Hi,
I read in the Jordan Lonely Planet that there are service taxis running between Irbid and Damascus. Given the book is rather old, published in April 2006, can anyone confirm whether or not these service taxis still run?
Also, it mentions it costs around 7JD. Does anyone know the current price?
Thanks.
Yes, they run. Reckon on nearer 10 JD. Go to the Amman bus station in Irbid, not far from the stadium, and ask around in the ticket office area. The taxi people will want to see your Syrian visa beforehand.
Will they really want to...? If so, their behaviour is different from the shared taxi operators in Amman. These drivers will happily direct you to the visa counter at the border. I got my Syrian visa quicker than the Jordanians their entry stamps...! (Because the queue in front of the "Arabs" counter is longer than the one in front of the "foreigners" counter.) Also, why should the drivers care? They will likely demand the fare upon departure, and if your visa is refused or takes excessively long (say several hours) they can just dump you and drive on with the remaining passengers.
Good for you, b_i_b! Every single time I've taken a share taxi to Damascus from both Amman and Irbid, the guy at the counter asked to see my Syrian visa in advance. I was in Irbid less than 2 months ago, doing the same thing - and at Abdali more recently than that. Maybe I look more like a foreigner than you do...
That's interesting, and good to know. It may indeed depend on the identity of the passenger - tourist or resident, type of passport used etc. But I suspect it could also have something to do with the policy of the taxi operator or even the daily mood of the driver - I travelled with a couple of Chinese, who looked not exactly local, had no visa, and did not seem to strike the driver as anything potentially problematic.
given so many nationalities cross border. Taxi drivers are not full bottle on the complicated visa issue.They handle it differently.I dnt blame them. In order to speed up the border crossing they prefere to take passengers with Syrian visa already stamped in the passport .Actualy the driver can be responsible for the return of the passengers to Amman if they are turned back on the border just as the airline is at the airport.