Amman, Jordan → Jerusalem, Israel

Date of travel: May 2023

Got the Jett bus to the King Hussein Bridge (Leaves at 7:00, but be at 6:45 in Abdali Station). I bought the ticket a few days before just to be sure, but the bus wasn’t full.

The fun part starts when the bus drops you at the Checkpoint.

Get into the building where everyone goes into, grab one of the small forms, and fill it. First, go to Departures desk (on the far right). Then go to the Customs Office desk, and pay 10 JD for 2 “stamps”. Now go to Passport Control desk, and they’ll take your passport, form, and stamp. Now you can go board the shuttle which is in front of where you got dropped off (that bus was full of mosquitoes when I got in!. You have to pay the bus ticket 7 JD + 1.5 JD per luggage item.

Before the bus departs, the police comes with the passport, the form, and the stamp. The bus departs once it’s “full”.

Cool, now you should be on the way to Israel! Halfway, the military will come and check the documents, they’ll take 1 of the stamps, and the form (you’ll keep the other stamp). Then you’ll wait for a while because there’s gonna be a large queue of trucks and buses to get into Israel.

Once you’re out of the bus, you’re in Israel!

If you’re just bringing a backpack, then make sure you go to the clerk on the left side, outside of the queuing corridor - it’s for people who only have backpacks, and you’ll be able to skip the long queue for people with luggage.

Then you’ll go into the normal security check. Then you’ll go through passport check (seems like arab people have a dedicated clerk for them). Then you’ll go through a final check, and you’re out of the border control, and into the parking lot.

It seems like the only way to get to Jerusalem is to take a shared mini-bus that costs approximately 50 shekels/person; you can buy the tickets in the booth that says TAXI, the mini-bus will leave once full; it will drop you near Herod’s Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem (in the Muslim Quarter).

Note: there’s another booth that takes you to Jericho.