مرحباً!(Welcome to Jordan!) We can arrive at any time after 10:00 AM in Aqaba, and be transferred to our beachfront hotel. Check in starts at 3:00 PM, The group coming from Egypt will be arriving at at the airport 3:35 PM. We should all be settled by early evening, and can go for a group dinner to get our adventure started.

Accommodations: Nairoukh Hotel or similar

Meals: N/A

Today we will have a free day in Aqaba to experience the Red Sea. We will have the option to go to a beach club, to go on a snorkel tour, or scuba diving in the Red Sea!

For certified divers, Aqaba is a wreck paradise with an Underwater Military Museum, featuring an M42 Duster anti-aircraft tank and 19 other military machines, including tanks, cranes, and a plane. A virtual underwater battlefield!

Now, for those who have never scuba dived, we will have the option to do a Discover Scuba dive, where you will take a brief class and dive accompanied by an instructor. Imagine that: getting to scuba dive in the Red Sea, even if you have no experience! Yup, because that’s how 1000 Treks rolls…

Accommodations: Nairoukh Hotel  or similar

Meals: Breakfast

After breakfast, we say good-bye to the Red Sea, and head out to another incredible location of Jordan: The Wadi Rum desert. Wadi Rum isn’t just a desert, it’s a full-on, otherworldly experience that makes you feel small in the best possible way: endless red sand, towering sandstone mountains rising straight out of the earth, silence so deep it almost hums, and sunsets that look like the sky is on fire! Films like Lawrence of Arabia, The Martian, Dune, and Star Wars were all filmed there because Wadi Rum literally looks like another planet. And when we’re standing there, wind in our faces, red sand under our feet, you’ll understand why. We’ll explore it the 1000 Treks way: on a 4×4, scrambling up rock formations for epic views on a full day desert adventure.

As if that weren’t enough, we will end the day and spend the night at a surreal Bedouin camp, where our room will be a futuristic bubble luxury tent. I purposefully chose our dates so that we will be in Wadi Rum under a very dark sky (two days after new moon). This will be one of the most magical nights of our lives! And we will have to make one of the hardest decisions we’ll ever have to make:

To sleep in a Mars bubble tent.

Or outside, under a million stars.

Accommodations: Mira Bubble Luxury Camp or similar

Meals: Breakfast, Dinner at Bedouin camp

After a magical, surreal day and night, we continue to yet another surreal location, and one of the Seven Wonders of the World: Petra, the mythical stone city where structures are carved directly into the rocks. Petra isn’t just a place you visit, it’s a place you feel. You walk through the narrow Siq canyon, walls towering above you, anticipation building with every step… and then suddenly, the Treasury appears, carved straight into rose-red rock like something out of a dream. But that’s just the beginning. We’ll go beyond the postcard shot, hiking up to epic viewpoints, climbing the 800+ steps to the Monastery, wandering through ancient tombs and temples, and finding quiet corners where you can almost hear the echoes of the Nabataeans who built this masterpiece over 2,000 years ago.

We should arrive in Petra mid to late-morning, and explore Petra until mid-afternoon, when we head out to Little Petra. Little Petra is a smaller version of the main Petra Archaeological Park, often described as its ancient “suburb.” While Petra served as the Nabataean capital, Little Petra is believed to have been a commercial hub designed to house visiting traders on the Silk Road. We’ll spend about two hours exploring Little Petra, and then go check in to our hotel, Little Petra Bedouin Camp.

Early in the evening, we’ll head back to Petra for another special experience: Petra by Night, a tour of Petra where the city is lit entirely by candlelight. Remember, I picked our dates so the nights will be dark, so yes, we will have another magical experience where Petra is lit by candlelight alone. Because, again, that’s what we do…

Accommodations: Little Petra Bedouin Camp or similar

Meals: Breakfast

We’ll continue our magical adventure by getting yet another incredible Petra experience: we will get up very early and head back to Petra so that we can enter the city right when it opens, and experience this magical place with no crowds!

We should be done with Petra and be Petra-experts by mid-morning, when we will go have breakfast, and continue our adventure. We will get on scenic Highway 35, also known as the Kings Highway, one of the most beautiful and historic drives in the world. We will drive for a couple hours until we reach Kerak Castle, an authentic 12th-century Crusader castle.

We will explore Kerak for 1.5 hours, and then continue on the Kings Highway toward our next surreal destination: The Dead Sea. The lowest place on Earth (1,410 feet below sea level!), the Dead Sea is a humongous lake that is so saline (10 times more saline than the ocean) that you can’t even sink into it; you just float. Its water contains over 21 natural minerals—12 of which are unique to it—including high concentrations of magnesium, calcium, potassium, bromide, and sodium. We will be staying in a five-star resort, so we can enjoy all the pampering we deserve, including mud treatments, and spa treatments to make our skin silky and beautiful. Just because we are adventurous, it doesn’t mean we can’t be pretty and have soft, delicate skin!

We should arrive at our resort mid-afternoon, and will have the rest of the day and night free to enjoy our wonderful resort at this incredible place.

Accommodations: Dead Sea Spa Resort or similar

Meals: N/A. We will not be able to have breakfast at the camp, because we’ll be leaving very early. We’ll have breakfast at around 9:00 AM close to Petra.

Today we’ll have a full day at the resort and Dead Sea. However, for those up for an incredible adventure, I will be leading a super-fun and adventurous hike up Siq Trail at Wadi al-Mujib. The hike will take us 2-3 hours through a narrow sandstone gorge, where we will climb waterfalls with ropes, swim through narrow canyons, and explore an incredible and unique landscape.

Those of us doing the hike will leave right after breakfast, and should be back early in the afternoon, so we can enjoy the rest of the day at our resort.

Accommodations: Dead Sea Spa Resort or similar

Meals: Breakfast

Today we take the last leg of our majestic road trip. After an early breakfast, we’ll leave the Dead Sea towards Amman, making three extraordinary historical stops on the way:

• Bethany Beyond the Jordan: The actual place where Jesus was baptized! Whether you are religious or not, this is an incredible place to see, recognized by UNESCO, the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, and many other Christian Churches as the baptism site of Jesus.
• Mt. Nebo: The place mentioned in the Bible, where Moses first saw the Promised Land, and died. Again, another both a religious and historical jewel to visit.
• Madaba: Known as the city of Mosaics for its amazing collection of 5th-7th century (Byzantine and Umayyad-era) floor mosaics.

We should arrive in Amman, the capital and most important city in Jordan, early in the afternoon. We’ll leave our luggage at our hotel, and go on a city tour of Amman, where we will visit the Bazaar, King Abdullah I Mosque, the Citadel and the Hand of Hercules, Nymphaeum, and Rainbow Street.

We’ll be done early in the evening, and go have our farewell dinner together, to celebrate the end of another unforgettable adventure.

Accommodations: DoubleTree By Hilton Amman Hotel & Residences or similar

Well, our adventure has come to an end. We say good-bye to these two majestic countries and will forever remember the epic experiences they provided us. مع السلامة!

Accommodations: N/A

Meals: Breakfast