In this video, I’ll be covering literally everything you should know before booking
a trip to Jordan. I’ll start with all my top tips to get the most out of a 1 or 2 day trip to Petra,
including whether it’s worth booking Petra by Night. We’ll also cover safety whilst visiting,
just how expensive or cheap travelling Jordan can be, tips for making a trip
to the Dead Sea, transport options, if it’s worth purchasing the Jordan Pass,
visa entry forms and whether you should avoid visiting during the 30 days of Ramadan.
For advise on what to do and see whilst in Jordan,
please enjoy our 7 Days in Jordan vlog, which I’ll link at the end.
This is Suitcase Monkey, on how to get the most from a trip to Jordan.
So as I’m sure you’ve come to expect,
I’m gonna be going into great detail about every aspect of a holiday to Jordan,
so I’ve marked everything out as chapters so you can find what’s relevant for you.
So let’s start with the number one Jordan destination which is obviously Petra. Now,
since the official Petra FAQ website had no data available,
I thought I’d answer all those questions here.
The major sites within Petra can be seen in 1 day and this is how most people choose to visit. I’m
glad we had the second day though and if you’re renting a car and booking everything yourself,
this is how I’d do it. But most Petra tour packages you’ll see will be 1 day,
and I’ll later be covering what you should focus on when visiting.
When booking yourself, entry for 1 day is 50JD with a 2 day entry pass
costing only 5 more. Petra is also included as part of the Jordan Pass,
and I’ll cover the pros and cons to getting that later.
Where possible, arrive early to beat the crowds. It’s obviously much more quiet in
the morning but more importantly, it’s much cooler. The two major sites to visit are The
Treasury and The Monastery. You’ll pass the Treasury first, after a 30 minute walk from
the entrance and The Monastery is around 90 minutes later if you’re making a beeline,
and marks the furthest point within Petra. We reached The Monastery just before 8 am.
This moment was easily my favourite in all of the trip, so do watch our main Jordan Vlog to
see why. Yes, the person flying the drone slightly ruined the ambience of it all,
but it was still a magical moment. The Monastery will always be the
quieter of the two major sites so I can’t recommend it enough.
THE number one view within Petra however, is undoubtedly The Treasury from up high. There
are actually 2 different viewpoints to get this shot and getting to either isn’t that
straightforward and each have their own pros and cons. There’s a paid for way (which is for
those short on time) and a free way (which is for the mentally insane). I took the latter.
For the paid way, you have to be taken by a guide which you’ll meet
in front of The Treasury. I’ve read journeys can start at 30 JD and go
down to around half that, depending on your barter skills and demand.
They will then lead you up, around 20 minutes of steps,
for the photo opportunity and you can buy some drinks here also.
All the footage you’re seeing here is from the Travelling Tom YouTube channel, and I’ll link
this video in the description as it’s the best one I found that shows the entire route. But, although
it is shorter in length than the one we took, it is more of a scramble in places with narrow edges.
This route is helped with the guide though, and is the reason that you DO have to pay for one. It
will be busier and there will probably be a wait to take your photo at the top but it’s quicker.
The longer route, or some might say more rewarding, or stupid,
is to continue hiking passed the Royal Tombs.
It was a lot more straightforward than the paid alternative, but you have to hike a
fair distance to get to the Royal Tombs in the first place and then it’s an additional half
an hour. I think it was extra hard for me, as it came after 6 hours of already hiking
up to The Monastery and by now, it was the very hot midday sun, without shade,
so I really struggled. So if you were going to be there for 2 days, it might
be an idea to do this climb on day one, and The Monastery on the next day to spread it all out.
There is a tent conveniently placed at the final view though, a sort of exit through the gift shop
if you will. Now, I wasn’t prepared for this so was admittedly a bit peeved at this guy wanting
money for the view I’d just climbed, because I assumed it was all open. But now that YOU know
in advance, it’s probably the best £1 cup of tea with a sheltered view, you’ll ever spend.
