Thanks for your report. I will be visiting Jortdan next month and can not wait!!!

Steve-we added on Jordan to our Lady Egypt tour to Egypt in December 2009.
They also gave us to Desert Horizons for our Jordan portion and am thrilled to hear that Youssef is still driving for them. Our family loved loved him!He speaks perfect English,has a business degree and is most accomodating to what you want to stop and see.
Anyone going to Jordan should look into getting him as your driver as you will feel as though you have your own Jordian cousin taking you around.Will be interested to read your trip report!

Make that Jordanian cousin.Sorry cannot spell?

Glad you loved Jordan. I had different thoughts. I would not go back to Jordan and I wished we had cut out things from our 6 day trip. (I think 6 day trip, I forget).

We booked through Lady Egypt and the tour operator was Desert Horizons. We had Yousef (not sure of spelling and not sure if it is "your Yousef"). I was disappointed in that I thought we'd have a guide like we did in Egypt. Yousef whilst he was friendly and did nothing wrong, we thought we'd be getting someone who really told us what we were seeing.

We were told ahead of time that he would only be a driver. We only wanted a guide in Petra and Jerash which we had.Youssef was not trained as a guide but did make various commentaries as we drove along.We were so over being guided from Egypt that it was a breath of fresh air to be in Jordan.

Dutyfree, we were under the impression that he was a GUIDE and driver. I loved the Egyptian guiding style of our guides... super attentiveness when needed and then time on our own.

I worked out that we had just a driver and NOT a guide when we arrived at the Citadel and we were told that guides would ask us if they could show us around. I replied, "it will be ok, we will have you with us to look after us". His response was that no, he wouldn't be with us and it was OUR responsibility to deal with these people approaching us!

Youssef got us our professional guides in Petra,Wadi Rum and in Jerash.He even let us change our itinerary from not going to the Desert Castles and going to Jerash instead.He gave us quick summaries of things for the amplitheatre,citadel,mosiacs,etc. and then we were told that if we wanted a guide then there would be some available at the entrances.

Lady Egypt was clear on our forms that there would not be a guide with us all of the time in Jordan.Our family loved Youssef because we could be ourselves in the van and on the trips without that feeling that there was a third wheel along which we felt throughout our Egypt experience.

Our family are not cruise or tour people which is probably due to my husband and I being airline employees(and history majors so we love to research) so we are used to doing everything ourselves in making travel and trip arrangements.Our family loved the Nile Cruise but couldn't stand the organized "evenings and get togethers" on the boat either!I realized after trying to organize our Egypt trip that we needed a travel agent in Egypt to book our tickets within the country and thats why I chose Lady Egypt.While we had a wonderful trip to both countries it was our time in Jordan and with Youssef that we loved the best!

@ MissGreen

We all have different expectations and enjoy different things. We enjoyed the Desert Castles while we understand that most do not.

I suspect that we are talking about the same Youssef. He is not a guide he is a driver but one with a great deal of knowledge about his country and it's history. He is not allowed to enter the sites with you - we knew that. His recommendations to us were all top notch.

We only used guides in Petra and at Jerash. Youssef knew the guide at Jerash and he was fantastic. The guide at Petra was unknown to him but worked out well for us too.

We really enjoyed our conversations with Youssef during the many hours he spent with us.

I hope to work on the trip report this weekend. I travel as a computer consultant and have been on the road every since returning from Jordan - makes it difficult to sit down, but we will

Cheers

Steve

@dutyfree

We are a lot like you - we don't enjoy the canned tours or crowds of people. We tend to plan our own trips and stay away from the large groups. We enjoy seeing what the locals like to see and learning from locals. We like the flexibility to make changes as we learn or discover new things.

We certainly think of Youssef as a family friend!

Life is grand!!!!

Cheers

Steve and Andrea

One of my fondest memories with Youssef was him taking us to his company's "driver hangout" restaurant before he dropped us off one night(we begged him!!).It was a real hole in the wall but quite well known for its good food and even the King of Jordan had eaten there. Youssef's office was right across the parking lot and I think that we shocked everyone when we walked in being blonde and American.It was fabulous!

I think that Youssef being so flexible was what our family loved the most-He would stop for my daughter to get rocks(she is a marine geologist);a bathroom stop at inconvenient times;trying to find a place to get some beers or wine,etc.Truly a joy to sit in the van with for hours!!!

It's apparent that each country has their guiding rules/regulations.

When in Egypt, we had a private guide & driver and vehicle during our days in Cairo. This guide was our Egyptologist and outstanding. When on the cruise, we used the guide provided by the boat. They had a few who spoke different languages and took out those for each language, though many of the Italians joined with the English speakers... still our group was never more than 12-15. And from the other travelers on the boat, some with their own guide (paid for as part of their package) had a private guide for sightseeing.

While in Jordan, we had mostly drivers* for particular sightseeing, i.e., in/around Amman and Jerash. And, then when we went to Petra. At each area, we had local guides for that particular site and these guys were great.

I don't know and can't comment with specifics, but wonder if you have your own Jordanian guide/driver, whether this person can actually be your guide at the sites. I believe there maybe some reports by those who did have a private guide throughout... guess a search would be needed.

*while technically only drivers they still had a wealth of knowledge about their country, people, customs, and also wonderful sense of humor.