Petra, Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea
Jordan is compact enough that most operators try to do it in five days, which means one day at Petra. One day gets you the Treasury and the colonnaded street; two gets you the eight hundred steps to the Monastery, the high place of sacrifice, and the back route in from Little Petra.
Wadi Rum is the counterweight. Granite and sandstone jebels over a red floor, a Bedouin camp away from the main cluster, and silence of a kind clients rarely encounter. We use a family from the Zalabia who have grazed this valley for generations.
The Dead Sea closes it, less for the float than for the pace: two nights at 430 metres below sea level, with the Mujib gorge for anyone who still wants to walk.
Private transfer into the city, and an evening among the stairways and cafés of Jabal Amman.
The Roman city at opening with an archaeologist, then Umm Qais looking across to the Golan and the Sea of Galilee.
South by the old road: the Madaba mosaic map, the crusader keep at Kerak, and the Dana gorge before dropping into Petra.
Through the Siq at opening before the horse carts run, the Treasury, the royal tombs and the colonnaded street with a Bdoul guide.
In by the Little Petra back route so the Monastery arrives from above, then down the eight hundred steps in the afternoon.
South into the desert with a Zalabia family, the Khazali canyon inscriptions, and a night at a camp well off the main track.
North along the rift to 430 metres below sea level, a few hours at the water, and the transfer to Queen Alia.
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