Morning
Land at Queen Alia (AMM)
Jordan's main airport sits about 35 km south of the city. Airport Express bus or a fixed-fare taxi into Jabal Amman.
Jordan Pass at passport control
Buy it online BEFORE you fly: it waives the tourist visa fee only if bought in advance and you stay at least two nights. Explorer, 75 JD, covers two Petra days.
Afternoon / Day
Check in: Toledo Hotel Amman
37 Al Razi St, Jabal Al-Hussein. On the edge of the old centre, walking distance down into downtown.
Rainbow Street
Jabal Amman, above 1st Circle. Cafes, galleries and stair-streets dropping toward downtown — the easy first afternoon.
Evening
Dinner at Sufra
Othman Bin Affan St 26, 1st Circle. Jordanian home cooking in an old Jabal Amman villa with a garden. Open 1 PM to 11 PM daily; reserve.
Kunafa at Habibah
Downtown Amman, trading since 1951. Order kunafa nabulsieh by weight at the walk-up counter and eat it standing.
Morning
Amman Citadel
Jabal Al-Qal'a, the hill above downtown. Temple of Hercules, the Umayyad Palace and a Byzantine church. Opens 8, covered by the Jordan Pass.
Jordan Archaeological Museum
At the Citadel summit, open since 1951 and lit through upper windows. Small, quick, and included in the Jordan Pass.
Afternoon / Day
Roman Theatre and the Odeon
Al-Hashemi St, downtown. Cut into the hillside in the 2nd century for 6,000 spectators; the restored Odeon beside it seats about 500.
Lunch at Shams El Balad
69 Mu'ath Bin Jabal St. Seasonal Arabic cooking — carrot maftoul, labneh, whatever the market had. Also a shop and a small bar.
The Jordan Museum
Ras Al-Ein, below downtown. Home of the Ain Ghazal plaster figures, among the oldest human statues ever found. Not a Jordan Pass site — buy at the door.
Evening
Dinner at Fakhreldin
Taha Hussein St at 1st Circle, Jabal Amman. Long-running Levantine fine dining — build a mezze spread, add the sultan ibrahim. Reserve.
Morning
Drive north to Jerash
About 45 km north of Amman, roughly an hour with a driver. Leave by 8 to reach the arch before the coach groups.
Hadrian's Arch and the Hippodrome
Jerash Archaeological City. The arch marks Hadrian's visit in 129 AD; the arena beside it ran 245 m and held 15,000.
Oval Plaza and the Cardo
The 1st-century plaza runs 90 m by 80 m inside Ionic columns, then 800 m of colonnaded street with chariot ruts still cut into the paving.
Afternoon / Day
South Theatre and Artemis
The theatre was built 90–92 AD for over 3,000 and the acoustics still work — stand on the marked stone. The Temple of Artemis is up the hill.
Lunch at Lebanese Um Khalil
Jerash Main Road St. Antoinette Ramy — Um Khalil — opened the Lebanese House here in 1977, and it has been the Jerash lunch stop ever since. Order the pottery lamb.
Ajloun Castle
Qal'at Ar-Rabad, west of Jerash through the olive hills. Built 1184 by one of Saladin's generals and enlarged in 1214; in the Jordan Pass.
Evening
Drive back to Amman
About ninety minutes down from Ajloun. Nap in the car — tomorrow starts early and ends in Petra.
Dinner at The Living Room
Mohammad Hussein Haikal St, Building 3, 3rd Circle. Relaxed room, mixed Asian and Levantine menu, open till 11:30 PM.
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Morning
The King's Highway south
Roughly 260 km of driving today, Amman to Wadi Musa, on the old ridge road rather than the Desert Highway. Start by 8.
Madaba mosaic map
Greek Orthodox Church of St George. The 6th-century floor map of the Holy Land, laid in hundreds of thousands of tesserae. The church is not on the Jordan Pass list — it charges its own small entry fee at the door.
Madaba Archaeological Park
Hippolytus Hall, the Church of the Virgin Mary and a cobbled Roman road under one roof. Closes at 4 — do it before lunch.
Afternoon / Day
Lunch at Haret Jdoudna
Old Madaba, in a restored early-20th-century stone house a step from the map church. Mezze, saj bread, courtyard tables.
Mount Nebo
Franciscan Memorial of Moses; opens at 8. The rebuilt basilica shelters the Byzantine mosaics, and the summit signpost puts Jerusalem 46 km off.
Kerak Castle
Crusader stronghold at 900 m on the King's Highway. The best-preserved parts are the underground vaulted halls; closes 5, in the Jordan Pass.
Evening
Last leg to Wadi Musa
About two hours on from Kerak. It gets dark and the road is unlit — this is why you hire a driver rather than self-drive it.
