9 Day Classic Tour

of Jordan

Amman - Karak Castle – Shobak Castle – Petra – Siq Al Barid (Little Petra) – Al Beidha - Wadi Rum – Aqaba – Jerash – Ajlun (Ar Rabad Castle) – Umm Qais (Gadara) – Al Balad - Jebel al Qala'a – Dead Sea – Greek Orthodox Church of St. George – Madaba - Mount Nebo

Day 1

Queen Alia International Airport - Amman

Welcome to Jordan! You will be met on arrival at the airport and transferred to your hotel in Amman for dinner.

Then we will stay overnight at a hotel in Amman.

Day 2

Amman - Karak Castle – Shobak Castle - Petra

Today we will drive from Amman down to the rose-red city of Petra, stopping en-route at the Crusader Castles at Karak and Shobak Castle.  

Karak Castle soars above its valleys and hills like a great ship riding waves of rocks.

It is a typical crusader fortress, with dimly lit stone-vaulted rooms and corridors leading into each other through heavy arches and doorways. In truth the castle is more imposing than beautiful.

The ruins of the upper level are attributed to the Crusader period, and the staircases leading to the underground level of the upper courtyard provide access to Mamluk architecture complexes, most of which were probably associated with a palace.

Shobak Castle is situated mid-way between Karak, Petra, and 190km south of Amman.

It was built by King Baldwin I circa 1,115 to guard the road from Damascus to Egypt, and commands an imposing position, crowning a cone of rock, which rises above a wild and rugged landscape dotted with a grand sweep of fruit trees.

The castle's exterior is impressive, with a forbidding gate and encircling walls three layers thick.

The walls and projecting towers are reasonably intact but inside the castle mainly consists of tumbled stones with a few walls and arches.

We will drive from Shobak Castle to arrive at Petra in time for our dinner and overnight at a hotel in Petra.

Day 3

Petra

Petra is a treasure of the ancient world and definitely a highlight of any trip to Jordan.

It is hidden behind an almost impenetrable barrier of rugged mountains and boasts incomparable scenes making it perhaps the most majestic and imposing ancient site still standing today.

It is the legacy of the Nabataeans, an industrious Arab people who settled in southern Jordan more than 2,000 years ago and who carved their new capital out of the rose-red Sharah Mountains.

The site contains refined culture, massive architecture and an ingenious complex of dams and water channels.

For our first hours in Petra we will have an English speaking guide who will show us round the numerous highlights including the Treasury (El Khazneh) which has an intricately carved façade that glows in the sun, the amphitheatre, and the Royal Tombs.

For the remainder of the day you will be able to wander at your leisure; one monument leading to the next for kilometer after kilometer.

The sheer size of the city and quality of the beautifully carved facades at Petra is staggering, almost overwhelming and there are over 800 individual monuments in total, including buildings, tombs, baths, funerary halls, temples, gateways, and colonnaded streets to admire, mostly carved from the kaleidoscopic sandstone by the technical and artistic genius of its inhabitants.

At the end of the day you will walk back past gift shops where you can buy a souvenir or gift to accompany your treasured memories.

We will drive to a hotel in Petra for our dinner and an overnight stay.

Day 4

Petra – Siq Al Barid (Little Petra) – Al Beidha - Wadi Rum

After having breakfast at our hotel we drive to Siq Al Barid (Little Petra), a suburb of the main ancient city.

Little Petra provides an atmospheric summary of Nabataean architecture.

The area was once a caravanserai stop for the capital and comes complete with its own mini-Siq, a 350 meter fissure in the rock crammed with tombs, triclinums, water channels, and cisterns.

It is still easy to imagine the sounds and smells of the old days when traders, caravan masters and drovers lived and traded here. We drive a short distance on to Al Beidha, or 'the white one' on account of the color of its rock.  

Al Beidha contains the remains of a Neolithic site, dating back to 7,500 BC which makes it one of the earliest known co-operative villages on earth.

Mediterranean trees such as Oak, Juniper, Carob, and Pistachio thrive in this small sandy valley.

We will take lunch before driving on to Wadi Rum, to eat the traditional, freshly prepared, Jordanian dinner provided by our genial Bedouin hosts and staying overnight in a deluxe campsite with clean comfortable beds and hot showers.

Day 5

Wadi Rum - Aqaba

After a sustaining buffet breakfast we enjoy a Jeep Safari amongst Wadi Rum's enchanting pink and white desert sands.

