrival. Without the pass: 50 JOD for Petra, about 12 JOD for Jerash, and 40 JOD for the visa, a total of 102 JOD. With Jordan Wanderer at 70 JOD, the same itinerary costs 32 JOD less, plus access to dozens of unused sites.

That gap only grows on a longer, multi-stop itinerary. Add a stop at the Amman Citadel, a nature reserve, or a smaller museum along the way, all included in every tier, and the pass pulls further ahead of paying site by site. The one case where the math flips is a trip built around Petra alone with no other sites and a stay too short for the visa waiver; in that specific case, paying the standalone 50 JOD entrance fee and the 40 JOD visa fee separately can come out roughly even with, or occasionally cheaper than, the pass.

Does a multi-day Petra pass beat the standalone ticket too?

Yes, by a wider margin than the one-day comparison. Jordan Explorer at 75 JOD covers two days at Petra plus 40-plus other sites and the visa waiver, against a standalone two-day Petra ticket at 55 JOD plus the separate 40 JOD visa fee, a combined 95 JOD for Petra alone. Explorer costs 20 JOD less and adds every other included site for free.

The same pattern holds at the top tier: Jordan Expert at 80 JOD against a standalone three-day Petra ticket (60 JOD) plus the visa fee (40 JOD), a combined 100 JOD for Petra alone. Anyone planning more than one day inside Petra, which is common if you want the Treasury, the Royal Tombs and the Monastery without rushing, gets the clearest value from the pass of any traveller profile.

Do children need a Jordan Pass?

Children under 12 already enter Petra and every other Jordan Pass site free when accompanied by a parent or guardian, so buying them a pass adds no site-entry value. The 40 JOD visa fee is still charged for children, however, which is a separate cost from attraction entry and is not automatically waived just because the child is young.

In practice this means a family only needs to buy the Jordan Pass for travellers 12 and over. Younger children still need their own visa arrangements sorted, and if the family's stay meets the two-night minimum, buying passes for the adults before arrival still triggers the visa waiver for them, even though the children's visa fee is paid separately.

What does the Jordan Pass NOT cover?

The pass does not cover meals, hotels, transport, tour guides, activity add-ons like jeep safaris or the Petra by Night candlelight show, or entrance fees at any site outside its list of 40-plus locations. It is strictly an entrance-fee-and-visa-waiver product, not a general travel pass.

It also will not cover Petra access beyond whichever tier you bought: if you take the one-day Wanderer pass and decide on day two that you want to go back in, you will need to pay the standard daily rate for that extra day rather than simply upgrading on the spot. If there is any chance you will want more than one day inside Petra, it is worth deciding that before you buy rather than after.

Who should skip the Jordan Pass?

Skip it if your entire Jordan stop is under three days and Petra is the only site you plan to visit, since you will not qualify for the visa waiver and will get little use from the other 40-plus included sites. In that narrow case, paying the standalone Petra entrance fee and visa fee separately is simpler and roughly comparable in cost.

Everyone else, anyone spending four or more nights in the country, or visiting two or more of the included sites regardless of trip length, comes out ahead or breaks even. If you are still working out how many days your trip should actually be, our guide to 2 versus 3 versus 4 days in Jordan is a useful next read before you commit to a pass tier.

How long is the Jordan Pass valid, and can you get a refund?

The pass stays valid for 12 months from the date you buy it, meaning you have a full year to make your first entry with it, but once you scan it at your first attraction, a 14-day countdown starts and every remaining site on your list needs to be visited within that window.

Refunds are essentially not available for a pass you simply decide not to use. Official policy does not refund unused or expired passes, and the only real exception is a flight cancelled by the airline itself, not a voluntary change of plans on your end. That makes timing your purchase worthwhile: buy it once your Jordan dates are reasonably firm, rather than months in advance on the off chance your trip happens.

How and when do you buy the Jordan Pass?

Buy it online through the official Jordan Pass website before you travel, print or save the confirmation, and present it alongside your passport when you land, since the visa waiver is applied at that point of entry. Buying after you have already arrived in Jordan forfeits the visa waiver entirely, even if you still use the pass for site entries.

Each traveller in your party needs their own pass and their own confirmation tied to their passport number, so a family or group trip means buying one per person, not one per booking. Keep a digital and a printed copy; site staff at smaller locations do not always have reliable internet to verify a pass on the spot.

So is the Jordan Pass worth it for your trip?

Run the numbers against your actual itinerary rather than trusting the internet's default answer. If you are spending four or more nights in Jordan and seeing Petra plus even one or two other included sites, the pass pays for itself before you have used half of what it covers. If your stop is genuinely short and Petra is the only thing on the list, do the visa-plus-entrance math above and decide from there. Either way, the pass is worth sorting out before you book anything else, since it changes what a guided itinerary needs to include. Petra Jordan Tours lines up operators who build their tours around exactly this kind of planning, so the pass, the pickups and the entrance logistics are handled before you land, not worked out at the gate.