Petra takes a day. Jordan takes the week.
How long the drive south really is. Whether the night in a Wadi Rum camp is worth the extra. What Petra costs once you are through the gate. Reviews of every tour you can book in Jordan.
The circuit, in the order the road runs.
Four bookings a first Jordanian week hangs on.
What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The one long dayPetra and Wadi rum Full day TourPetra and Wadi Rum between breakfast and dark. The most-taken day in the country, and the reason most people never hire a car.
02Petra, properlyPetra Full-Day Private Tour from AmmanThrough the Siq before the coaches, then the eight hundred steps to the Monastery if your legs hold out.
03The night in the sandWadi Rum Full Day Jeep Tour + Overnight & Dinner in Bedouin CampA jeep across the red desert, dinner cooked in a pit under it, and a sky with nothing in the way.
04The floatDead Sea Day Tour with Optional Entry Fees and LunchAn hour downhill from Amman to the lowest water on earth. Twenty minutes in it is plenty; the resort gate your ticket opens is the part to check.
Jordan is sold by the day. One, two, or the whole road south.
Almost everything leaves Amman and comes back to it. The only real decision is how many nights you give the drive.
Six places, and the whole country fits between them.
Amman to Aqaba is four hours on the desert highway. Everything worth stopping for is strung along that road, plus the Roman north an hour the other way.
Petra is a day of walking, and most of it is uphill.
The Siq runs the better part of a kilometre before it opens on the Treasury, and the Treasury is the entrance rather than the end. Add two hours for the Monastery steps, more if you stop where the tea is sold on the ridge.
- 1Petra, Wadi Rum, and Dead Sea 2-Day Tour
- 22-Day Tour: Petra, Wadi Rum, and Dead Sea from Ammanfrom $249
- 3Petra & Wadi Rum Private or group Day Tourfrom $126
Wadi Rum is the one you book a night for.
The standard jeep run takes four hours and covers the arches, the canyons and a dune you climb for the view. Staying is the difference. The camps sit out in the open sand, dinner comes out of the ground, and the sky does the rest.
The days out travellers in Jordan actually take.
Every tour in Jordan →The country in the order people book it: the two-day loop first, then Petra on its own, then the desert.
1
Petra, Wadi Rum, and Dead Sea 2-Day Tour
See Petra, sleep in Wadi Rum, ride a 4WD jeep, and float in the Dead Sea on a well-organized two-day tour from Amman.
Read our review →
2
2-Day Tour: Petra, Wadi Rum, and Dead Sea from Amman
from $249
3
Petra & Wadi Rum Private or group Day Tour
from $126
4
Petra and Wadi rum Full day Tour
from $99
5
2-Day Petra, Wadi Rum and Dead Sea Tour from Amman
from $275
6
3-Day Private Tour from Amman: Petra, Wadi Rum, Dana, Aqaba, and Dead Sea
from $349
7
Petra Full-Day Private Tour from Amman
from $78
8
Wadi Rum Full Day Jeep Tour + Overnight & Dinner in Bedouin Camp
from $107
The Dead Sea sits 430 metres below the sea it is named after.
You float without trying, which is a novelty for about twenty minutes. The rest of the day is the mud, the drive down through the hills, and whichever resort gate your ticket opens. Check that last one before you book anything.
- 1Petra, Wadi Rum, and Dead Sea 2-Day Tour
- 22-Day Tour: Petra, Wadi Rum, and Dead Sea from Ammanfrom $249
- 32-Day Petra, Wadi Rum and Dead Sea Tour from Ammanfrom $275
Four hours south of Amman the map runs out and the diving starts.
Aqaba is the whole of Jordan’s coast, and it is twenty-six kilometres long. The reef begins a few metres from the sand, there is a cargo ship and a battle tank on the bottom put there deliberately, and the water stays warm enough to dive in December.
