Jordan: Petra, Wadi Rum and the Red Sea for three generations

1. Jour 1 : Arrive in Jordan, down to the Dead Sea

   Queen Alia International Airport (AMM) to a resort on the Dead Sea, about 1 hour

   • Environ 1 h de route
   • Welcome dinner
   • Nuit : Dead Sea
   Détail du jour 1

   Fly into Queen Alia International Airport (AMM), south of Amman, ideally by early afternoon. Your See Sight Tours guide meets the family in the arrivals hall, and the driver loads the bags into our own air-conditioned vehicle, with child seats or boosters ready for the ages you booked. Rather than a night in the city, we go straight down to the Dead Sea, about an hour away, dropping from the plateau through bare hills to the shore, roughly 430 m below sea level, the lowest land on earth. Check in to the resort for two nights. If you land early, there is time for a first float before sunset: the water is so salty that children and grandparents lie back and bob without trying. Otherwise the resort pool is the place to stretch after the flight. The welcome dinner starts at about 6 pm, with a short briefing on the week ahead, so the youngest guests are in bed on time.

   Compris

   • Pick-up at Queen Alia International Airport (AMM)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Welcome dinner at about 6 pm

   Option plus facile : Rest at the resort after the flight.

   Option plus active : A first float in the Dead Sea before sunset.

   Temps libre : Afternoon free at the resort

   Activité : Land by about 3 pm to reach the welcome dinner; later arrivals are met and taken to the resort.

   

2. Jour 2 : Bethany, Mount Nebo and the Madaba Map

   Dead Sea to Bethany Beyond the Jordan, Mount Nebo and Madaba, then back to the Dead Sea, about 2 hours in short legs

   • Environ 2 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Dead Sea
   Détail du jour 2

   We leave at about 8:30 am, before the valley warms up, for Bethany Beyond the Jordan, about twenty minutes north, the place where John is believed to have baptised Jesus, listed by UNESCO in 2015. A site shuttle and a shaded path through tamarisk and reeds leads to the remains of Byzantine churches and to the Jordan River itself, only a few metres wide here. Then we climb out of the valley to Mount Nebo. From the terrace by the Memorial Church of Moses the view runs back over the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea, and on a clear day to the hills around Jericho. Madaba is ten minutes further on. In the Church of St George, the floor holds the Madaba Map, a 6th-century mosaic of the Holy Land with Jerusalem at its centre; children like finding the fish in the Jordan. Lunch is in Madaba, and we are back at the resort by about 2:30 pm for floating, a mud mask and the pool.

   Compris

   • Bethany Beyond the Jordan (Al-Maghtas) with your guide
   • Mount Nebo and the Memorial Church of Moses
   • The Madaba Map in the Church of St George
   • Lunch in Madaba
   • Floating in the Dead Sea at the resort

   Option plus facile : At Bethany, wait on a shaded bench near the river while the others walk to the church ruins; Mount Nebo's terrace is a short level walk from the vehicle.

   Option plus active : Walk Madaba's old streets with the guide to a mosaic workshop before lunch.

   Temps libre : Afternoon free at the resort from about 2:30 pm

   Activité : About 2 km on foot in all, mostly level. Cover shoulders and knees at Bethany and in the churches.

3. Jour 3 : Karak Castle and south to Petra

   Dead Sea to Karak, about 1 hour 45 minutes, then Karak to Wadi Musa on the Desert Highway, about 2 hours 30 minutes

   • Environ 4.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Wadi Musa
   Détail du jour 3

   Today moves the family from the Dead Sea to Petra, the longest day in the vehicle at about four and a quarter hours in all. We accept it so the family unpacks only four times; the other route means a night in Amman and a fourth hotel. It is split by a real stop. We leave at about 8:30 am, drive south along the shore, then climb about 1,300 m in an hour of hairpins to Karak, where the Crusaders began their castle in the 1140s on a ridge above the town. Children love the long dark vaulted halls (bring a torch); grandparents can stay on the upper terraces, where the view runs down towards the Dead Sea. Lunch is in Karak. In the afternoon we cross to the Desert Highway and drive about two and a half hours south, with a stop halfway, to Wadi Musa, the town at Petra's gate, by about 4:30 pm. Dinner is your own, at about 6 pm if you can, and bed is early, ready for the Petra gate at 7 am.