So in summary, I’d suggest the quicker route if you’re short on time and don’t
plan to visit the Royal Tombs. And the longer route if you have the time,
or don’t like the look of the more narrow paths on the shortcut.
So are you gonna be a 1 Day Wonder or choose insanity? Let me know in the comments, below!
Now let’s talk about accessibility and getting around in general. The good news is that the 30
minutes walk to The Treasury sits along the flattest part so is easy to reach.
I hadn’t realised how spread out everything was and the map they give you, lists all the
possible hikes. If you’re short on time, I’d simply suggest walking the main route,
from the entrance to the Monastery and back. The Monastery as mentioned is about 90 minutes after
the Treasury, with some steady stairs in the last third, and offers amazing views before you even
arrive. This route covers all the major sites and would satisfy any journey to Petra in one day. I’d
then add the Royal Tombs, High Place of Sacrifice and The Church in that order, if you have time.
I did see people riding golf buggies which I assume you can book at the visitor centre. You
can also ride horses, donkeys and camels, but personally I always feel a bit sorry for them,
so that’s never an option for us. If you absolutely had to,
I’d suggest getting a ride back from The Treasury to the main entrance so
you don’t zoom passed everything on your way there. Walking through the Siq at the
start is a big highlight on anticipation that I wouldn’t want to speed through.
But for the Monastery, I would say this was a donkey no-no. We saw a lady clinging on for
dear life, with an energetic, buckeroo donkey, as it darted up these stairs, so keep that mind.
We had a tour guide with us for day 1, which I would say is almost a must,
but not essential if it doesn’t fit with your overall plans. Hearing about Petras
history and small details, was a decent chunk of our enjoyment though. Guides
can be booked on the day, from the information centre starting at 50 JD.
The other option is to book a tour package that has a guide included and you can find a bunch
of options in the description. Jordan is a great country that caters to tour groups really well,
given that locations like Jaresh and Wadi Rum, are all easily enhanced with a guide. And just
to repeat that if you do book any of the links below, or hotels I’ll cover next, it will support
the channel and allow me to continue making these sorts of guides for your future travels.
Oh and before I forget, you always need to have your passport with you when entering Petra.
One part I totally skipped over in the Jordan travel vlog video is something called Petra by
Night. This is an evening experience in front of 1500 candles where you’ll hear a Bedouin playing
their flute, reciting some prose, offering tea. This is not included in the normal admission and
is an additional 17JD. It only runs every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, and starts at 20:30.
I’m in 2 minds as to whether to recommend Petra By Night, or not. On the downside,
you can’t just stay inside Petra and wait for it to start. You have to leave and then
return. After a long day, the last thing I wanted to do was the hour long round
trip to get back here. But more so, by its own admission in the promotional leaflet,
this is not a modern day light flashy show and is very muted.
The good news is that Petra by Night isn’t trying to be a Magic Kingdom light
show and is sticking to its authentic roots, as it should. Ultimately though,
the show lasts 2 hours and you’ll likely be fully entertained for about 15 minutes. Despite this,
I would still suggest to visit if you can. There isn’t much else to do in the area that you can’t
do somewhere else, and it’s kind of a case of, well, I’m already here, I might as well.
So to sum up, if you miss it, it certainly isn’t a problem and don’t stress too much about arranging
your schedule around. But, if you do see it, keep your expectations low and you can at least say
you saw it and then tell everyone else not to bother, even though they should see it,
and tell their friends not to bother. You get the point.
Let’s round off this Petra section, with some quick fire stuff I wish I’d known going in. Yes,
there are toilets dotted around Petra and are offered in varying degrees of
being actually acceptable. But they’re good enough.
There are plenty of places to buy water and food. Definitely bring a hat, scarf,
umbrella, etc, whatever helps protect you from the sun and of course bring comfy sturdy shoes.
If you want to visit Petra as early as possible, you’re probably best booking
a nearby hotel. I’ve linked the hotel we stayed at in the description below,
along with an alternative. Ours was a 4 minute walk from the main entrance,
and had a nice rooftop area for drinks and relaxation. It’s a relatively small town,
so as long as the reviews are good and it’s quick to get to the entrance, you can’t really go wrong.
