Exploring Jordan - An ultimate 9 days Itinerary

Located at the centre of downtown Amman, the citadel is perched on top of Jebel Al Qala’, Amman’s highest hilltop. The site is of high historical importance as it has evidences of hosting mankind’s earliest of civilizations, the ruins of which can still be found there. The Major attraction at the Amman Citadel is the Temple of Hercules and the Umayyad Palace.

A 20-minute walk down from the citadel brings you to this impressive roman ruin built around the 2nd century AD. Used for community gathering during the ancient roman era, the theatre is an example of beautiful roman architecture.

• Downtown Amman is the best place to get a taste of authentic Jordanian cuisines. Make sure to walk through the alleys to get a feel of the Jordanian culture up so close.

#TheExploringEyes Tip – Although we had our car but we did not drove to the citadel as it is in Downtown Amman which is a little crowded. 4 wheelers in Jordan are left handed and you may need some time and most importantly an open road to get accustomed to left hand driving if you are not used to.

• Stay – Airbnb, Amman

https://www.airbnb.co.in/rooms/14765797?_set_bev_on_new_domain=1563680066_WUBOpyNOx90sttlY&source_impression_id=p3_1563680069_ZvbYL6Mb4y6U4yUI

 Petra Day One

• The first thing you visit when you enter Petra is the Petra museum. A 40 – 45-minute walk through the museum gives you a brief history of this city. The museum itself is technologically very interactive and history is presented very lucidly here.

• There are different trails through which one explores Petra and we covered the 8km long Main Trail and the Monastery Trail on the first day

• We walked through a kilometer long siq to tick off one of our long-time bucket list wishes – The famous Treasury. Continued our walk upto the Al- deir monastery, came back the same route and called it a day. The Monastery trail is almost 45 mins hike but the view of Monastery during sunset was amazing

• We reached Petra around 1 pm in the afternoon and left late evening around 6 pm this day. Even though the sun has started to set, the best part was we got the Treasury to ourselves while our way back to the entry gate as by evening the crowd had subdued.

• We left for Petra after a good breakfast around 9

• Day two was all about getting different views of The Treasury and the entire city following the Al – Khubtha trail and the High Place of Sacrifice Trail

• The Al khubtha is a 3.5km long but a tough trail considering the amount of hike you have to do. It gives you stunning views of the entire city and most importantly gives you the one of the most Instagrammable picture of the Treasury – from the top.

• Al Khubtha also offers you with visual treats of the different Royal tombs like the Corinthian tomb, Unayshu Tomb, Silk Tomb, Urn Tomb etc.

• High Place of Sacrifice is another trail that gives a view of entire Petra from the opposite side of Al Khubtha Trail

• Its best to cover this trail in the early hours of the day as it becomes tough to hike with the sun shining with all its might.

• An early morning start and you are all set to finish off both the trail by early afternoon.

#TheExploringEyes Tip - Petra is costly! The best budget trip tip would be to book a stay in Wadi Musa which is just a km walk from Petra. There are a lot of budget hotels in wadi musa which serves amazing complimentary breakfast.

• We spent the entire day touring the vast stretch of the desert which literally gives you a feel of roaming around in a different planet. Huge sand dunes, natural rock brides, ancient rock carvings, ruins and wadi rum was an altogether different experience.

• Wadi rum is the home of the Bedouins – Jordan’s earliest known settlers, known for living a nomadic lifestyle and out of the box hospitality. We camped overnight at a Bedouin camp witnessing the Bedouin life up so close. A Bedouin tea is a must have when camping at Wadi rum.

• Last but not the least – Nothing can beat the feel of lying down and watching the sun setting far behind the Rocky Mountains and millions of stars slowly twinkling and lighting up the entire valley. If you are an early morning person, get up to catch the sunrise as well. We enjoyed both sunrise and sunset and made the most out of our wadi rum camping.

#TheExploringEyes Tip – Although Wadi rum can be toured in a day’s time and you can actually head to your next destination the same day but it is highly advisable to camp overnight. There is no place else in Jordan where you will enjoy authentic Bedouin hospitality along with the most beautiful sunset and sunrise in the entire country. It is one of a kind experience.

• Diving in the red sea was one of our most awaited activity from out week-long itinerary.

• We left Wadi rum in the morning after breakfast and after an hour or so drive reached Aqaba adventure divers where we had booked our stay and our dive.

• As you leave wadi rum and approach Aqaba, you see a beautiful change in landscape from orange to soothing blue Red sea . 6 – 7kms before Aqaba, the you get the view of the red sea which makes the drive an absolute visual treat.

• We did the Wreck of Cedar Pride dive which is a Japanese Shipwreck point and saw some beautiful corals and a lot of colourful fishes during our dive.

• TheExploringEyes Tip - Diving in red sea doesn’t require certification however it does require a lot of technical understanding regarding the usage of the diving equipments. The key here is to remain calm and composed. Not tough but a little presence of mind will help you get once in a life time experience.

• We also went to the city centre of Aqaba in the evening and treated ourselves with awesome lamb curry

• Wadi Mujib was one of the best experience we had in our entire Jordan Trip

• A river canyon hike through tall siq trail, wadi Mujib was thrilling and absolute fun.

• We left Aqaba in the morning and reached Wadi Mujib after a 3-hour long drive.

• We parked the car outside Wadi Mujib, rented water hiking shoes, one water proof bag for keeping our personal belongings and went on for one of the most amazing adventure hike.

• We hiked through long siq trails, through sandstone rocks up to a beautiful waterfall in the middle of nowhere. The water level at the entrance is quite low but rises up to the waist level at some places. There are fixed ropes in such places which are used to cross the current.

• You can also hire a guide to take your through the hike as water level at some places are high and one might require assistance to battle the current. However, we chose to hike all the way to the waterfall ourselves.

#TheExploringEyes Tip – If you are road tripping across Jordan, be very sure to enter “Wadi Mujib Chalets” in your GPS to reach the entry point. It is just opposite to the entrance of Wadi Mujib. Putting just ‘Wadi Mujib’ will take you to the top of the waterfall which is a total detour from the entrance of wadi Mujib.

• We drove to Madaba that evening thorough insanely scenic Dead Sea Highway with mountains on one side and Dead sea on the other side

• We planned to explore Mount Nebo and dead sea and return to Amman on the same day.

• Mount Nebo is the place from where Moses was shown the promised land which is present day Israel. Approx. 700 meters above sea level, the elevated ridge gives a complete view of the holy land along with river Jordan at one side.

• There were a couple of churches and the baptism site in Madaba which we had earlier planned to visit but the entrance fees to these sites were quite high and also exploring all these places would have taken at least half a day. Since we had to return to Amman the same evening, we decided to cover Mount Nebo and directly go to the Dead sea.

#TheExploringEyes Tip – See if you can arrange for a private beach access for Dead sea. We had it arranged for ourselves by the hotel where we stayed for a minimal cost. Private beach access gives you all the time you need with the dead sea with almost no crowd, arrangements such as mud masks, shower facilities and the sea.

• We had the time of our lives floating in dead sea and drove back to Amman the same evening.

• Stay – Airbnb, Amman (The same place we stayed in Day one)

#If you need any help in planning Jordan, reach us at theexploringeyes1112@gmail.com or DM us on instgram https://www.instagram.com/the.exploring.eyes/?hl=en