What a day in Jordan costs, from a morning jeep to the whole loop.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. The gap between a seat on a shared minibus and a private car with a driver is narrower here than most people expect.
Half-day jeep runs, Amman on foot, the Dead Sea on a shared bus, a morning at Jerash.
Private Petra days, Wadi Rum with a camp night, and the two-day loop out of Amman.
Three days and longer, a driver for the week, and the treks that start up at Dana.
Three half-days out of Amman that are not Petra.
The capital sits within an hour of a Roman city, a sixth-century map laid in stone, and the Jordan valley floor. None of the three needs a whole day, and almost nobody builds them in.
Jerash and Ajloun
Jerash was a Roman provincial city until an earthquake put it under the soil, which is why the colonnaded street, the oval forum and both theatres are still up rather than quarried away for somebody’s wall. An hour out of Amman. Most days here pair it with Ajloun castle, thrown up by Saladin’s nephew to watch the road.
- 1Jerash, Ajloun Castle or Umm Qais Private Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 360 reviews
- 2Full-Day Tour: Umm Qais, Jerash, and Ajloun from Amman★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 162 reviews
- 3Private Tour of Ajlun and Jerash★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 130 reviews
Madaba and Mount Nebo
The floor of a church in Madaba holds the oldest surviving map of this region, laid in the sixth century and still readable, roads and all. Twenty minutes up the ridge, Mount Nebo looks west across the Jordan valley. On a clear winter morning you can see a very long way.
- 1Dead Sea, Nebo, Madaba & Baptism Site Private or Group Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 190 reviews
- 2Private Tour to Madaba, Mount Nebo, and Baptism Site★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 161 reviews
- 3Day Tour – Madaba, Mount Nebo and Baptism Site★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 140 reviews
Bethany beyond the Jordan
The valley end of the day. The site is reached by shuttle from a visitor centre and covers excavated churches, a stretch of the old riverbed and the Jordan itself at the far end. It sits twenty minutes from the Dead Sea resorts, which is why most days out run the two together.
- 1Dead Sea, Nebo, Madaba & Baptism Site Private or Group Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 190 reviews
- 2Private Tour to Madaba, Mount Nebo, and Baptism Site★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 161 reviews
- 3Day Tour – Madaba, Mount Nebo and Baptism Site★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 140 reviews
Four Jordanian bookings that will not wait for you.
Most of this country can be arranged at a hotel desk the night before. These four cannot, because somebody else has already taken the bed, the jeep or the seat.
- 01Wadi Rum Full Day Jeep Tour + Overnight & Dinner in Bedouin CampThe desert camps are small and the good ones fill months out. A jeep day is easy to get on short notice. A bed in the sand is not.
- 02Petra, Wadi Rum, and Dead Sea 2-Day TourThe two-day loop leaves Amman early and includes a night down south, so the seat and the room go together. Late bookings simply do not exist.
- 03Hot Air Balloon Flight at Wadi RumBalloons over Wadi Rum go up at first light and only when the wind allows, which means the baskets are spoken for well ahead.
- 04Private Red Sea Diving for Beginner or ExperiencedAqaba’s dive boats leave on a timetable and take a small group. In season that is the entire constraint.
In a Jordanian summer the middle of the day is not yours.
Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea both pass forty degrees by noon in July, and the Dead Sea is below sea level, so the air sits heavier still. The answer here has always been the same. Go at first light, stop at eleven, and go out again when the rock turns orange.
By place, north to south
By kind of day: rock, water, sand or table
Amman to Aqaba, the way a first trip usually runs.
The newest Jordan tour reviews.
Keep going through the new ones →
Full Day Jeep Tour and Overnight in Bedouin Camp with Meal
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Transfers , Meet & Assistance at Wadi Araba Crossing Border
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Full-Day Jeep Tour in Wadi Rum with Overnight Stay
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5-Night 6-Day Highlights of Jordan Experience
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2-Day Private Tour Petra, Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea from Amman
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