The other hotel I linked actually overlooks Petra itself with another great looking rooftop terrace.
I mentioned at the start about The Jordan Pass including Petra so let’s
talk about that now. The Jordan Pass has to be bought online before arrival and includes
entry to over 40 attractions, including Petra,
Jerash and Wadi Rum. It also waivers any need for a tourist visa. The Jordan Pass starts at
70JD with the other 2 options just allowing for extra days in Petra. This is a great price.
The tourist visa alone costs 40JD and a one day ticket to Petra is
50 so you’re already saving money with just those two activities.
There is actually one good reason not to buy the Jordan Pass however, and that’s if you
booked a tour package that already includes those activities. That was our situation so
we just purchased the visa on arrival at the airport and it was super easy. So if your tour
doesn’t include entry to Petra, definitely buy the Jordan Pass online before arrival.
So now lets cover the other major attractions you’ll be hitting whilst
in Jordan and some useful pointers that I’ll sprinkle in, such as transport and safety.
For Amman, most of my general tips were covered in the main Jordan vlog,
so check that out if you haven’t already.
The hotel we stayed in was perfectly fine but in hind site, I would’ve preferred to
be much more central than we were. Especially when everywhere we’d later be staying allowed
us so much space in comparison so being in a busy city would’ve been welcome. I’ve linked a hotel in
the description that has a great location to all the most popular sites we visited. This would’ve
more easily allowed a siesta during the day or even wandering around for a meal in the evening.
Being on the outskirts wasn’t too much of an issue,
but it’s one less thing to think about and nice to just stroll home at night.
We did use Uber regularly in Amman, with wait times only being 5 to 10 minutes so that would
be my general suggestion for getting around in Amman. It only cost 4JD from our hotel to get
into the centre, for a 20 minute trip, and 17JD to get to the Airport, which took 45 minutes.
Just in case anyone mentions this in the comments, there are yellow taxis driving around Amman that
you can hail as normal, and I guess is the more traditional way. We opted not to take these as all
the websites I read, laboured the point about making sure the driver was using the meter,
and not accepting stories of it being broke, etc. So to be honest, even if that’s a small minority,
it shouldn’t be so difficult to get a cab in 2022, so Uber it was for us. Let us know in
the comments if your experience of the yellow cabs was perfectly fine so you can just ignore me here.
Public transport isn’t that great in Jordan. I’ve read that public buses
will only leave when they are full so don’t run on a standard schedule and passenger trains aren’t a thing.
So I’d suggest taxis around Amman, renting a car, or booking guided trips or private cars for longer journeys.
We did always felt safe whilst in Jordan. It's generally a very chilled country
and their overall hospitality is well known. Still exercise good sense when travelling,
as you would anywhere, but Jordan is one of the safest countries you can visit in the Middle East
and isn’t something you should have concern over.
For the Dead Sea, if booking as part of a tour, all of the following will be taken care for you.
But if booking bespoke, I’d recommend staying in a hotel that has its own beach into the water. For
one, compared to the public spaces, they’re well maintained, will always have mud available and
showers installed. The water is very oily here so a proper rinse afterwards is really welcome.
Again, the hotel we stayed in was perfectly suitable,
had really nice grounds to walk around, and all the mod cons mentioned when going into the water.
If you’re just passing by in a car rental, it’s worth pointing out that outside of a hotel,
The Dead Sea is only accessible at certain points along the
Highway. It’s not like a massive beach you can just stroll along.
Doing a search on Google Maps for “Dead Sea free swimming” brings up a few places,
but with mixed reviews. The Amman Tourist Beach, usually the main public beach, seems to have been
closed for a while now so I’d just suggest driving along and keeping an eye out. If you’ve had an
experience of this recently, again, please do help others in the comments below. I’ve read that
the hotels do allow you to pay for a Dead Sea day pass, which is probably a good option to try also.
