Jordan Itineraries: 5, 7 and 10-Day Routes Plus Dana to Petra

Two highways run the length of the country. The Desert Highway (Route 15) is fast, flat and full of trucks; the King’s Highway (Route 35) is slow and winding, through canyons and villages, and is the reason to rent a car. The Dead Sea Highway (Route 65) runs along the Rift Valley floor from the Dead Sea to Aqaba.

Speed cameras are common and fines are paid when you return the car. Fill up when you pass a petrol station on the King’s Highway and in Wadi Rum, where stations are few.

The shortest trip that does Jordan justice. It works best with a rental car, which lets you go from Wadi Rum to the Dead Sea in one afternoon; without a car, swap the last day for Aqaba and take the JETT back to Amman.

Day one is short by design. The Citadel is the best viewpoint in Amman, and the walk down to the Roman Theatre and the downtown restaurants for falafel and kanafeh takes about 20 minutes. On day two, leave by 8am to reach Petra by noon, eat, and spend the afternoon on the walk down the Siq to the Treasury, when the light on the facade is softer. Petra by Night (JOD 30, Sunday to Thursday at 8.30pm) needs a day ticket as well.

Day three is the big one. Start at the 6am opening, climb the High Place of Sacrifice from the Street of Facades before the crowds, cross to the Royal Tombs, and leave the Monastery climb for late morning, when the stairway is in shade. You will walk 15-20 km. A two-day Petra ticket costs only JOD 5 more than a single day and buys you a slower pace.

In Wadi Rum, park at the visitor centre or at your camp’s meeting point in Rum village; a three-to-four-hour jeep tour costs roughly JOD 40-60 per jeep, and most camps include dinner, breakfast and transfers in the room rate. On day five, leave Rum by 8am to reach the Dead Sea by midday; the public Amman Beach or a resort day pass (roughly JOD 25-60) gets you showers and a towel.

Cost: about JOD 450-650 ($630-920) per person for two people sharing a car and mid-range rooms, including the Jordan Pass, a jeep tour, food and fuel; JOD 250-350 ($350-500) with hostels, the JETT bus and shared jeep tours. Flights are extra.

A week is the right length for a first trip. It adds the north’s Roman ruins, a slower Petra and a night on the Red Sea, and it works by public transport if you take a driver for the Wadi Rum and Dead Sea legs.

Jerash is the best-preserved Roman provincial city in the Middle East, and three hours is about right. Go early, eat lunch in Jerash town, and drive the 25 km to Ajloun, whose 12th-century castle looks over the Jordan Valley from a pine-covered hill. Both are included in the Jordan Pass.

Little Petra (Siq al-Barid) is a short canyon of Nabataean houses and a painted ceiling, 9 km north of Wadi Musa and quiet. It is the start of the back trail into Petra: fit walkers can do this instead on day four, hiking from Little Petra to the Monastery in about two hours with a local guide and entering Petra from above. You need a valid Petra ticket.

Aqaba is a working port, but its southern beaches have some of the most accessible reefs in the Red Sea. A mask, snorkel and fins cost a few dinars to rent, and a two-dive day with a dive centre runs roughly JOD 60-90. If you would rather finish in Aqaba, Royal Jordanian flies to Amman in about an hour, and King Hussein Airport has some direct flights to Europe.

Cost: about JOD 650-900 ($920-1,270) per person sharing a car and mid-range rooms, or JOD 350-500 ($500-700) on a budget with JETT buses, hostels and a shared driver for the Rum to Dead Sea leg.

Ten days turns the trip into a road journey. The King’s Highway takes all day but it passes biblical sites, Crusader castles and the Mujib canyon, and you end it at Dana, a stone village on the edge of a 1,000 m drop into Wadi Feynan.

Day three combines three of Jordan’s religious sites in one morning: the 6th-century mosaic map of the Holy Land in St George’s Church in Madaba, the view over the Jordan Valley to Jericho from Mount Nebo, and the Baptism Site at Bethany beyond the Jordan, which must be visited on the guided shuttle from the visitor centre. You end the day floating at the Dead Sea.

The King’s Highway (day four) climbs back up from the Dead Sea to the Mujib canyon, a 1,000 m gorge the road crosses in hairpins, and then to Kerak, the largest Crusader castle in the region. Allow two hours there. Dana is 90 minutes further south. The RSCN-run Dana Guesthouse and the village’s small hotels fill in spring; book ahead.

The Jordan Trail runs about 675 km from Umm Qais in the north to Aqaba, and its best-known section is the four- to five-day walk from Dana to Petra, roughly 75-80 km through Wadi Feynan, Bedouin grazing land and sandstone canyons. It ends at the back door of Petra, entering at the Monastery, a much better arrival than the Siq.

The walk is moderate in distance but rough underfoot, with no waymarks on parts of the route and no water sources you can rely on. Go with a licensed Jordanian guide and a support vehicle that carries water, camping gear and luggage; local outfitters arrange the whole section, and the Jordan Trail Association lists routes, maps and operators. Expect to pay well above a self-drive budget, roughly JOD 100-200 per person per day fully supported, depending on group size.

Walk it from March to May or late September to mid-November. Summer temperatures in Wadi Araba pass 40°C (104°F), and winter brings freezing nights and flash floods. You must have a valid Petra ticket (the Jordan Pass works) to enter through the Monastery.

Buy the Jordan Pass online before you fly. The Wanderer (JOD 70) includes one day at Petra, the Explorer (JOD 75) two consecutive days and the Expert (JOD 80) three; all three cover Jerash, the Amman Citadel, Wadi Rum, Kerak, Shobak, Ajloun and about 35 other sites. If you buy it before arrival and stay at least two nights (three days), it also waives the JOD 40 ($56) tourist visa fee, according to the official site; check the current rule before you go and see our Jordan visa guide. Without a pass, Petra alone costs JOD 50 for one day.

Book these ahead in spring and autumn: Petra hotels in Wadi Musa, Wadi Rum camps (the comfortable ones fill four to eight weeks out), the Dana Guesthouse and Feynan Ecolodge, and rental cars over Easter and Eid. Petra by Night (JOD 30) is not included in the Jordan Pass and is bought at the Petra visitor centre. For daily budgets and line-item prices, see the Jordan costs guide.

First-timers: the 7-day route is the one to copy. Do not cut Petra to one day if you can avoid it; the second day costs JOD 5 more and gives you the Monastery and the High Place of Sacrifice without rushing.

Without a car: use JETT between Amman, Petra and Aqaba, the 6am minibus from Wadi Musa to Wadi Rum (about 2 hours), a taxi from Rum to Aqaba (roughly JOD 25-35), and a hotel-booked driver for the Dead Sea. The King’s Highway is hard to do without a car or driver.

Families with children: cut the walking. Ride the horse-drawn carriage or electric car from the Petra visitor centre to the Treasury, pick a Wadi Rum camp with private tents and a short sunset jeep tour, and spend an extra day in Aqaba, where the Marine Park beaches are shallow and calm.

Summer and winter: in July and August, do Petra and Wadi Rum at dawn and dusk and add a pool. In December to February, swap Dana for an extra night at the Dead Sea or in Aqaba, and keep a spare day in case rain closes Petra.

Slow travel: add Madaba as a base for a day trip to Umm ar-Rasas and Machaerus, the desert castles of Qusayr Amra and Azraq in a day from Amman, and the Roman ruins at As-Salt.

Jordan travel guide · Best time · Costs · Safety · Visas