Why we wanted to go: If you follow our crazy adventures and travel addiction you already know that our main travel goal was to visit the seven wonders of the world, and I say WAS because we already did it! Petra in Jordan was left for last for many reasons. We didn’t feel it was secure to travel to Jordan. We didn’t really want to make the trip half way around the world to see just one thing (there was nothing else we wanted to see in Jordan). There were many US government alerts advising tourist NOT to travel to that region. We were worried about health and sanitary conditions. So, when we found a way to travel to Petra from a safe country like Israel, we could not pass on the opportunity. Here is valuable information in case you decide to do the same!
The tour: Many people don’t know that from Israel (Tel aviv) you can have a one day tour to Petra in Jordan. We paid $350 for the tour and $120 for visas and border fees per person. You take a 30 minutes morning flight from Tel Aviv to Eilat a border city (included in the price). Cross the border, get on a bus ride for two hours and a half and arrive at Petra. You spend about three hours there (Not enough to see everything, but if you are fast you will cover the most important parts).
Tip: Don’t wait for your guide, read as much as possible before you get there about the history and when you hit the ground RUN, go see everything you’ve already read about.
The camels: They are great to take pictures with, and that’s all. Although the animals look healthy they are still being obligated to perform a function. Ric personally asked the guides about their care and wellbeing. They were bogus with the answer and then invited him to take a picture kissing them lol!
The price of the photo? We paid $10 US dollars because that’s what we had, however I saw people pay as much as $20 for the picture and a little ride around in the same spot! I also saw people give the handler $3 dollars just to stand next to the camel and take a photo. I saw the owners make concessions to guides and locals as well allowing them to pay less. The final price is up to you and how much you haggle!
The horses: Supposedly the horses are included with your entrance ticket and you only have to tip the handler. The guide said that $5 would be enough, wrong! They kept asking for more... Ric got off when he saw one of the riders hitting a horse and that was the end of that!
The horse buggies: Those seem to be very standard at $40 US dollars or maybe $35 no less than that. With plenty of older people using them because the walk is unbearable, they are on high demand. No point on haggling the price when the person behind you is willing to pay whatever they ask.
The climb for the perfect picture: We can describe this with one word SCARY! Do use a guide, he started asking for $40 and we ended at $20 US dollars. You have to be in shape and be willing to put your life in their hands. Forget anyone who says it’s an easy way up, that’s not true. I ended up crying with a mix of emotions happiness because I did it and terrified of what could have happened. There are not clear paths or steps, basically you are rock climbing. There are no guard rails or safety nets. These are young kids taking advantage of the little supervision at the archeological beauty. The entire way up, picture taking process and way down is about 45 mins, don’t listen when they say 25 mins unless you are an avid mountain and rocks climber! At the top they will ask you for $5 dollars for water and some shade! We paid, because we needed about 15 mins of rest! On the day we visited there were massive crowds at the treasury (main attraction) so it would have been impossible to get a decent picture.
Food: Take plenty of snacks! Unlike US airports, the regional airport allows you to take food inside the plane. This tour gives you very little opportunity to buy anything and the lunch included is average to bad. Also everything in Jordan is terribly overpriced!
Another option: For a less expensive tour, you can choose to spend a couple of days in Eilat (Israel) and from there tours are less expensive. Eilat is the border city to travel to Jordan and Egypt. This option avoids the plane ticket of one day. Most tours take care of all border legalities, visas and check points. Border lines and legalities can be hours long. BEWARE: You are likely to miss the 8:55pm flight back to from Eilat to Tel Aviv! We and most of the other people did! Because Israeli authorities take a long time at the border to allow you back in from Jordan. When you book, make sure to tell your guide to book you on the 9:30 pm flight instead. On this day we were lucky the airline accommodated us on the later flight at no cost.
Does this one day deal really work?:
We always ask other travelers for their experiences and what their journeys are like. We found people from Europe who did enjoy a few days in Jordan, while people from the west, US and other Latin American countries say just going to Petra is enough. When we probed about what else is there to do in Jordan, not much else really interested us, so this deal was just PERFECT!
More time:
Looking back there is another option for around $450 ($100 more than we paid) where you spend the night at Petra (camping like setting). We should have probably done that one, it felt safe enough to experience something like that. The reason why bring it up is because we were not sure about the safety, and after being there we realized that it would have been perfectly fine.
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We hope this blog was helpful to you, or at least fun to read!