   Compris

   • Karak Castle with your guide
   • Lunch in Karak

   Option plus facile : Stay on the castle's upper level and terraces and skip the stairs down to the lower halls.

   Option plus active : Explore the lower galleries and the castle museum with the guide.

   Temps libre : Early evening free in Wadi Musa

   Activité : The longest drive of the trip, in two legs of about 1 hour 45 minutes and 2 hours 30 minutes, split by the castle and lunch. Karak's floors are uneven and some halls are dark.

4. Jour 4 : Petra in the morning

   A morning and early afternoon inside Petra, on foot

   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Wadi Musa
   Détail du jour 4

   We are at the Petra gate at about 7 am, an hour after it opens and well before the day-trip coaches arrive from Amman and Aqaba. The walk down the Siq, the 1.2 km gorge between towering sandstone walls, is gently downhill and shaded at this hour, and the Treasury appears at the end of it, carved by the Nabataeans in the 1st century AD. Your guide turns it into a story for the children: the bullet marks on the urn above the doorway, the water channels in the Siq walls, the camel caravans the city grew rich on. We carry on along the Street of Facades to the Theatre and the Royal Tombs, then down the Colonnaded Street to the Great Temple and Qasr al-Bint. Lunch is a proper sit-down meal inside the site. After lunch most of the family walks back out with the guide and is at the hotel by about 2 pm, for the pool if the hotel has one, or a rest, while anyone keen climbs to the Monastery. After an early dinner, Petra by Night (about 8:30 to 10:30 pm) is optional, the only late evening of the trip.

   Compris

   • Petra with your guide from about 7 am: the Siq, the Treasury, the Street of Facades, the Theatre, the Royal Tombs, the Colonnaded Street, the Great Temple and Qasr al-Bint
   • Sit-down lunch inside Petra
   • Petra by Night, optional, about 8:30 to 10:30 pm: the show runs only on set evenings, so departure dates are set for day 4 to fall on one

   Option plus facile : Ride one of Petra's electric carts between the visitor centre and the Treasury where they are running (fare paid locally), and wait in the shade at the Theatre while the others walk to Qasr al-Bint. Skip Petra by Night and stay at the hotel.

   Option plus active : After lunch, climb the roughly 800 rock-cut steps to the Monastery with the guide or a local Petra guide, and walk out by about 5 pm.

   Temps libre : Afternoon free from about 2 pm

   Activité : About 8 km on foot on sand and paving for the main route, with the walk back up the Siq at the end; about 12 km with the Monastery. Hats, water and good shoes.

   

5. Jour 5 : Little Petra and a night in Wadi Rum

   Wadi Musa to Little Petra, then south to a camp in Wadi Rum, about 2 hours in all

   • Environ 2 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Wadi Rum
   Détail du jour 5

   A slower start, then fifteen minutes north to Little Petra, Siq al-Barid, at about 9 am. It is everything children liked about Petra on a small scale: a short, flat canyon of Nabataean houses, cisterns and dining rooms, with rock-cut steps to scramble up and down. Look up in the Painted Biclinium for a 1st-century ceiling fresco of vines and birds. Then we drive about two hours south to Wadi Rum, a protected desert of red sand and sandstone mountains listed by UNESCO in 2011, reaching camp in time for lunch and a rest in the shade. At about 3:30 pm, when the heat goes out of the day, Bedouin drivers take the family out by 4x4: Lawrence's Spring, the rock drawings of Khazali Canyon, a red dune to run down and a small rock bridge. We watch the sunset from high ground, then dinner is zarb, lifted from an oven buried in the sand, at about 6:30 pm.

   Compris

   • Little Petra (Siq al-Barid) and the Painted Biclinium
   • Lunch and dinner at camp, with a zarb dinner cooked in the sand
   • A 4x4 tour with Bedouin drivers: Lawrence's Spring, Khazali Canyon, a red dune and a rock bridge
   • Sunset from high ground, then stargazing at camp

   Option plus facile : Stay in the 4x4 at the dune and the canyon; every stop can be seen from the vehicle or a few steps away.

   Option plus active : Climb to the top of the red dune and scramble onto the rock bridge with the Bedouin guide.

   Temps libre : Early afternoon free at camp

   Activité : About 10 km to Little Petra, then about 120 km to camp. Wadi Rum sits at about 1,000 m, so nights are cool for much of the year and cold in early spring and late autumn: warm layers for everyone.

