Last Updated: October 28, 2026
In a single day in Jordan we went from a sixth-century mosaic map of the Holy Land, to the mountaintop where the Bible says Moses was shown the Promised Land, down to the shore of the Dead Sea — the lowest dry land on Earth, more than 1,400 feet below sea level — and on south to dinner on a terrace above the Red Sea at Aqaba. Jordan is slightly smaller than Indiana, and it fits all of that, plus a desert out of a film set and one of the great ancient cities of the world, into a country you can drive end to end in an afternoon.
Jordan was our pre-cruise extension before Egypt. We flew from San Diego through London Heathrow to Queen Alia International Airport, checked into the St. Regis Amman at 1:30 in the morning, and then worked our way south with a touring group of just seven in a Mercedes coach: Amman and Jerash, Madaba, Mount Nebo, the Dead Sea and Aqaba, a night in the desert at Wadi Rum, and Petra. From Amman it is a short flight to Cairo, and the rest of the trip is in our Egypt Travel Guide.
Three things kept surfacing across the four posts. The first is that earthquakes decided what survived. Petra never recovered from the earthquake of 363 AD, and Jerash was devastated by another in 749 and gradually buried, which is a large part of why so much of it is still there to walk through. The second is that the living country sits right beside the ruins: a women’s cooperative making soap and paper half an hour from Amman, Bedouin guides pouring tea in Wadi Rum, a Nabataean tomb in Petra doing business as a spice shop. The third is layering. Nabataean, Greek, Roman, Byzantine and early Islamic builders all worked the same ground, often on the same building.
This guide follows the trip in the order we traveled it, which happens to run from north to south. Each section links to the full post, with the photographs, visitor information and practical detail for that part of the country.
Amman and Jerash
Amman is built across a series of hills and is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It was Rabbath Ammon in the Bible and Philadelphia under the Greeks and Romans, and its Roman theater still sits in the middle of downtown. We wandered the souks for hours. Plenty of visitors treat the capital as an airport and a night’s sleep on the way to Petra; our view is that Amman is a destination, not just a stopover.
Jerash, about 48 kilometers north, is often called the best-preserved Roman provincial city outside Italy. It was one of the Decapolis, the league of Greco-Roman cities east of the Jordan, and the scale is the surprise: the Oval Plaza ringed by 56 Ionic columns, the colonnaded Cardo running the length of the city, a hippodrome built for 15,000 and two theaters. We had stretches of it nearly to ourselves.
The day ended at the Iraq al-Amir Women’s Cooperative, about 30 kilometers west of Amman, where local women run workshops in weaving, papermaking, ceramics and soap. Lunch was there, and because Michael works in ceramics at home, the cooperative’s potters took the time to show him their glazes and slip casting. The soap and textiles we bought remain some of our favorite souvenirs. It is all in Amman, Jordan: Ancient Ruins, Vibrant Markets & a Women’s Cooperative.
Madaba, Mount Nebo, the Dead Sea and Aqaba
Madaba is a relaxed market town with the largest concentration of Byzantine and early Islamic mosaics still in their original places, and the most famous of them is on the floor of St. George’s Church: the Madaba Map, a sixth-century mosaic of the Holy Land with Jerusalem at its center, the oldest surviving map of the region. We had lunch at a family-run restaurant, where mansaf — lamb cooked in fermented dried yogurt and served over rice, Jordan’s national dish — immediately became something we wanted again.
Mount Nebo is six miles away. In the Book of Deuteronomy it is where Moses was shown the Promised Land before he died, and on a clear day the view runs across the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea toward Jericho. A modern memorial church protects the remains of a fourth-century basilica and its mosaics, and a serpent-and-cross sculpture stands at the edge of the summit. Whatever you believe, the hilltop quiets you.
Then down to the Dead Sea, more than 1,400 feet below sea level, where the water is nearly ten times saltier than the ocean and you float whether you intend to or not. It is exactly as remarkable as people say it is. It is also shrinking by roughly a meter a year, which is a sobering footnote to a very cheerful afternoon.
