Discover Authentic Northern Jordan: Immersive Community-Led Tourism Experiences
While iconic southern sites like Petra, Wadi Rum, and the Dead Sea draw most visitors, northern Jordan offers untapped treasures. A network of community-based tourism projects, spearheaded by Amman-based Baraka Destinations, invites travelers to remote villages far from the usual paths. Trade desert landscapes for rolling wheat fields, oak forests, olive groves, and welcoming local communities opening their doors to authentic cultural immersion.
Baraka Destinations champions sustainable tourism, empowering these villages with deep cultural experiences. Your visit directly benefits local families and treads lightly on the environment, ensuring meaningful impact.
Crafts and Farm-to-Table Feasts in Umm Qais
In 2017, Baraka launched its initiative in the tranquil village of Umm Qais. The ancient city of Gadara, occupied from the Ottoman era until the 1980s, is a highlight, but the village rewards longer stays with rich, engaging activities beyond a quick visit.
Beit Al Baraka, a five-room B&B, boasts panoramic views from its citrus garden, supplying fresh oranges for breakfast. Baraka trained locals to share traditional skills: join village women for basket-weaving workshops on the grapevine terrace using palm and banana leaves, reeds, and straw.
Explore Gadara's ruins with Ahmed, a local guide born and raised amid these stones, blending history with personal childhood tales. At Um Sulaiman's home, savor farm-to-table dinners featuring regional specialties like gras (herb-filled bread in olive oil) and makmora (chicken baked in dough). Since opening, the B&B has hosted over 1,800 guests, supporting more than 50 local families and revitalizing this rural gem.
Art and Archaeology in Pella
Approach Beit Al Fannan ('House of the Artist') along a narrow path lined with blooming poppies, daisies, and grass. This handcrafted, mud-plastered three-story villa perches on a hill overlooking Pella, one of Jordan's key archaeological sites under active excavation. Designed and once home to acclaimed Jordanian architect and artist Ammar Khammash.
Inside, fluid, cornerless interiors foster warmth. Local blacksmiths and carpenters built the furniture; walls overflow with Khammash's works—unfinished oils, sketches, watercolors, and photos. The top-floor studio, scattered with brushes, canvases, and art books, sparks creativity, transforming stays into artistic retreats.
Beyond art, Pella's excavations captivate with guides who've worked the digs for over 30 years, offering insider perspectives. From expansive villa balconies, survey this Neolithic settlement (from 8000 BC) boasting early Christian churches, Bronze Age walls, Egyptian-influenced homes, and grand stone temples across 10 acres—a living timeline of Jordanian history. Seldom crowded, it delivers true discovery.
Meaningful Map of Jordan
Baraka's pioneering work features on the inaugural Meaningful Travel Map of Jordan by Tourism Cares and the Jordan Tourism Board. It spotlights nonprofit and social enterprise projects delivering premium cultural immersion while aiding disadvantaged communities. Umm Qais and Pella embody tourism with purpose and conscience.
