Jordan is one of the most rewarding countries in the Middle East for the independent traveller, and one of the most underestimated. It is safe, welcoming, and compact enough to see its main attractions in a week. And those attractions — Petra, Wadi Rum, the Dead Sea, the Roman city of Jerash — belong to a different category entirely from most travel experiences.
Petra alone would justify the trip. The ancient Nabataean city, carved into rose-red sandstone cliffs and hidden behind a kilometre-long canyon called the Siq, is one of the genuine wonders of the world. But Jordan beyond Petra is what makes the country worth two weeks rather than five days.
Petra
Enter through the Siq at first light, before the tour groups. The 45-minute walk through the narrowing canyon — walls rising 80 metres above you, the path worn smooth by two thousand years of feet — ends with the first glimpse of the Treasury facade between the canyon walls. It is an arrival worth planning your entire itinerary around. Spend two full days in Petra; most people spend one and regret it.
Recommended Stay · Wadi Musa · Jordan
Mövenpick Resort Petra
The only hotel within walking distance of the Siq entrance to Petra. Staying here means arriving before the tour buses at dawn and staying until the site closes at dusk — the only way to see the ancient city as it deserves to be seen.
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Wadi Rum
The desert valley of Wadi Rum — vast, silent, and geological in its drama — is two hours south of Petra. Spend a night in a Bedouin camp. The silence after dark, and the density of stars at altitude in the desert, are worth the basic accommodation. Dawn in Wadi Rum, when the light turns the sandstone from black to gold to red in the space of twenty minutes, is one of the great travel experiences in the region.
Beyond the Highlights
Jerash, an hour north of Amman, is one of the best-preserved Roman provincial cities in the world — better preserved than most sites in Italy, and visited by a fraction of the people. The Dead Sea, at 430 metres below sea level, offers the well-documented experience of floating without effort in water so salty it stings. Madaba has extraordinary Byzantine mosaics. Aqaba has good diving on the Red Sea coral reefs. Jordan is small enough that all of these are within a reasonable drive of each other.