We finished the day far to the south at Aqaba, Jordan’s only stretch of coast, at the Al Manara resort on the Red Sea, with dinner on the terrace at sunset. The reefs here begin close to shore, and we immediately regretted not building more time into the itinerary. Next time, more time. The whole day is in Madaba, Mount Nebo, the Dead Sea & Aqaba: One Day in Jordan’s Heartland.
Wadi Rum: The Valley of the Moon
From Aqaba we went north by bus, and within the hour the Red Sea was gone. Wadi Rum is a protected desert of red sand and sheer sandstone and granite mountains, listed by UNESCO in 2011 for both its landscape and the thousands of rock carvings and inscriptions left by the Nabataeans and the people before them. It has stood in for other planets in The Martian and Dune, and it was the desert of Lawrence of Arabia in 1962. We rode in the Bedouin-run 4WD trucks with our guide Kam, one of the best guides we have had anywhere, hiked a slot canyon, and stopped in a Bedouin tent for coffee and tea. Accepting hospitality in this part of the world isn’t optional; it’s the language.
We stayed the night at Palmera Camp, in a tent with a proper bed and its own deck. Dinner was zarb, meat and vegetables slow-cooked in a pit under the sand, and it was one of the best meals of the entire Jordan trip. After dark the Milky Way appeared not as a faint smear but as an actual band of light, and sunrise over the rock was every bit as good as sunset. The visit is in Wadi Rum, Jordan: The Valley of the Moon.
Petra: The Rose City
We arrived at Petra from Wadi Rum by bus and spent two full days there. The Nabataeans, Arab traders who controlled the caravan routes carrying frankincense, myrrh and spices between Arabia, Egypt and Syria, built it into their capital from around the fourth century BC, and the real genius of the place is water: channels, dams and cisterns cut into the rock that let a city of perhaps 20,000 people live in a desert. Rome annexed it in 106 AD, the earthquake of 363 broke it, and the first European to reach it in modern times was the Swiss traveler Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, in disguise, in 1812.
You walk in through the Siq, a natural fissure more than a kilometer long with walls up to 80 meters high, lined with niches where the Nabataeans set stone figures of their gods. Then the canyon opens and the Treasury fills the end of it like a painting hung at the end of a corridor — 40 meters of carved facade, almost certainly a royal tomb, its stone urn still pocked by the bullets of people who believed a pharaoh’s treasure was hidden inside. Beyond it are the Street of Facades, the royal tombs, a Roman theater cut straight through older Nabataean tombs, and a tomb now doing business as a spice shop. Petra is the high note — but the whole trip earned it. Everything is in Petra, Jordan: The Rose City.
On to Egypt
Jordan was the first part of a longer journey. From Amman we flew to Cairo, and from there to Luxor and a Nile cruise between Luxor and Aswan, with a flight south to Abu Simbel. The two countries make an easy pair: the flight is short, and the history overlaps — the Egyptian elements carved into Petra’s Treasury are a reminder of how closely the caravan trade tied them together. Our first stop is in Cairo, Egypt: Ancient Wonders, the Grand Egyptian Museum & a City That Never Sleeps, and the whole of that trip is in our Egypt Travel Guide: Cairo, the Pyramids, Luxor and a Nile Cruise to Abu Simbel.
Planning a Jordan Trip: Visitor Information
Official sources: The Jordan Tourism Board’s visitjordan.com covers the whole country. The Jordan Pass is sold only online at jordanpass.jo, and its site lists exactly which attractions it includes. Opening hours and prices change, so check before you go.
Jordan Pass: One pass covers entry to Petra (with one-, two- or three-day options), Jerash and dozens of other sites, and it also waives the tourist visa fee if you buy it before you arrive and stay in Jordan for at least three nights. The Dead Sea is not on it: the beaches are run by resorts and day-use operators that charge their own fees.