The other budget option is to take a day trip from Amman where all this will be taken care
of. I’ve linked a few in the description, which start around $60 with a hotel pickup.
Some last general tips the Dead Sea. Be aware that due to the high salt concentration, cuts, blisters
and even a recent shave will really sting. Like, McCauley Culkin in the bathroom mirror sting. But
I have heard that good old vaseline acts as a nice barrier so why not get your lube on and go crazy.
I want to finish this guide with more general advise and tips,
such as renting a car vs a tour group, visiting during Ramadan as we did,
what months to travel and how much this is all going to cost you.
We opted to book this as part of a tour group. We had a Canada trip coming up
2 months later where everything was a fully bespoke road trip. So for Jordan,
we wanted something more relaxed where we didn’t have to think about getting from A to B.
But if I was ever to return, I would definitely rent a car and do a combination of guided tours
and our own thing. In terms of the ease of driving around, Outside of Amman,
there are only really 2 roads that connect everything from the Dead Sea to Petra to
Wadi Rum so most of it would be driving on a well maintained highway and would be relatively easy.
Driving in central Amman did look like a bit of a nightmare,
so even if you wouldn’t be comfortable with that, I’d just advise booking a hotel on the
outskirts and getting an Uber into the centre. But everywhere else you’d be totally fine.
A lot of people asked me about the benefits of a tour Vs doing it all yourself. And to be honest,
I think all the obvious pros and cons work for each. Freedom with the car,
mostly easy roads to navigate, feeling like Thelma and Louise, just without the ending.
Versus having a tour guide who’ll fill in the history and having most things arranged for you.
I think the good news is that Jordan is set up so that both options are totally viable. Again,
I’d be interested to hear peoples thoughts in the
comments about where people would lean to if you visited?
As mentioned in the main travel vlog, we visited Jordan during Ramadan which lasts 30 days. It
means that most of the population will be fasting from dawn till dusk and it will have a big impact
on your food options during the day. All the tourist places like your hotel wont be effected,
but to give you an idea, on our first day in Amman, when we didn’t quite know what we were
doing yet, our first lunch ended up being Starbucks. Which was an amazing cultural
experience as I’m sure you an imagine. It was from here that we did some Googling and found
Rainbow Street was the best place for food here, given it caters to tourists anyway. Wadi Musa,
the town next to Petra was fine, again because it caters to tourists and the Dead
Sea and Wadi Rum were mostly hotel experiences so would’ve been the same whenever we visited.
But ultimately, if you have the choice, I would suggest avoiding this time of year to visit
as it will mean that all the authentic local eateries will be closed for most of the day,
which will impact you at some point. The only asterisk I’d add to that is
if you happen to be visiting at the end of Ramadan where there’s a big celebration,
which would be great to experience in person. It didn’t ruin our holiday, obviously,
so if that’s the only time you’re free to travel, it shouldn’t be a reason not to,
but we certainly missed out on some places we wanted to visit, especially in Amman.
The best times to visit Jordan are during the Spring so March to May and Autumn,
September to November. In the Summer, it can get crazy hot and the Winter can see snowfall,
rain showers, and incredibly cold evenings in the desert.
As an FYI, English is widely spoken, even in the remote areas.
And Jordan is near the top of the list for a shortage of Water, so please don’t waste any
while you’re in the country. It’s also best to drink bottled water in general.
In terms of price, Jordan is one of the more expensive countries in the Middle
East. For example, a main course for an evening meal would be around $10 to $15 per person,
going upwards. The tour we took starts at $1800 per person, including most activities and food,
staying in 4 star hotels. This is definitely on the upper side with
similar tours without food being half that. I’ve linked both in the description below.
On the budget end, after some Googling a typical spend per day for food, sightseeing and a bed,
Jordan comes to around $100 a day, per person, when staying in accommodation as a pair.
If you’ve found this all useful, please leave a like on the video as it really
helps the channel and let us know if these 2 Jordan videos have sold you on visiting,
and why. Until the next one, thanks for watching Suitcase Monkey.