Hisurfer

Hey all - does this look realistic? We're trying to see a lot, balance culture and adventure and fun, but not rush too much ...

Tues, Wed, Thurs - Amman (Buddy doesn't arrive until Wed late, so I can't change this much). Do day trip to Jerash.

Fri, Sat - One day seeing main sites, one day doing some hikes

Sun, Mon - camel trek in Wadi Rum

Tues, Wed - Aqaba

Thurs - rent car, drive King's Highway to Madaba, and take all day. See Dana, Castles, Dead Sea, Mt. Nebo.

Fri - Fly away

--- transport will all be local busses, except the day we rent.

How's it look?

Grcxx3

Petra??????

sandi

Yeh, where's Petra. With 11/days you certainly have a few days to spend here. Two at minimum, three if you can.

Even though waiting on your buddy, in addition to a visit to Jerash, which is a short distance from downtown Amman, there are other spots farther north of there. Go through your guide book and see which of these are of interest and get to them during these days. Your hotel's Tour Desk or a nearby Tour/Travel agent can probably arrange this.

How are you getting down to Wadi Rum? Bus? Allow sufficient time. And, to Aqaba, also by bus?

Ok - the when you rent your vehicle, on drive north you have to fit in time for Petra. I would suggest:

Tue, Wed, Thu - In Amman, visit Jerash and northern sites - o/n Amman.

Fri - Sites in/around Amman; afternoon hiking - o/n Amman.

Sat & Sun - get down to Aqaba; rent car to head north next day - o/n Aqaba

Mon - Drive to Wadi Rum, camel safaris; drive to Petra so you can enter the site at sunrise next morning(amazing) - o/n Petra

Tue & Wed - Petra; stay late when crowds gone and the sunsets - o/n Petra

Thu - Drive north. You can make all those stops heading back to Amman.

Believe the above would be smoother routing. Go to the farthest spot - Aqaba - and work your way back heading north.

Hisurfer

Oops - I type too fast!

Petra is there ... after Amman, most of Friday and a full Saturday. My bad.

We'll take local buses on our way south [Amman - Petra - Wadi Rum - Aqaba], and drive back on the way north, fitting in whatever we can.

Not sure how long this takes. I'd love to take the King's Highway through Ash-shawbak and Dana [lunch], then cut over at Kerak to the Dead Sea Highway and take that the rest of the way, to Madaba by evening. How many stops could we reasonably take on this route?

twofortheroad

We drove the Kings Highway Amman to Petra in November 05. You don't say when you are going, daylight hours would be important to know. In November, it was dark at 5:30. We had a late start, 9:30, so we were very rushed. Start out early. The earler you start, the more stops you can make. We had been to Madaba our first day in Jordan so our first and only stop in this time frame--9:30 to 5:30 was Kerak Castle. We would have been able to make at least one other stop, but we took the wrong road (poor signage) from Kerak and came to the Dead Sea. This mistake cut an hour off our trip. It was dark as we approached Petra. You don't want to drive when it is dark. You will have even more driving to do from Aqaba. We were in Petra for 3 complete days and it was the highlight of our 9 days in Jordan--don't shortchange Petra.

Hisurfer

I reserved the car for 9am in Aqaba. The fantasy is to drive up to Al-Shawbak, explore it a bit, head to the village at Dana for lunch, drive through Kerak (one castle is enough, so we'll skip it), detour down to the Dead Sea, drive along that highway, stop somewhere, maybe around Wadi Mujb, to jump in, and depending on the time either take the Dead Sea cutoff (to the Panorama) back to Madaba, or keep heading north and visit Bethany and/or Jebel Nebo before Madaba ... timing the sunset for either Nebo or the Panorama (7pm) and hopefully get to Madaba around 8pm.