Petra Archaeological Park: At the town of Wadi Musa, about 240 kilometers south of Amman. Open daily from 6:00 AM, closing earlier in winter than in summer. The walk from the visitor center through the Siq to the Treasury is about 1.2 kilometers each way. Petra by Night runs on set evenings each week. Website: visitpetra.jo.
Wadi Rum Protected Area: The visitor center is at the entrance near Rum village, about 60 kilometers north of Aqaba. Entry is charged per person, and the desert camps arrange 4WD tours, guides and overnight stays.
Jerash, Madaba and Mount Nebo: Jerash is about an hour north of Amman; allow three to four hours on site. Madaba is about 30 kilometers south of Amman, and Mount Nebo about 10 kilometers beyond it. St. George’s Church in Madaba charges a small entry fee for the Madaba Map.
Where we stayed: The St. Regis Amman; the Al Manara resort on the Red Sea at Aqaba; and Palmera Camp at Wadi Rum. Details are in the individual posts.
Practical Tips for Traveling Jordan
Buy the Jordan Pass before you fly. It has to be bought online before arrival to cover the visa fee, and with Petra alone costing JD 50 for a single day, the pass pays for itself on almost any itinerary.
Respect the distances. Jordan is small, but Amman to Aqaba is roughly 330 kilometers. Our Madaba, Mount Nebo, Dead Sea and Aqaba day was a full one. If you are driving yourself, split it.
Consider a night in Wadi Rum. A day trip shows you the rock. Staying overnight adds the sunset, the zarb dinner, the stars and the sunrise.
Be at Petra’s gate when it opens, and give it two days. The Siq and the Treasury are a different place in the first two hours of the morning, before the tour buses arrive. A two-day ticket costs only a little more than one day and lets you add the long climb to the Monastery.
Give Aqaba more than a night. We wish we had. The Red Sea reefs begin almost at the beach, and divers and snorkelers can easily fill several days.
Dress modestly away from the resorts. Shoulders and knees covered is respectful in towns, churches and mosques. Swimwear is fine at the Dead Sea and Red Sea resorts.
Say yes to the tea. Hospitality is at the center of Bedouin and Jordanian life, and an offered cup of tea or coffee is an invitation, not a sales pitch. Carry small dinar notes for tips for guides and drivers.
Wear real walking shoes and carry water. Petra and Jerash are both long days on uneven stone, with very little shade.
Frequently Asked Questions About Traveling in Jordan
How many days do you need in Jordan? A week covers the essentials at a comfortable pace: two days for Amman and Jerash, a day for Madaba, Mount Nebo and the Dead Sea, a day or more at Aqaba, a night in Wadi Rum and two days at Petra. That is close to the route we took, and next time we would add more time at Aqaba.
Is the Jordan Pass worth it? For almost every visitor, yes. If you see Petra and stay at least three nights, the pass covers the visa fee and Petra entry together for less than they cost separately, and Jerash and many other sites come with it. It must be bought online before you arrive.
Should you visit Wadi Rum or Petra first? Either works, since the two are about two hours apart. We came up from Aqaba to Wadi Rum and then went on to Petra, and Petra was the high note. Many tours do it the other way round to finish at the Red Sea.
Can you combine Jordan and Egypt in one trip? Easily. We did Jordan first and then flew from Amman to Cairo, a short flight, before a Nile cruise from Luxor to Aswan. The whole second half of the trip is in our Egypt Travel Guide.
Can you really float in the Dead Sea? Yes, effortlessly. The water is so dense with salt that you bob on the surface. Keep it out of your eyes, avoid shaving beforehand, wear water shoes on the rocky shore, and rinse off in the fresh-water showers afterward.
What is the best time of year to visit Jordan? Spring (March to May) and autumn (September to November) are the most comfortable. Summer is very hot at Petra, in Wadi Rum and in Aqaba; winter brings cold desert nights and occasional rain or even snow in Amman, but far fewer crowds.
