I picked this trip from the many Jordan holidays I looked at because it allowed 2 full days in Petra where others only allowed one or even half a day. This was definitely a good decision and three days in Petra would have been even better.
Coverage of many things on the itinerary was disappointing. The "full days exploration" of Amman promised in the trip notes turned out to be three hours visiting two sites and then being dropped back at the hotel and told not to go out by ourselves. They did not take us to see the Dead Sea scrolls as these had been moved form the museum at the site we visited to a different museum in Amman. At the caves of Iraq al Amir with the aramaic inscriptions we were only given 5 minutes to take photos from the road side and then drove on. At Um Qais the "fantastic views of The sea of Galilee" were a dusty haze where you could imagine a sea might be. At "Madaba, 'The City of Mosaics'" only one mosaic was included in the itinerary, though we chose to pay about £2 extra to visit another site. At Wadi Rum the itinerary said we would "take a four wheel drive vehicle far into the area for an exciting desert adventure". We were booked a two hour trip that lasted one hour forty minutes including stops next to the Bedouin tourist shops, so we didn't see much more than was visible from the bus on the main road. There was a strong wind blowing away from shore on the Red Sea so it was only safe to snorkel holding onto a rope from the back of the boat and the only person who tried to swim further had to be rescued.
The "Petra by Night" option consisted of atmospheric walks in and out along the siq by candle light and two solo performances of Bedouin music and was well worth doing. This only runs about three nights a week so make sure your group leader is on the ball, as ours was, and gets this organised in time.
Little Petra is like 1% of Petra that's then been scaled down, so in hindsight was a waste of time and I would have preferred to spend the time seeing more of the main site. We were eventually given this tour for free as compensation for the awful hotel in Petra, but it was originally offered for 13JD/US$15. Since the entrance seemed to be free and it was a ten minute drive up the hill from the town, you could probably see it for a fraction of the price by paying a few JD between 4 people in a taxi.
Most of the tourist restaurants want you to take the fixed meal of a similar salad selection every time followed by a hot dish. This is typically quite expensive at £10-£12 (before drinks) and gets repetitive, especially if you are vegetarian so only have the salad part. Try to find places where you can just order what you want form the menu. Alternatively for snacks try one of the smaller local places. Most look a bit grubby, but in one place I got two falafel and houmous wraps and a soft drink for under a pound.
Don't miss trying the lemon with fresh mint cold drink which is so delicious I ended up having it with most meals!
from 9 reviews.
- Exodus Staff
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