jmday4

Hi,
Three adults, myself, my husband and my adult son, will be flying into Queen Alia airport at 6pm on a Friday evening. I'd like to book a driver to take us from the airport to Petra where we'd stay until Sunday when we'd need to get back to the airport for a 7pm departure. I realize that most people arrange transportation to Petra via their hotel or take the JETT bus. I haven't booked a hotel yet since I don't know if I CAN get to Petra on Friday evening or if I should book a hotel in Amman or Madaba and get a ride Saturday morning (in which case we could take the JETT bus)...
I'm really stuck and I need some help.
How easy is it to "wing it" and book a 4-5 star hotel in Amman and wait till we get to the hotel to request a driver to Petra for the next day? Has anyone done something like this?
Thanks for any driver names or suggestions!

thursdaysd

Do you mean "wing it" WRT booking the hotel or the driver? I would not recommend leaving your hotel to the last minute - I was really surprised last year by how difficult it was to get hotel reservations in Syria and Jordan.

Getting a driver should be easy. Negotiating the rate might be harder. Arranging a driver through your hotel will put the price up - my hotel wanted 25 JD for a ride from Amman to the airport. I arranged 18 JD with a taxi driver off the street, and suspect that it should have been less - the going rate for Amman to Madaba is 12 HD and the distance is about the same (but the driver can't get a return fare from the airport).

jmday4

By "wing it" I meant book the hotel while still in the states and just hope I can get a driver once I'm at the hotel in Amman, or Madaba or the Dead Sea! (I don't know where to book!). Since we're getting in rather late, I'm not comfortable with not having the driver bit all set up. Ideally we'd get picked up at the airport, drive to Petra, sleep there and start the day at Petra fresh. Seeing Petra is the focus of our trip. Anything else will be nice but it's not a priority.
You're right about hotels too. Already the Movenpick at Petra is sold out for our dates, April 9-11.
Some more background on why our time is so short: We'll be coming from a stay in Lebanon where our son is attending AUB for the semester. He's the reason we're not getting to Jordan until late Friday (he has a class he can't miss and he has to be back at school Monday morning!) I had thought that a quick trip to Jordan with him would be a fun treat. It's beginning to be more of a headache than I bargained for!

sandi

Suggest you contact a Jordanian tour operator (some have been shown here) and see what they can do for you from arrival to departure - meet/greet Fri eve, hotel in Amman, transfer to Petra, hotel, sightseeing, transfer to Amman airport for homebound. Sure, if might be a bit more expensive (or not) than trying to coordinate it all on your own, but at least it'll be a starting point.

In fact, Royal Jordanian Air has a travel/tour desk... inquire.

jmday4

Thanks Sandi, it turns out that I am pursuing that option and it does seem to be the best way to go especially with my time constraints.