The Best of Jordan (6 days)

Tour Jordan in 6 Days Including Jerash

President Obama visiting Petra. Photo by Pete Souza.

See the top sights in Jordan on this fully escorted tour, including Amman, Petra, Wadi Rum and Jerash. Add Shaumari (Shummari) Wildlife Reserve.

DAY 1 – AMMAN – Wednesday- Weekly – Year Round
Arrive on a Wednesday for group travel or any other day of the week for an additional supplement. Our local rep. will meet you upon arrival and help with the transfer to your hotel in Amman. For private touring and daily arrival, please click here.

DAY 2 – MADABA, KERAK – PETRA Thursday (BLD)
We drive south along the King’s Highway, an ancient caravan route, to Madaba to visit the church containing the oldest known map of the Holy Land. Continuing to Mount Nebo, we enjoy the panoramic view of the Promised Land the way Moses saw it for the first time. Further on, at Kerak, we tour the ruins of its romantic Crusaders’ castle of Renaud de Chatillon, one of a line which stretched from Aqaba to Turkey. Lunch is included enroute. Finally, we arrive to PETRA.

In the evening we will call on you for a unique experience:
Dine as a local: The Petra Kitchen is a delightful way to round out your Jordan travel experiences. Like any home kitchen, The Petra Kitchen is a relaxed, informal atmosphere where you’ll gather to prepare an evening meal, working alongside local women under the supervision of our chef.

Each evening meal includes soup, cold and hot mezza (appetizers) and salads, and a main course—all typical Jordanian dishes. You will have get an inside glimpse of the secrets behind the famous regional cuisine of the Levant.

The Petra Kitchen offers an evening of learning, fun and a very special dining experience, with each dish gaining the special flavor of a reward well-earned. Great care has been taken to make The Petra Kitchen a truly Jordanian experience—right down to the furnishings, all crafted in Jordan, the tableware, all produced by the Iraq al Amir Women’s Co-operative, and the aprons and table linens, all hand-embroidered by the Jordan River Foundation.

Tour experience tonight includes the cuisine course, meal and all non-alcoholic beverages as well as take-home recipes for all dishes prepared that evening.

DAY 3 – PETRA –  Friday (BLD)
We’ll spend the entire day at Petra, the stunning desert city hewn by the Nabateans from solid cliffs of pink and violet sandstone. Petra was known in the bible as Sela, and rediscovered only in 1812. You’ll feel like Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark as you penetrate into the city through a narrow sandstone gorge, the Siq, and wander among the Temple of the Winged Lion, tombs, Roman theater, and the imposing Treasury. Lunch is included at a charming local restaurant.

Petra has a lot to tell. The visit starts at the visitor’s center, where each person is assigned a Bedouin guided horse for the journey to the entrance of the lost city. After passing some tombs which are located outside the city, the visitor passes through the SIQ, an immense crack in the Nubian sandstone. It is a winding, one-kilometer-long fissure between overhanging cliffs that seem to meet more than 300 feet overhead.

Near the end of the passage, the SIQ, with great style, makes one last turn and out of the gloom in towering brightness appears Petra’s most impressive monument, el Khazneh – The Treasury. This is one of the most elegant remains of antiquity, carved out of the solid rock from the side of the mountain, is nearly 140 feet high and 90 feet wide.

Beyond el Khazneh the visitor is surrounded on both sides by hundreds of Petra’s carved and built structures, soaring temples, elaborate royal tombs, a carved Roman theater, large and small houses, burial chambers and much more. The Victorian traveler and poet, Dean Burgon, gave Petra a description which holds to this day – “Match me such a marvel save in Eastern clime, a rose-red city half as old as time.” After that, we will return to the hotel to get prepared for a Moonlight dinner served at a Bedouin camp. This evening we have a fantastic traditional dinner under the stars in a Bedouin camp, at a site that dates back more than 2,000 years.

DAY 4- WADI RUM – AMMAN Saturday (BLD)
We board four-wheel-drive vehicles for an expedition to Wadi Rum, the “Valley of the Moon” where T. E. Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia”) organized Arab resistance to the Ottoman rule during World War I. After our visit, we will stop at Bedouin camp to have some tea with the bedouins, then head North with a stop enroute for lunch (included), where we return to Amman and your hotel where dinner awaits you. If you prefer camping in Wadi Run, please click here.

DAY 5 – Ajloun- JERASH, Amman – Sunday (BLD)
Priavte guide will escort you from Amman. Today we tour Ajloun then on to Jerash, among the best-preserved Roman cities in the world, to tour its temples, theaters, churches and colonnaded streets. After lunch (included) in Jerash, we head back to Amman and your hotel. Dinner is included at Kan Zaman or similar.

DAY 6 – Amman, Departure – Monday (B)
After breakfast, transfer back to Queen Alia Airport. Bon Voyage.

For private touring and daily arrival, please click here. Compare with the one week private tour, daily arrival. Salam & Bon Voyage.

Your tour includes:

• All transfers, and guided sightseeing as per itinerary.
• Accommodation with breakfast, lunches and dinner daily (as indicated in the itinerary)
• Services of local professional guides throughout the tour
• Admission fees to museums and sites as detailed in the itinerary.
• Visa for Jordan. Limited to specific nationalities such as: Australian, NZ, USA, Canada, EU, Japan and others (please check with us if needed at the time of booking).

The tour does not include:

• International airfare.
• Travel Insurance
• Personal expenditures (beverages, laundry, special meals, etc.)
• Tips to hotel and restaurant staff, drivers and guides in Jordan