Jordan: 7 Things Worth Doing (and 3 to Skip)
Jordan: 7 Things Worth Doing (and 3 to Skip)
Petra is why you booked the flight. It should not be the only thing you see. Build a Jordan itinerary around it properly, with Wadi Rum, the Dead Sea, and Amman filling the days on either side, and the country earns its reputation. Treat Petra as a rushed stop bolted onto a couple of nights in Amman and you have paid for a whole country and toured one canyon. Doing this right takes 7 to 10 days. Anything shorter means choosing what to cut, not what to add.
The essentials
| Essentials | Details |
|---|---|
| Days needed | 2 for Petra alone, 7 to 10 for the full loop |
| Best months | March to May, September to November |
| Ticket + pass cost | Jordan Pass Explorer tier, 75 JOD for 2 Petra days; waives the roughly 40 JOD visa fee if bought online before you land and you stay 2+ nights |
| Watch for | cheap Wadi Rum camp deals that swap you into a lower tier camp than the one advertised |
Things worth building this trip around
- Buy the Jordan Pass before you fly, not at the border. It bundles Petra with Jerash, Wadi Rum, and 40-odd other sites, and only waives the visa fee if you buy it online in advance and stay two full nights or more. Get the Explorer tier (two consecutive Petra days) or Expert (three) at jordanpass.jo . Walk up without it and you pay the visa fee on top of entry.
- Give Petra two full days, not an afternoon. One day gets the Siq, the Treasury, and the Royal Tombs. It does not get the Monastery, which is the better site and the one rushed visitors skip. We cover the site itself in depth in our Petra guide ; the point here is simpler: do not let the rest of the loop eat into this block.
- Pair it with Wadi Rum. An hour and a half to two hours south of Petra sits the best combination in the country: red sand desert, a jeep tour, and a Bedouin camp under a sky with zero light pollution. Book a named camp with recent reviews rather than the cheapest listing; budget operators sometimes downgrade you to a lesser tent than the one photographed.
- Spend a day pass at the Dead Sea, not a swim stop. There is no genuinely free, maintained public beach on the Jordan side. The informal access points are unshaded, with a sharp salt-crystal shoreline and no showers. A resort or Amman Beach day pass, roughly 20 to 25 JOD, buys you the mud, the pool, and somewhere to rinse off after.
- Do Amman in a day, properly. The Citadel hill (Temple of Hercules, Umayyad Palace, views over the Roman Theatre) runs about 3 JOD; the Roman Theatre itself about 2 JOD, both covered by the Jordan Pass. Do the Citadel early. It is an exposed hilltop with zero shade by midday.
- Drive one road each way. The Desert Highway is the flat, fast 3 to 3.5 hour run between Amman and Petra. The King’s Highway is the scenic 4.5 to 5 hour version past Kerak Castle and the Dana Biosphere Reserve. Doing the same road twice wastes a rental car; take one each direction.
- Extend to Aqaba if diving interests you. Roughly two to two and a half hours from Petra, Aqaba puts you on the Red Sea with shore-accessible reefs. The one real constraint: allow about eight hours at sea level after diving before you climb back up to Wadi Rum, Petra, or Amman altitude.
Three things worth skipping
- Skip driving to Jerash directly from Petra. It burns roughly the same driving time as the Amman-Petra run for one site. Route it through Amman instead, where the drive is well under an hour, or skip it on a short trip.
- Skip expecting a free Dead Sea beach. Budget for a day pass if you want a shower afterward and a maintained, safe entry point rather than an unshaded strip of salt crystal.
- Skip the bargain Wadi Rum camp listing. The cheapest jeep-and-camp package on any given day is usually cheap because it shortens the jeep loop or bumps you into a shared tent, not because it is a genuinely better deal.
Is the Jordan Pass worth it for a Petra-anchored trip?
Yes, for almost anyone staying more than two nights. The Pass does not make Petra free; it bundles entry with a visa-fee waiver worth roughly 40 JOD, provided you buy it online before arrival. Day-trippers not overnighting in Jordan pay a flat 90 JOD regardless, so the Pass math only applies against the overnight-visitor rates of 50, 55, or 60 JOD.
How many days do you need beyond Petra?
At minimum, add three: one for Amman, two built around a Wadi Rum overnight. That is the shortest version that still counts as a Jordan trip rather than a Petra trip with a layover. The full Amman-Jerash-Dead Sea-Petra-Wadi Rum-Aqaba loop comfortably wants 7 to 10 days; compress it further and the cut should come from anywhere except Petra’s two-day block.
Is Wadi Rum worth the detour?
Yes, and it barely adds driving. At 1.5 to 2 hours from Petra, it is closer than Amman is to Jerash. Skipping it to save half a day is the single most common mistake in Jordan trip planning, a few saved hours traded against a night you would actually remember.
Where to stay in Wadi Musa
Wadi Musa, the town at Petra’s entrance, runs from hillside guesthouses to five-star chains, all within a short walk or short drive of the Visitor Center. Check current rates on Booking.com before you commit; rooms with valley views sell out first in the spring and autumn shoulder seasons.
Getting between the stops
JETT coaches and shared or private taxis link Amman, Petra, and the Dead Sea, but none of them will stop at Kerak or Dana on your say-so. Rent a car or hire a driver for at least the King’s Highway leg. A Wadi Rum jeep tour with hotel pickup from Wadi Musa covers the transfer and the desert in one booking if you would rather not add another rental day.
For the current state of things on the ground, including whether Petra by Night is actually running, check international.visitjordan.com and visitpetra.jo before you finalize dates. One road, one desert night, and one full day of doing nothing at the Dead Sea: that is the shape of a Jordan trip that uses Petra as the anchor it deserves to be, not the whole itinerary. For a day-by-day version of the full loop, see our 7 day Jordan itinerary .