As there are already a number of excellent reviews of Quseir Amra, I will focus more on my day trip itinerary to Zarqa Governorate and the eastern portion of Amman Governorate.  After all, there is very little practical sense to visiting Quseir Amra only.  I visited Jordan in March 2024, and I travelled to the Desert Castles and Azraq Wetland Reserve using a rental car.  I will describe my day trip in the order of my travel.

Qasr Kharana (or Qasr Al-Kharanah or Qasr Al-Harrana)

The drive to Qasr Kharana is simple.  You just get on the paved Highway 40 until you see Qasr Kharana.  It is nearly impossible to get lost once you are on Highway 40, and the Qasr is as nearly impossible to miss.  Qasr Kharana - built before 710 CE - is essentially a rectangular box, but the building becomes more interesting once you step inside.  The ground floor reveals a central courtyard surrounded by a group of barrel vaulted rooms.  You can take the stairs to the upper floor, which contains rooms decorated with pilasters and niches.

Qasr Kharana is an evocative ruin, which can be explored in a half an hour or less.  It would be a mistake to skip this interesting site on one's way to Quseir Amra.

Quseir Amra

Hopping back on Highway 40, I reached Quseir Amra (photo) in 10 minutes.  I also crossed the boundary between Amman Governorate to Zarqa Governorate, not that there was an obvious transition. 

There is a small one-room interpretative centre that you can visit before visiting Quseir Amra itself.  When I visited Quseir Amra, there was an enthusiastic guide that pointed out significant frescoes.  Quseir Amra is small, so this site can also be explored in a half an hour or less.

Qasr Kharana is a more moody structure than Quseir Amra, but Quseir Amra's frescoes are delightful.  I slightly preferred Quseir Amra over Qasr Kharana, but thankfully, you don't have the choose between the two because there is no reason for you to not visit them both.

Azraq Wetland Reserve

Approximately 20 minutes more on Highway 40, I encountered my first substantial settlement, i.e., the town of Azraq, since I entered the desert. 

The Azraq Wetland Reserve - which is a Tentative World Heritage Site - is in town, so much so that it almost feels like a large neighbourhood park.  Unlike a neighbourhood park, however, you need to buy a ticket to enter.  The Reserve has an informative interpretation centre, which details the ecological harm that people have committed to this area by drawing water from it to serve large urban centres such as Amman.  The wetlands is now only 10% of its original size.

The Reserve has one short 1.5 km trail.  The highlight of the trail for me was seeing a water buffalo. The wetlands themselves are not visually remarkable, even if they are so ecologically.

The Reserve is pricey, considering how small is the reserve.  However, the sting of the price is lessened if you consider it more as a donation to support the environment.

Qasr al-Azraq

In the same town as the Reserve is Qasr al-Azraq, which is famous for its connection to Lawrence of Arabia, who based his operations here in 1917-1918.

As it is a proper fortress, Qasr al-Azraq is a much more substantial size that Qasr Kharana or Quseir Amra.  The basalt stones also give it a distinct look compared to the other Desert Castles.  You can freely explore the fortress for interesting features such as the board game indents used by the guards and large stone doors that are still on their hinges.  In middle of the courtyard is a small nondescript mosque.  There is very little to see inside the mosque.  

As Qasr al-Azraq is even less restored than Qasr Kharana or Quseir Amra, it has a "still crumbling" look to it.

Hammam al-Sarah

From Qasr al-Azraq, I retraced my way back to Highway 40 and then turned to Highway 35 to head back west to Amman.  After about 50 kms, I went off Highway 35 and on to a road to a small town named Qasr Al-Hallabat* to visit Hammam al-Sarah, which was an Umayyad bathhouse.  The heavily restored Hammam al-Sarah is free to enter and there were no guards when I visited.  The Hamman is very small, and I suggest that it is a site that can be skipped, especially considering that it does require a bit of a detour to visit. 

*There is a Desert Castle named Qasr Al-Hallabat, but it is not in the portion of the town where Hamman al-Sarah is situated.  The Qasr is located about 4.5 kms from the Hamman.  I did not visit it.

Situation in Jordan in 2024

I travelled to Jordan a few months after the state of Israel began its latest and ongoing military attacks on Palestinians, which has killed more innocent Palestinians than the actual perpetrators of the October 7, 2023 attacks.  A byproduct of this humanitarian crisis was that many foreigners stayed away from Jordan due to its proximity to Palestine and Israel.  There were a very few tourists when I was in Jordan.  I do not know if the tourism has yet rebounded.