Travel in Wadi Rum is a journey to another world, where one can escape the worries of everyday life and return to nature and the simple life.

In this immense space, man is dwarfed into insignificance.

Vast, silent and timeless, Wadi Rum possesses one of the most beautiful desert scapes in the world. Rock carvings mark the passage of ancient tribes in pre-history.

Thamud inscriptions, burial mounds, ancient megaliths and ruined buildings abound, Nabataeans rock carved stairways, dams, and temples can still be found throughout the area.

Wadi Rum is perhaps best known because of its connection with Lawrence of Arabia and we follow in the enigmatic British officer's footsteps as we drive through the surreal moonscape.

We will stay in Wadi Rum until the late afternoon to explore the area in detail and to watch the gorgeous desert sunset.

We will then drive to a hotel in Aqaba in time for dinner and overnight in Aqaba.

Day 6

Aqaba - Amman

Aqaba is Jordan's only port city and beach resort.

The majority of today is free to do as you please. Perhaps you would like to simply relax on the beach with a drink? Maybe take a boat ride on a glass-bottomed boat?

We would recommend that you take advantage of the unbelievably clear water in the area to snorkel or dive to see the myriad coral reefs and colorful fish.

Late afternoon we drive north to Amman in time for dinner and overnight in Jordan's capital city.

Day 7

Amman – Jerash – Ajlun (Ar Rabad Castle) – Umm Qais (Gadara) – Amman

Today we will be sightseeing north of Amman taking in Ajlun Castle, Umm Qais (Gadara), and the Hellenistic-Roman City of Jerash before returning to our hotel in Amman for dinner and an overnight stay.

Jerash, is located 48 kilometers from Amman, has been dubbed the 'Pompeii of the East' due to it being one of the world's largest and most well-preserved sites of Roman architecture outside of Italy.

Jerash's colonnaded streets, baths, theatres, plazas, and arches remain in exceptional condition and make the city an extremely interesting place to look around.

Next, we will visit Ajlun to see the 12th Century Saracen Castle built by one of Saladin's lieutenants and used in the military campaign against the Crusaders before driving to Umm Qais, situated 110km north of Amman and once known as Gadara (meaning fortification).

Umm Qais (Gadara) was once one of the most brilliant ancient Hellenistic-Roman cities of the Decapolis and, according to the Bible, the spot where Jesus cast out devils from two demoniacs (mad men) into a herd of pigs.

Umm Qais is on a broad promontory 378 meters above sea level that enjoys a magnificent view over the Golan Heights, Lake Tiberius (Sea of Galilee), and Jebel al Sheikh in both Lebanon and Syria.

Then we will stay overnight at a hotel in Amman.

Day 8

Amman - Al Balad - Jebel al Qala'a – Dead Sea - Madaba

After breakfast we will do a tour of down-town Amman (Al Balad) taking in remnants of its long and distinguished history including a Roman amphitheatre with attendant Odeon and a Citadel which sits on the hill overlooking the area which is a patchwork of Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic ruins.

We will have our lunch in Amman before driving to a private beach at the Dead Sea for the rest of the day where we can float in the mineral-rich waters, take a therapeutic black-mud massage, or just relax round the swimming pool with a drink.

We have dinner and stay the night in a hotel in Madaba.

Day 9

Madaba - Greek Orthodox Church of St. George – Mount Nebo – Queen Alia International Airport

Today we visit Madaba and Mount Nebo before we take you to the airport for your flight home.  

Madaba is still a Christian town and within its churches are some superb mosaics.

We shall see the most famous mosaic, which is housed at the contemporary Greek Orthodox Church of St. George and which depicts the Holy Land.

This is a wonderfully vivid 6th Century mosaic map, comprising two million pieces of colored stones showing the entire region from Jordan, Palestine in the north, and to Egypt in the south.

It is fun to spend a while picking out the various cities and admiring the little vignettes the artist incorporated into the map.

Mount Nebo is a very important Christian site, recently visited by the Pope, for it was here, on the edge of a ridge overlooking the Dead Sea , that Moses first caught sight of the Holy Land, having led his people from Sinai.

It is said that Moses also died and was buried here. The West Bank City of Jericho is usually visible from the summit of Mount Nebo, as is Jerusalem on a very clear day.

Then from Mount Nebo we make the short drive to say farewell at the Queen Alia International Airport in time for check-in for your departure from Jordan.