   

6. Jour 6 : A camel ride, then the Red Sea

   Wadi Rum to Aqaba, about 1 hour

   • Environ 1 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Aqaba
   Détail du jour 6

   Anyone who wants to can be up for sunrise, when the light runs down the cliffs and the sand has no fresh tracks; everyone else sleeps in. After breakfast the family rides camels for about half an hour across the valley floor near camp, led on foot by a Bedouin handler, slow and low enough for a six-year-old and a grandparent. Then we leave the desert and drive about an hour south to Aqaba, Jordan's only town on the sea, at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba, with the mountains of Sinai across the water. Lunch is by the sea. The afternoon is free at the hotel for the pool or the beach, where the water is warm enough to swim in spring and autumn. Aqaba is easy in the evening: a walk along the corniche, the small Mamluk fort near the shore, and an early dinner wherever the family likes.

   Compris

   • Sunrise at camp, for those who want it
   • A camel ride of about 30 minutes with a Bedouin handler
   • Lunch in Aqaba

   Option plus facile : Watch the camels from the camp's shade, or ride for a few minutes only.

   Option plus active : Walk out to the rocks near camp for sunrise with the guide.

   Temps libre : Afternoon and evening free in Aqaba

   Activité : The camel ride is gentle and led on foot; long trousers make it more comfortable.

   

7. Jour 7 : A glass-bottom boat over the coral

   Aqaba to the south coast and back, about 30 minutes

   • Environ 30 min de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Aqaba
   Détail du jour 7

   The Red Sea is calmest in the morning, so that is when we go out. A short drive takes the family down the coast to the jetty for a glass-bottom boat over the reefs of the Aqaba marine park, where corals start a few metres from the shore. Grandparents can watch the fish through the glass without getting wet; children and parents can slip in at a snorkel stop with masks, fins and life jackets, with the boat crew in the water beside them. Common sights are parrotfish, clownfish in their anemones and, with luck, a turtle. Lunch is included on the boat day. The afternoon is completely free: the pool, a nap, the beach, or a stroll to the shops for a sand bottle with the family's names in coloured layers. We gather for the farewell dinner at about 6 pm, early enough for an easy last night and a calm morning.

   Compris

   • Glass-bottom boat over the coral of the Aqaba marine park, with a snorkel stop and equipment
   • Lunch
   • Farewell dinner at about 6 pm

   Option plus facile : Stay on board and watch the reef through the glass floor.

   Option plus active : Snorkel from the boat with the crew, or along the house reef at the beach in the afternoon.

   Temps libre : Afternoon free from about 1:30 pm

   Activité : Children snorkel only with a life jacket and an adult beside them; the crew sets the minimum age on the day.

8. Jour 8 : Aqaba to Amman by air and home

   Aqaba to King Hussein International Airport (AQJ), then the domestic flight to Queen Alia International Airport (AMM)

   • Environ 15 min de route
   • Petit-déjeuner
   Détail du jour 8

   A slow breakfast and a last swim if the flight allows. Your guide and driver take the family about fifteen minutes to King Hussein International Airport (AQJ) for the domestic flight to Amman, about an hour in the air, which is included. It replaces about four hours on the Desert Highway, the drive most family trips in Jordan end with. The guide checks everyone in and sees you to security before saying goodbye. At Queen Alia International Airport (AMM) you connect to your flight home. The domestic schedule is not yet confirmed and some flights leave Aqaba in the evening, so we confirm the flight time with your trip before you book home; depending on it you connect the same evening or stay a night in Amman. Families who would rather end with a night in Amman, or add Jerash and the Citadel, can ask us for an extra night there. If your own route home leaves directly from Aqaba, we take you to that flight instead.

   Compris

   • Drop-off at King Hussein International Airport (AQJ)
   • The domestic flight from Aqaba to Amman (AMM)

   Temps libre : Morning free in Aqaba

   Activité : Do not book your flight home until we confirm the Aqaba to Amman flight time with your trip.

Faune et météo : Spring and autumn bring warm days, roughly 22 to 30°C at the Dead Sea and in Aqaba and cooler in Petra, which sits at about 1,000 m; the desert night can drop below 10°C. The Red Sea stays warm enough to swim, about 21 to 27°C. Parrotfish, clownfish and reef fish are common from the boat; turtles are possible but not certain.

• Dead Sea2 nuits
• Wadi Musa2 nuits
• Wadi Rum1 nuit
• Aqaba2 nuits