Sheikh Hussein border to Amman; Irbid

I will arrive in Jordan via the Sheikh Hussein border crossing (Beit She'an - Irbid) in a couple of weeks' time. The idea is simply to stay in Amman for a few days, and make a daytrip or two from there. Does anyone have some recent information on transportation from the border to Amman? Are there buses or shared taxis? If not, what would be a "reasonable" price for a taxi?

I also wonder about Irbid... I suppose it's easily accessible from the border; I know it's not listed anywhere as a touristic highlight of Jordan but in my experience, that sort of place can be quite interesting, anyway... Anyone been there recently who wants to share their impressions?

Thanks in advance!

We were in Irbid last month and found it refreshing to be in a non-tourist city. The downtown shopping area is a normal non-tourist urban shopping experience (no foreigners at all) and the university area is an interesting comparison to universities in other parts of the world and has a good museum. We walked around a lot and found the people friendly and helpful and the street food tasty. Unless you are cash strapped, don't stay at the Omayed Hotel in the center of Irbid (as recommended in Lonely Planet) - needs a deep cleaning. The owners were very helpful, though, and spoke good English. Um Qais is an interesting half-day trip from Irbid with great views of the Golan and Galillee.

Our experience was that there are always hungry taxis at every border. There is apparently a minibus (cheaper) from the border to Irbid but I don't know how often it runs. We just arranged transportation on the spot. A private taxi from the center of Irbid to the border was JD20.

Transportation from Irbid to Amman from the appropriate bus station (there are 3 outside of town, and all inter-city bus and shared taxi transportation is from one of these bus stations) is readily available and cheap.

I have heard that there are buses direct form Nazareth to Amman which would save you time, unless you want to stop in Irbid.

Thanks, Linda347 - now you actually got me intrigued about Irbid! My idea was to go there for a few hours if necessary in order to get to Amman, but we'll see... Useful information anyway, thanks again!