How to: Visit Petra and Wadi Rum Jordan

Jordan’s Petra and Wadi Rum desert are some of the wonders of the world, and definitely should get on your bucket list for any trip to the Middle East. In this post, I’ll be talking about different ways to visit Petra and Wadi Rum Jordan and what options I ultimately landed on.

Is Petra worth visiting?

Petra and Wadi Rum are gorgeous and unique landscapes that are unmatched anywhere on earth. The architecture of the temples and structures in Petra are one of the seven natural wonders of the world. Meanwhile, the Wadi Rum desert is vast and it’s mountains and red clay create a scene as if you’re on mars. The fact that these two major sites are so close to one another makes it completely worthwhile to visit them on a trip to Israel or Amman.

How do you get to Petra and Wadi Rum desert in Jordan?

There are a couple of options, depending on what kind of trip you are taking and where you are flying from. You can:

1. Fly into Israel (Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv or Ramon International Airport in Eilat) and take a tour that involves both an Israeli and Jordanian agency
2. Fly into Jordan via Amman (Queen Alia International Airport) or Aqaba (King Hussein International Airport and hire a Jordanian tour company. There are no airports directly in Petra.

You can try to get to visiting Petra without a tour, by renting a car in Jordan or taking one of the public buses. I might suggest not going this route, as it seemed when I visited (May 2019) that there were a number of roadblocks on the way there and I’m not sure how navigable that might be alone. If you want to try going on your own though, you can read this post and weigh your options!

How do I choose a tourism outfitter?

It depends on how many days you want to travel and where else you might be visiting.

If you want to visit Petra from Israel, here are some options:

• 1 Day tour from Eilat – if you are already in the south of Israel enjoying Eilat, this is a great quick way to visit Petra.
• 1 Day tour from Tel Aviv – if you aren’t already starting in Eilat and don’t want to drive the ~4 hours each way from Tel Aviv, this tour will help arrange a quick flight to Eilat for you as well as transfer to the Jordanian border.
• 2 Day tour from Amman – if you can swing the time, I definitely recommend spending at least 1 night in the Wadi Rum desert, so you can really experience the desert sky and not feel as rushed.
• 3 Day tour from Amman – if you have the time and a little extra cash, this trip would be the most thorough and relaxed experience, giving you plenty of time at all the main sights without the rush, spending 2 nights in the desert. You don’t need more than 3 days.

Do I go on a group tour or on a private tour?

Depends on the time of year you are going, who you are travelling with, and what your budget is. You obviously pay more to have a private tour, but if you are a family size this might be worth it for you. Group tour sizes can vary widely and if they are too large could impact your experience.

How long should I spend in Jordan?

There’s obviously a lot to see in Jordan. However, you can see all the highlights when visiting Petra in a single day – given it’s a very long, usually very hot, day with a lot of hiking. I think 1.5 days for visiting Petra might make the pace of things easier, but this isn’t usually an option on group tours. Wadi Rum is also about a day’s worth of touring, and because of the desert heat it is better to be able to get an early start. An itinerary I would recommend is (3 nights):

1. Arrive in Jordan and go straight to travel to Petra, spend the night in Petra
2. Spend a full day exploring Petra, spend the night in Petra
3. Drive to and spend most of a day in Wadi Rum, spend the night in Wadi Rum
4. Head back to Airport/Israel/Amman the following day

I visited Petra and Wadi Rum in 3 days 2 nights and it was sufficient, but I think it would have been less exhausting with another night. There are tours offered from Jerusalem and Tel Aviv for just the day in Petra, which I definitely do not recommend. You never know how much time you will spend at the border crossing, and there would be nothing worse than spending all day travelling just to spend a few hours in Petra!

Should I try and stay in a bedouin tent?

Depends. If you have never had a bedouin dinner experience before, it is quite delicious and would be hard to enjoy without spending the night. However, bedouin tent conditions can sometimes be a bit more rustic (it’s a bit like glamping), so buyer beware. There are otherwise very nice and affordable 4 and 5 star hotels in Petra and Wadi Rum.

How do visas and admission work?

If you fly into Jordan, you shouldn’t have to deal with too much in the way of visas. If you enter Jordan from Israel (or another country) however, there is a bit of a process crossing the land border. First off, note that you cannot drive across the border, so you need to leave your rental car in Israel (if you have one) in the lot on the Israeli side. It is helpful to have a guide to get through the visa and border crossing process, but with some patience and reading the regulations in advance, you might be able to navigate this yourself. At most land crossings you can obtain visas on location, but there is one Israel/Jordan land crossing (the Allenby Hussein) which requires visa paperwork to be filled out at the Jordanian Embassy in advance.

What is there to see in Petra?

There are a number of beautiful ruins in Petra that are believed to have been built by the Nabataean kingdom of nomads, who lived in the area from the 4th century BCE. The area was inhabited until approximately the 4th century CE, at which point the area was essentially forgotten to the desert until a Swiss explorer discovered the area in the early 19th century. Below are a couple of the main highlights:

The Treasury (Al-Kasneh)

The Monastry (Al-Deir)

al-Siq

The Royal Tombs

What is there to see in Wadi Rum?

Wadi Rum an incredibly beautiful and vast desert. There isn’t that much to ‘do’, besides some hiking and scrambling on some of the desert rock formations or riding on camels. Wadi Rum has been used for a number of famous movie sets, including The Martian, parts of the Star Wars series, Lawrence of Arabia, Transformers, and Aladdin (the Will Smith remake). The guides in Wadi Rum love to point out the places that feature prominently! In general this is just an incredibly beautiful spot, in part because of how desolate it is.

What if I don’t speak Arabic?

Not a problem! English is widely spoken in Jordan, especially in these tourist areas.

Is Jordan safe to visit?

This answer probably changes depending on what the political climate in the region is, but as of February 2020, yes, quite safe. Tourism is important to the country so harm to tourists is uncommon. Israel has good diplomatic relations with Jordan as well so those border crossings remains pretty straightforward (though do check the passport restrictions before trying to visit).