If you’re in Eilat and thinking of visiting Petra and the stunning desert vistas of Wadi Rum, you’ll be delighted to know it’s now very doable! You can squeeze in the BEST that Jordan has to offer in just two days thanks to one of the best desert adventures you’ll ever have!
Yep, the amazing Lost City of Petra is a quick hop over the border, and combined with the stunning desert of Wadi Rum, and a quickie visit to the port town of Aqaba, you won’t be sorry you added a tour to Jordan to your Eilat trip!
I’ve just come back from my own awesome two-day adventure to Petra and Wadi Rum, and can only say that this two-day tour will pack in all the desert goodness you’ll ever need. Read on below for details and some great pics, which will hopefully entice you to sign up for a tour too!
Day 1: Crossing the border, Aqaba, and Wadi Rum
First things first, what’s great about this tour is that it doesn’t start at an unearthly hour, meaning one of those horrible 07:00 starts…this tour starts at 09:00 (pickup from the new Abraham Hostel in Eilat, coming soon), a lot friendlier for those of us who like a little bit of a lie-in!
A quick ten-minute ride and you’re at the Arava border crossing with Jordan. Once you’ve got through the Israeli side, you walk across the border to the Jordan side, where you’ll immediately notice that security is a lot less uptight. You’ll need some Jordanian Dinar to pay for your Jordanian visa (40 JD, which is approximately 56 USD; you can change up some currency at the border crossing BUT do it on the Jordanian side, the Israeli side is notoriously expensive). Once paid up, you’ll then meet up with your Jordanian guide, who will remain with you for the next two days. And hey presto, before you know it, you’re on the bus to Aqaba!
The Red Sea port of Aqaba is a quick 20-minute drive away, and after touring some ancient ruins and the Aqaba Fortress (also known as Mamluk Castle), you get to scoff yourselves silly at one of the local Aqaba restaurants. All I can say is expect hummus, lots of it! But it’ll set you up nicely for the rest of the day, because your next meal will be dinner at the Wadi Rum desert camp…
After that, it’s back on the bus to the magnificent Wadi Rum, something like a 90-minute drive away. After arriving at the Wadi Rum Visitors Center, we got taken out on open-backed 4x4s with the chilly November wind doing its best to overcome the winter sun.
And there ain’t nothing like driving through this magnificent desert, it really is quite a stunner. This tour actually takes you to a number of key sites in Wadi Rum, including the rock bridges at Burdah and Um Fruth, the Khazali Ravine, and some amazing sand dunes. But for me, there’s just something about driving through this breathtaking desert with the wind whistling around your ears, it really is a desert experience that will go with you to the grave!
Wrapping up the day with a stunning sunset over Wadi Rum really is the perfect end to a great day. But wait a minute…there’s still a traditional Bedouin dinner to enjoy (which is amazingly dug out of the sand, see the pic below), plenty of hot, sweet tea, and last but not least, whiling away the night beside the campfire, downing shots of vodka to warm the belly (I brought along some Russian holy water because I knew it was going to be bloody freezing!) on a chilly November evening…wow Wadi Rum, you rock!
Day 2: Petra, and back to Eilat
In contrast to yesterday, you’re going to have to rise and shine at 06:00. But if you manage to get out of your tent (yes, you’ll be sleeping in a tent in the middle of the desert – it’s freezing but they supply a truckload of warm blankets!), you might be rewarded with a majestic desert sunrise, or even a passing camel…
After a quick and easy breakfast, we were herded back into our 4x4s, which made their way across the early morning desert to the meeting point with our bus. From there, it was a couple of hours’ drive to the Lost City of Petra. Within a few minutes, we were heading down the main path which heads down into one of the most legendary wadi trails out there, The Siq. Note that the entrance fees to Petra are included in the tour (50 JD, which is around $70).
This wasn’t my first trip to Petra (I did it a couple of years previously with my son), but there’s still something very powerful in the walk down The Siq and then the walk through the narrow exit point to be greeted by the one and only Treasury…it’s that moment when you come face-to-face with a true world wonder, and you probably won’t take your eyes off of this stunner for at least a few minutes!
Once we’d taken in the pure beauty of this wonder, we then headed through some of the other sites in Petra, passing by Royal Tombs and other stunning Nabataean architectural delights. After a decent buffet lunch at one of the restaurants in the heart of Petra, our group then split; some headed for the Monastery, but as I’d climbed to the top of Mount Sinai a couple of days previously, I went with a couple of others to the relatively easier climb of the High Place of Sacrifice. Definitely worth it, with some great views from the top, and some sweet tea from a kiosk right at the edge well worth tasting!
After that, it was back to the main entrance, where we witnessed a real party atmosphere as Petra was welcoming its ONE-MILLIONTH tourist to the site in 2019 – good job Petra! Love those dancing Jordanian policemen!
Back on the bus, we headed back to the Arava border crossing, stopping for a quick sunset photo opportunity as the skies did their best to make our final hour or two in Jordan even more memorable. The border crossing itself was fairly painless, and with an Abraham Tours bus waiting for us on the Israeli side, it wasn’t long before we were back in Eilat (we arrived back at around 19:00).