Advisor tips for Jordan
Must Do Experiences
Petra – Jordan
Nothing can prepare one for the scale of execution – this is the most remarkable rock landscape with massive temples, roadwork’s and dwellings first hewn into stone mountainsides almost 3000 years ago. Walking into the canyon that guards the valley creates such anticipation but can hardly be exceeded once you arrive at the opening and see past the tourists to the Treasury building, made famous by Indiana Jones. I suggest you take a donkey up the 1,200 steps to the Monastery perched far above the valley looking over theNegevDesert, as it is hard enough just to walk back down and make your way out of the valley by nightfall.
I suggest you hire a car and driver from Amman and drive south via Karak the site of a massive crusader fort and numerous Arab castles. Allow a full day inPetraand stay the night at the Petra Marriott. – John
The Dead Sea
Drive to the Dead Sea and stay at the Kempinski Hotel Ishtar Dead Sea or the Moevenpick Resort & Spa Dead Sea, as they are both beside (the ever retreating) Dead Sea. The spa pools are simply unique and the Dead Sea itself is 9 times the salinity of sea water, making it more a humour experience than a therapeutic one. - John
Jerash
NorthernJordan is only a 3-4 hour car ride fromAmman and this is perhaps the finest preservation of a Roman city anywhere in the world. It is easy to re-capture the sense of a major city, with cross roads still in existence that once led toRome orPhiladelphia (now calledAmman). The streets were lined with water fountains and dramatic painted façades with some buildings still clad in marble façades and decorated with carved peacocks and shell motifs. - John
