We started our tour of Jordan with a day trip from Madaba to Petra through the King’s Highway.

We arranged this through Mariam Hotel, which provided our driver for the day, Issa, for 68JD.

Mount Nebo

After a nice and big breakfast, we left early in the morning as this was going to be a long trip. Our first stop was Mount Nebo, a holy site from where Moses saw the promised land.

You get great views over the Jordan Valley, with Palestine and the Dead Sea in the distance.

King’s Highway

We continued our trip via the famous King’s Highway. The winding roads led us to Wadi Mujib, known as ‘Jordan’s Grand Canyon’. We stopped a few times to grasp the amazing views over the dam, and sipped mint tea with a view.

Karak

The changing scenery led us to Karak, a massive Crusades castle. We spent about one hour exploring all the different rooms and floors of the site.

This was a really nice place and with very few tourists around, so we could take it all in at our own pace.

We were then back on the road for a few more hours. We stopped for more amazing views of Dana reserve, then finally made our way to Petra, arriving at around 4pm.

HOW TO DO IT:

• Travelling around: Taxis are available for hire throughout Jordan and are the best way to travel across the country as there isn’t much in way of public transportation. Hotels can often arrange these trips – but always confirm the price in advance. We paid 68JD for our day trip, which was really cheap.
• Monuments: Entry to sites like Mount Nebo and Karak cost only 1JD – way too cheap!
• Stay: Plan your itinerary in advance and book your accommodation accordingly. We decided to give Amman a miss and head straight to Madaba – a good option that worked well for us. We stayed at Mariam Hotel which was good for service but the facilities weren’t great. Much better was Mosaic City where we spent our last night in Jordan.