Women-only Jordan: Petra, Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea

1. Day 1: Arrive in Amman, an easy first evening

   Queen Alia International Airport to your hotel in Amman

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

   Fly into Queen Alia International Airport (AMM), about 35 km south of Amman. Your Jordan Pass and visa are arranged before you fly, so arrival is a short queue, and a driver meets you in the arrivals hall for the drive of about 45 minutes into the city. Nothing is planned for the afternoon: check in, sleep off the flight, or walk to a café near the hotel. Amman is built over steep hills, and its pale limestone houses climb every slope. At about 7 pm your See Sight Tours guide, who is a woman, meets the group for a short briefing on the week: what to wear where, how the camp works, how rooms are shared and how the days are paced. We stay for a light welcome supper of mezze close to the hotel and finish early, so the first full day starts rested. Land by about 5 pm to join the supper; later arrivals are met and briefed in the morning.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Queen Alia International Airport (AMM)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Light welcome supper near the hotel

   Free time: Free until the 7 pm briefing

2. Day 2: Jerash, then lunch in the Wadi as-Seer valley

   Amman to Jerash, then Iraq al-Amir in the Wadi as-Seer valley, and back to Amman

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Amman
   Day 2 details

   We leave at about 7:15 am to reach Jerash, an hour north, close to its 8 am opening, while the stone is cool and the coaches are still on the road. Walk in through Hadrian's Arch, raised for the emperor's visit in AD 129 to 130, into the Oval Plaza ringed by Ionic columns, then along the Cardo to the Temple of Artemis and the South Theatre. From Jerash we drive back past Amman and down into the Wadi as-Seer valley, green with olive trees, to Iraq al-Amir. We arrange lunch with a women's cooperative there that also makes handicrafts, subject to confirmation with your dates; if it cannot host us, we lunch at a local restaurant in the valley. Nearby stand the walls of Qasr al-Abd, a Hellenistic palace of huge stone blocks. We are back in Amman by about 3:30 pm, and the rest of the day is free.

   Included

   • Jerash with your guide: Hadrian's Arch, the Oval Plaza, the Cardo, the Temple of Artemis and the South Theatre
   • Lunch at Iraq al-Amir, with a women's cooperative where one is confirmed for your dates
   • Qasr al-Abd

   Optional experiences

   • The Amman Citadel and the Roman Theatre with your guide in the late afternoon (entry is on the Jordan Pass)

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free in Amman

   Activity: About 2 to 3 hours on foot in Jerash on Roman paving and uneven ground.

   

3. Day 3: Madaba, Mount Nebo and Bethany to the Dead Sea

   Amman to Madaba, Mount Nebo and Bethany Beyond the Jordan, then the Dead Sea

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Dead Sea
   Day 3 details

   A short drive of about 45 minutes brings us to Madaba by about 9:30 am. 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, the oldest surviving map of its kind; bring a scarf and cover shoulders and knees. Ten minutes on, Mount Nebo looks down over the Jordan Valley from the terrace by the Memorial Church of Moses, with the Dead Sea shining below. Lunch is a sit-down meal in Madaba. In the early afternoon we drive down to Bethany Beyond the Jordan, Al-Maghtas, the place where John is believed to have baptised Jesus, listed by UNESCO in 2015, and walk through tamarisk and reeds to the Jordan River. By about 4 pm you are at the resort on the shore, about 430 m below sea level. The water is roughly ten times saltier than the ocean, so you float without trying; stay in until the sun drops behind the hills.

   Included

   • The Madaba Map at the Church of St George
   • Mount Nebo and the Memorial Church of Moses
   • Sit-down lunch in Madaba
   • Bethany Beyond the Jordan (Al-Maghtas) with your guide
   • Time to float in the Dead Sea at the resort's beach

   Optional experiences

   • A spa treatment or mud wrap at the resort

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free at the resort

   Activity: Do not shave on the day you float, and keep the water out of your eyes; the salt stings.

   

4. Day 4: Karak Castle and south to Petra

   Dead Sea to Karak Castle, then the Desert Highway to Wadi Musa

   • Drive about 4.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Wadi Musa
   Day 4 details

   Float once more before breakfast while the beach is quiet, then leave at about 8:30 am. This is one of the two longer driving days, about 4 hours and 310 km in all, and it is split in two. First we follow the Dead Sea Highway south and climb out of the valley to Karak, about 1 hour 45 minutes, where the Crusader castle sits on a ridge above the town. Your guide takes you through its vaulted halls and passages and out to the walls for the view back down towards the Dead Sea. Lunch is a sit-down meal in Karak. The second leg, about 2 hours 30 minutes, joins the Desert Highway south to Wadi Musa, the town at the gate of Petra, where we stay two nights; we arrive at about 4:30 pm. Petra by Night lights the Siq and the Treasury with candles, currently on Sunday to Thursday evenings; we go tonight or tomorrow, whichever evening it runs.

   Included

   • Karak Castle with your guide
   • Sit-down lunch in Karak
   • Petra by Night (on whichever of your two Wadi Musa evenings it runs)

   Optional experiences

   • A hammam in Wadi Musa with women attendants, where one can be booked for the group

   Free time: Evening free in Wadi Musa

   Activity: About an hour on foot at Karak on uneven stone and steps; the passages inside the castle are dark, so bring a phone torch.

