Jordan: Dana to Petra on Foot, Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea

1. Day 1: Arrive in Amman

   Queen Alia International Airport to your hotel in Amman

   • Drive about 45 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Amman
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Queen Alia International Airport (AMM), about 35 km south of Amman, and plan to land by about 4 pm so you reach the evening briefing (the exact latest arrival is confirmed with your final itinerary). Your Jordan Pass and visa are arranged before you fly, and a driver meets you in the arrivals hall for the 45-minute drive to a central hotel. If you land early, rest: tomorrow is a long day on the road and the walking starts the day after. In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a briefing that matters more than usual on a walking trip: what goes in your daypack, how the support vehicle moves the bags, what the trail camps are like and how each walking day can be shortened. We check boots and water bottles, then walk to a welcome dinner of mezze, grilled meat and fresh bread at a local restaurant.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Queen Alia International Airport (AMM)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide, including a kit check for the walk
   • Welcome dinner

   Free time: Free until the evening briefing

2. Day 2: Kerak Castle and the road to Dana

   Amman to Kerak on the Desert Highway, then the King's Highway through Tafila to Dana

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Dana
   Day 2 details

   We leave Amman at about 8:30 and drive south on the Desert Highway, about an hour and three quarters, to Kerak. The castle was begun by the Crusaders in the 1140s on a ridge above the town and later held by Saladin's successors and the Mamluks; your guide takes you through its vaulted halls and galleries, dark and cool even in spring, and out to the walls for the view west towards the Dead Sea. Lunch is a sit-down meal in Kerak. In the afternoon we follow the older King's Highway south through Tafila, about another hour and three quarters, to Dana, a village of stone houses on the rim of a great canyon at about 1,200 m. Late in the day we walk through the lanes to the edge of the village as the low sun lights Wadi Dana, the valley you walk down tomorrow. Dinner is at the guesthouse.

   Included

   • Kerak Castle with your guide
   • Sit-down lunch in Kerak
   • Evening walk through Dana village to the viewpoint over Wadi Dana
   • Dinner at the guesthouse

   Activity: Kerak Castle has uneven floors, dark passages and steep stone steps; bring a small torch or use your phone's light.

3. Day 3: Down Wadi Dana to Feynan

   Dana village to Feynan on foot, down Wadi Dana

   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Feynan
   Day 3 details

   The first walking day starts at about 7 am, so we are on the lower, hotter ground before midday. With a licensed local trail guide we drop off the edge of Dana village and follow the Jordan Trail down Wadi Dana, about 14 km and roughly 900 m of descent, five to six hours with stops. The path winds down past terraces and springs, then the rock turns from pale limestone to red sandstone and dark granite as the valley opens and the air warms. Look up for Nubian ibex and raptors on the cliffs; in spring the lower slopes are green. Lunch is a picnic carried in our daypacks, as no vehicle reaches the canyon floor. The trail ends at Feynan, where heaps of black slag mark copper mines worked from the Bronze Age to Byzantine times. Our support crew has set up camp nearby, with hot showers, and cooks dinner as the light goes.

   Included

   • Guided walk down Wadi Dana on the Jordan Trail with a licensed trail guide
   • Dana Biosphere Reserve entry
   • Picnic lunch on the trail
   • Dinner at the trail camp near Feynan

   Easier option: Skip the walk and ride with the support vehicle, which drives round by the Dead Sea Highway to the camp, about two and a half hours.

   Free time: Late afternoon free at camp

   Activity: About 14 km, mostly downhill, with roughly 900 m of descent on loose stone. Poles help on the knees. Carry at least 2 litres of water.

   

4. Day 4: Across the hills towards Petra

   Feynan on foot towards Ras al-Feid, then by support vehicle to a camp near Little Petra

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Little Petra
   Day 4 details

   Another 7 am start in the cool. From Feynan we walk south on the Jordan Trail, about 14 km over five to six hours, through dry wadis and over low passes in the foothills of the Sharah mountains. This is Bedouin grazing country: in spring you may pass black goat-hair tents and flocks moving between wells, and your trail guide knows the families who use these valleys. The walking is rolling rather than steep, on stony paths and sandy riverbeds, with wide views back across Wadi Araba. At midday the support vehicle meets us where a track crosses the trail, and the crew cooks lunch in the shade. In the afternoon we finish the walk, then ride about an hour up into the hills to the second camp near Little Petra, missing out a long middle section of the trail so tomorrow stays a fair length. A second dinner at camp, and a clear night sky.

   Included

   • Guided walk on the Jordan Trail from Feynan with a licensed trail guide
   • Lunch cooked by the support crew on the trail
   • Support-vehicle transfer to the camp near Little Petra
   • Dinner at the trail camp

   Easier option: Walk the morning only, about 7 km, then ride with the support vehicle after lunch.

   Free time: Late afternoon free at camp

   Activity: About 14 km of rolling ground with short climbs, on stony paths and soft sand. Hot in the open by late morning, even in spring and autumn.

5. Day 5: Little Petra and the back door to Petra

   Little Petra on foot by the back trail to the Monastery, through Petra and out by the Siq to Wadi Musa

   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Wadi Musa
   Day 5 details

   We walk into Little Petra, Siq al-Barid, at about 8 am, before anyone else: a narrow canyon of Nabataean houses, cisterns and dining rooms that probably served caravans bound for the main city, with a rare painted ceiling of vines and birds in the Painted Biclinium. From there the back trail climbs gently over open sandstone, with views down to Wadi Araba, and in about three hours brings us to the Monastery, Petra's largest facade, from above and behind. Most visitors earn it by climbing about 800 steps; we walk down them instead. Lunch is a sit-down meal inside the site. In the afternoon we walk the Colonnaded Street past the Great Temple, the Royal Tombs and the Theatre to the Treasury, then out through the 1.2 km Siq to the gate in Wadi Musa. Your hotel is a short walk or drive away, and the evening is free.

