JoHealth.com

You're permitted to buy 200 cigarettes, one liter of spirits and two liters of wine duty-free on arrival Personal items such as camera are also exempt Customs may take an interest in more expensive goods (such as a video-camera), but they'll only charge you duty if they think you plan to sell whatever it is in Jordan; otherwise, they'll enter a description of the item in your passport, meaning that you'll be charged duty when you leave if you don't have it with you. In theory, ordinary music CDs is liable for duty as well.

In addition to any duty-free purchases at the airport or borders on arrival, you can also buy alcohol, cigarettes and luxury goods at the Duty Free Shop (daily except Fri gam-6pm) in Royal Jordanian's City Terminal building below 7th Circle, but only within the first two weeks of your arrival in the country.

Once in Jordan, you should always carry your passport with you aside from security considerations, you'll need it to check in to hotels and occasionally to change money. It's also a wise precaution to photocopy the pages of your passport recording your personal details and keep them separately.

In moving around the country, random army checkpoints are rare, but not unheard of, especially after dark. There are permanent checkpoints along the length of the Jordan Valley road and on all roads leading down from the hills beside the Valley, as well as at Umm Qais, along the Yarmouk Gorge road, the Dead Sea coast road, the Wadi Araba road, all roads joining them and on the Wadi Yitm entry road into Aqaba. Unpleasantness or any questioning beyond "Where you go?" -is extremely unlikely at any checkpoint. but the single most authoritative symbol of your unthreatening tourist status is a foreign passport. Note that the checkpoints along the Baghdad Highway east of Safawi and on many small roads near the Syrian border east of Mfraq are a little more serious; depending on the outlook of the local bigwig, you might find yourself smilingly but firmly turned back.