Check in: Mövenpick Resort Petra
Tourism Street, Wadi Musa. Directly across the road from the Petra visitor centre — you can walk to the gate at 6 AM.
Morning
Through the Siq at opening
Petra Visitor Centre, Tourism Street. The gate opens at 6; the Main Trail is 3.9 km and takes about an hour to reach the Treasury.
Al-Khazneh, the Treasury
The canyon opens straight onto it. Get there before the day-trip coaches from Aqaba arrive and you may have it nearly alone.
Street of Facades and the Theatre
Past the Treasury the valley widens into rows of cut tomb fronts and a theatre carved out of the rock face itself.
Afternoon / Day
The Royal Tombs
Cut into the Al-Khubtha cliff: the Urn, Silk, Corinthian and Palace tombs. The Urn Tomb's terrace is the best view back over the basin.
Colonnaded Street to Qasr al-Bint
The Main Trail runs on past the Great Temple and ends at Qasr al-Bint, the one free-standing building left standing in Petra.
Al-Khubtha Trail viewpoint
Stairs climb from the Royal Tombs to the ledge looking down on the Treasury. Steep and exposed; carry more water than feels sensible.
Evening
Early dinner at the resort
Tourism Street, opposite the gate. Eat by 7 so you are back at the visitor centre with time to buy the Petra by Night ticket before the 8:30 start.
Petra by Night
Sunday to Thursday, 8:30 to 10:30 PM. Over 2,000 candles through the Siq, then a projection show on the Treasury facade. 30 JD, sold only at the visitor centre on the day, and the Jordan Pass does NOT cover it — you also need a valid daytime ticket.
Morning
Ad-Deir, the Monastery
Day two on the Explorer pass — the two Petra days must be consecutive. The rock stairway climbs from Qasr al-Bint; allow an hour up.
Little Petra (Siq al-Barid)
A narrow second canyon north of Wadi Musa, with a rare painted Nabataean ceiling. Its own ticket office, open 07:00 to 16:00.
Afternoon / Day
Drive south to Wadi Rum
About ninety minutes down the Desert Highway. Entry to the protected area is checked at the visitor centre and covered by the Jordan Pass.
Wadi Rum Visitor Centre
Swap the car for a Bedouin 4x4 here. The Seven Pillars of Wisdom rock face stands directly opposite the terrace.
Evening
Check in: SunCity Camp
Wadi Rum Village, inside the protected area. Martian domes and Bedouin tents; transfers run from the visitor centre.
Zarb dinner at camp
Meat, vegetables and rice layered into a pit, buried under sand over coals for hours, then dug out at the table.
Stargazing
No light for 40 km in any direction. March nights drop to 8–12°C out here — bring a proper fleece, not a jacket for show.
Morning
4x4 tour of the valley
Lawrence's Spring (Ain Shellaleh) with its Nabataean temple below, the inscriptions in Khazali Canyon, and the red dunes. Half a day.
Camel back to the village
Swap the jeep for a camel on the last stretch. Slow, silent and much closer to how the Bedouin actually crossed this.
Afternoon / Day
North to the Dead Sea
The Dead Sea Highway up the Wadi Araba rift, roughly four hours. You finish more than 400 m below sea level, on the lowest dry land on earth.
Check in: Mövenpick Dead Sea
Dead Sea Road, Sweimeh. Stone village-style buildings stepping down to a private beach and the spa.
Evening
Float at sunset
Ten times saltier than the sea, so you cannot sink. Keep it out of your eyes, shower straight after, and do not shave that morning.
Black mineral mud
The shoreline mud is the other half of the ritual — smear it on, let it dry stiff, rinse it off in the sea.
Dinner at the resort
Nothing else is within reach of the beach strip. Eat outside — the West Bank lights come on across the water.
Lowest Point, Then Home
Morning
Breakfast at the resort
Dead Sea Road, Sweimeh. Eat late — the drive to the airport is short and the flight is this evening.
One more float
Best before 10, while the water is still cool and the beach empty. Then the spa, which uses the same salts and mud.
Afternoon / Day
Dead Sea Panoramic Complex
On the cliff edge above the northern shore, with a viewpoint, a restaurant and the Museum of the Lowest Place on Earth — the museum is in the Jordan Pass.
Lunch at the Panorama
The complex restaurant looks straight down the rift to the water. Last Jordanian mezze before the airport.
Drive to Queen Alia
About ninety minutes, climbing more than a kilometre out of the rift. Ears pop the whole way up.
Evening
Fly home from AMM
Queen Alia International, 35 km south of Amman. Duty free sells Dead Sea salts if you skipped the resort shop.
