THE BEST WAY TO EXPLORE PETRA & JORDAN

Sep 16

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A major bucket list item of ours for years now has been to visit Petra in Jordan. Found on sooo many "top places to visit" lists and being one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, it shouldn't come as a surprise to why we wanted to visit.

(Plus, we are both big Indiana Jones fans!)

During our travels in Israel we knew we wanted to cross the border to explore Jordan, and we felt the safest way to do this was by going on a guided tour. We teamed up with Abraham Tours for this trip, experiencing their 3 day Petra & Wadi Rum tour from Tel Aviv. The tour is fully guided, with transportation to and from Tel Aviv, all meals included, and two nights in a Bedouin Campsite. During the 3 days we visited Jerash, Amman, Petra and the desert of Wadi Rum - it was one jam-packed, incredible trip!

First stop: Jerash

The Jerash ruins of Jordan are said to be the best-preserved Roman ruins outside of Italy, housing some of the finest Greco-Roman architecture in the world. The ancient Roman city enjoyed great wealth and importance due to the area’s fertile lands and year-round fresh water supply. An earthquake hit the region in 749AD destroying most of the city and leaving the ruins buried in soil for hundreds of years.

In 1806 a German explorer discovered this ancient city and has taken over 200 years of excavation work for it to look the way we see it today. Jerash has became the second biggest tourist destination in Jordan after Petra.

Next stop: Amman Citadel

Sitting on the highest hill in Amman is the Citadel, the site of ancient Rabbath-Ammon. Occupied since the Bronze Age, it's surrounded by a 1700m-long wall, which was rebuilt many times during the Bronze and Iron Ages, as well as the Roman, Byzantine and Umayyad periods.

There's plenty to see, but as we only had an hour we made sure we saw the Citadel's most striking sights: The Temple of Hercules and the Ummayad Palace.

Where we stayed: Bedouin Campsite

Hands down, this is one of the most unique accommodation experiences we have ever had. We slept in the middle of the desert in our very own tent room nestled in the rocks at a bedouin campsite. The campsite had the perfect blend of traditional accommodation with amenities we all needed after a long day of travelling.

We ate traditional home cooked meals for breakfast and dinner, ended our nights sat around the fire drinking traditional tea as the rocks surrounding us were lit up with glowing lights, but still had hot showers, electricity and wifi available - the perfect mix.

Day 2: Petra

What we all had been waiting for!

Carved directly into vibrant red, sandstone cliff faces, the prehistoric Jordanian city of Petra was "lost" to the Western world for hundreds of years. Located amid rugged desert canyons and mountains, Petra was once a thriving trading center and the capital of the Nabataean empire between 400 B.C. and A.D. 106. The city sat empty and in near ruin for centuries until the early 1800s when a European traveller disguise himself in Bedouin costume and infiltrate the mysterious locale.

Petra is a place you NEED to experience in person. We spent an entire day here exploring, hiking, and taking way too many photos!

Final Day: Wadi Rum

On our third and final day we headed to Wadi Rum to explore the desert via 4x4.

Wadi Rum, also known as The Valley of the Moon, is a valley cut into the sandstone and granite rock, and is the largest wadi in Jordan. The area is absolutely breathtaking and both being huge movie buffs we were so excited to check out the filming locations of some of our favourite movies including The Martian, Rogue One and Transformers!