   Included

   • Little Petra (Siq al-Barid) and the Painted Biclinium
   • Guided walk on the back trail from Little Petra to the Monastery
   • Petra with a licensed local guide: the Monastery, the Colonnaded Street, the Royal Tombs, the Theatre, the Treasury and the Siq
   • Sit-down lunch inside Petra

   Optional experiences

   • Petra by Night, on the evenings it runs (price given at booking)

   Easier option: Skip the back trail: the vehicle takes you to the main gate in Wadi Musa and you walk in through the Siq to meet the group for lunch, about 4 km.

   Free time: Evening free in Wadi Musa

   Activity: About 13 to 15 km in all, including about 800 rock-cut steps down from the Monastery and the gentle climb out through the Siq.

   

6. Day 6: Petra at opening, then Wadi Rum

   Petra on foot, then Wadi Musa to Wadi Rum

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Wadi Rum
   Day 6 details

   Yesterday you walked into Petra from the back; this morning you go in through the front, at opening, about 6 am, which is the one early start that is worth it. The Siq is cool and nearly empty, and you reach the Treasury before the tour buses do. With the crowds still on the road, your guide shows you the Street of Facades and takes those who want it up the steep steps to the High Place of Sacrifice for the view over the city. We are out by about 11:30 for a sit-down lunch in Wadi Musa, then drive about two hours south to Wadi Rum, a desert of red sand and sandstone mountains listed by UNESCO in 2011. After settling in at camp, Bedouin drivers take us out by 4x4 to Lawrence's Spring, the rock carvings of Khazali Canyon, a red dune and the Um Fruth rock bridge. We stop on high ground for sunset, then dinner is zarb, lifted from an oven buried in the sand.

   Included

   • Second Petra visit at opening: the Siq, the Treasury and the Street of Facades
   • Sit-down lunch in Wadi Musa
   • Wadi Rum Protected Area entry
   • Afternoon 4x4 tour with Bedouin drivers: Lawrence's Spring, Khazali Canyon, a red dune and the Um Fruth rock bridge
   • Sunset from high ground and a zarb dinner at camp

   Easier option: Skip the early start: sleep in at the hotel and meet the group for lunch in Wadi Musa.

   More active option: Climb the steep rock-cut steps to the High Place of Sacrifice and come down past the Garden Tomb.

   Activity: 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.

   

7. Day 7: Desert sunrise, Madaba and the Dead Sea

   Wadi Rum on the Desert Highway to Madaba, then Mount Nebo and down to the Dead Sea

   • Drive about 4.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Dead Sea
   Day 7 details

   Wake early for sunrise, and walk up the dune behind camp as the light runs down the cliffs. After breakfast we leave at about 8:30 for the longest drive of the trip, about 340 km and four and a half hours in all. It runs over the 4-hour cap because the Dead Sea is the right place to end a walking week and there is no shorter road to it from the desert, so we break it into three: about three and a half hours north on the Desert Highway with a coffee stop, a sit-down lunch in Madaba, then short hops on. In Madaba the floor of the Church of St George holds the Madaba Map, a 6th-century mosaic of the Holy Land with Jerusalem at its centre. Ten minutes on, Mount Nebo looks over the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea, and then the road drops to the shore, about 430 m below sea level. Float at golden hour; dinner is your choice.

   Included

   • Sunrise walk in Wadi Rum
   • The Madaba Map at the Church of St George
   • Sit-down lunch in Madaba
   • Mount Nebo and the Memorial Church of Moses
   • Time to float in the Dead Sea at the resort's beach

   Optional experiences

   • Spa treatments at the resort

   Free time: Evening free at the Dead Sea

   Activity: Do not shave on the day you float, and keep the water away from your eyes; the salt stings, worse on walking blisters.

   

8. Day 8: Bethany and home

   Dead Sea to Bethany Beyond the Jordan, then Queen Alia International Airport

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast
   Day 8 details

   Float once more before breakfast, while the water is flat and the beach is quiet; your legs will thank you after three days on the trail. Mid-morning we drive about twenty minutes north to Bethany Beyond the Jordan, Al-Maghtas, where John is believed to have baptised Jesus, listed by UNESCO in 2015. A short walk through tamarisk and reeds leads to the remains of Byzantine churches and down to the Jordan River itself, here only a few metres wide, with Israel and the West Bank on the far bank. From Bethany it is about an hour to Queen Alia International Airport, where we arrive around 1 pm. Your guide sees you to the terminal and checks your flight before saying goodbye. If you are staying on in Amman, we can drop you in the city instead; tell us when you book.

   Included

   • Bethany Beyond the Jordan (Al-Maghtas) with your guide
   • Drop-off at Queen Alia International Airport (AMM)

   Easier option: For a flight before about 3:30 pm, we go straight from the resort to the airport.

   Activity: Book a flight leaving after about 3:30 pm to include Bethany.

Wildlife and weather: Feynan sits low on the edge of Wadi Araba and is too hot to walk from June to September, so we run only in spring and autumn and start walking at about 7 am. Dana and Wadi Rum nights are cool to cold. In winter, rain can bring flash floods to the wadis. Watch for Nubian ibex and raptors on the Dana cliffs; spring brings wildflowers.

• Amman1 night
• Dana1 night
• Feynan1 night
• Little Petra1 night
• Wadi Musa1 night
• Wadi Rum1 night
• Dead Sea1 night