5. Day 5: Petra from opening, and the Monastery

   A full day inside Petra

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

   We are at the Petra gate when it opens, around 6 am, and walk the 1.2 km Siq while it is cool and almost empty. The Treasury, carved by the Nabataeans in the 1st century AD, is still in soft shade at this hour, and you will have it nearly to yourselves. We ask for a licensed local woman guide to lead the morning with your See Sight guide: the Street of Facades, the Theatre, the Royal Tombs and the terrace of the Urn Tomb, then down the Colonnaded Street to the Great Temple and Qasr al-Bint. Lunch is a sit-down meal inside the site, followed by a rest in the shade. Mid-afternoon, when most visitors are walking out, we climb the roughly 800 rock-cut steps to the Monastery. In the evening we arrange a cooking evening hosted by local women in Wadi Musa, subject to confirmation: you help make the dishes, often maqluba or mansaf, then eat together.

   Included

   • Petra from opening with your guide: the Siq, the Treasury, the Street of Facades, the Royal Tombs, the Colonnaded Street, the Great Temple and Qasr al-Bint
   • Sit-down lunch inside Petra
   • The climb to the Monastery (Ad-Deir) in the quieter afternoon
   • Cooking evening and dinner in Wadi Musa, hosted by local women where a host is confirmed for your dates, otherwise dinner at a local restaurant

   Easier option: Skip the Monastery climb: walk back out after lunch and rest at the hotel before the cooking evening.

   More active option: Before lunch, climb the steep steps to the High Place of Sacrifice for the view over the city, then come down the Wadi Farasa trail past the Lion Fountain and the Garden Tomb to the Colonnaded Street.

   Free time: Late afternoon free before the cooking evening

   Activity: The longest walking day: up to about 15 km on sand and rock steps, with about 800 steps to the Monastery. Bring good shoes, a hat and water.

   

6. Day 6: Little Petra, then into Wadi Rum

   Wadi Musa to Little Petra, then south to a camp in Wadi Rum

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

   A slower start after yesterday, then a short drive north to Little Petra, Siq al-Barid, a narrow canyon of Nabataean houses, cisterns and dining rooms that was probably a stop for caravans heading to the main city. Look up in the Painted Biclinium for a rare 1st-century ceiling fresco of vines and birds. From there it is about two hours south to Wadi Rum, a protected desert of red sand and sandstone mountains listed by UNESCO in 2011. We reach camp in time for lunch and a rest through the heat. In the late afternoon Bedouin drivers take us out by 4x4: Lawrence's Spring, the rock carvings of Khazali Canyon, a climb up 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, and the stars come out. We ask the camp for lit paths between the tents and tents that lock.

   Included

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

   Free time: Early afternoon free at camp

   Activity: Wadi Rum sits at about 1,000 m, so nights are cool for much of the year and cold in winter.

   

7. Day 7: A whole day in the desert

   Wadi Rum, from sunrise to the stars

   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Wadi Rum
   Day 7 details

   Wake early for sunrise from the camp, when the light runs down the cliffs and the sand has no fresh tracks. After breakfast, ride a camel across the valley floor with a Bedouin guide, or walk out to the rock formations near the camp at your own pace. The middle of the day is yours: read in the shade, nap or drink sweet sage tea. Where we can confirm one, there is an optional late-morning visit to a women's craft project in Rum village, the one settlement inside the protected area, to meet the makers and buy direct. In the late afternoon we head out again on foot and by 4x4 to a different corner of the desert, with narrow siqs and long views towards Jebel Umm ad Dami, the highest mountain in Jordan, near the Saudi border. A second desert sunset, dinner at camp and a sky with no town lights make the night as good as the day.

   Included

   • Sunrise from camp
   • Camel ride with a Bedouin guide
   • Late-afternoon walk and 4x4 drive to a second sunset viewpoint
   • All meals at camp

   Optional experiences

   • A visit to a women's craft project in Rum village, where one is confirmed

   Easier option: Stay at camp in the morning instead of the camel ride, and join the late-afternoon drive.

   More active option: A guided half-day hike and scramble up to the Burdah rock bridge, high above the desert floor, in place of the camel ride.

   Free time: Middle of the day free at camp

   

8. Day 8: Up the Desert Highway and home

   Wadi Rum to Queen Alia International Airport on the Desert Highway

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   Day 8 details

   A last breakfast in the desert, a last look at the cliffs in the morning light, and we leave camp at about 8:30 am. The drive to Queen Alia International Airport is about 290 km and 3.5 to 4 hours on the Desert Highway, since the airport lies south of Amman, the straight road north across the high plateau past Ma'an. It is the second of the two longer days, and the reason for it is simple: going straight from the desert to the airport saves a night and spares you the long road back to Amman on another day. We break it with a coffee stop and a sit-down lunch on the way, so you reach the airport at about 2:30 to 3 pm. Your guide sees you to the terminal and checks your flight before saying goodbye. If you would like more time, we can book an extra night in Amman or at the Dead Sea and arrange the transfer.

   Included

   • Drive from Wadi Rum to the airport with your guide
   • Sit-down lunch on the way
   • Drop-off at Queen Alia International Airport (AMM)

   Optional experiences

   • An extra night in Amman or at the Dead Sea, booked on request

   Activity: Book a flight leaving after about 5:30 pm.

Wildlife and weather: Spring and autumn bring mild days in Petra and Wadi Rum. Summer is very hot and the trip does not run then; winter can be cold and wet in Petra, with cold nights at the camp.

• Amman2 nights
• Dead Sea1 night
• Wadi Musa2 nights
• Wadi Rum2 nights