Things to do in Jordan

Jordan is small, dry and arranged along one line. The country is about the size of Portugal, and three roads run north to south. The one you take decides what the drive looks like.

The line down the country

The King's Highway is the old one. It climbs the escarpment, crosses the Wadi Mujib gorge and passes the crusader castles. The Desert Highway is faster.

• The north. Jerash, whose arch went up for Hadrian's visit in the winter of 129, with Ajloun castle and Umm Qais.
• The Dead Sea. The lowest dry land there is, more than four hundred metres down. The surface has fallen about a metre a year since the 1960s.
• Madaba and Mount Nebo. A sixth-century mosaic map of the Holy Land on a church floor, and the ridge where Moses is said to have looked over it.
• The eastern desert. Umayyad hunting lodges towards Azraq. Qusayr Amra keeps its eighth-century frescoes, UNESCO-listed in 1985.
• Petra. The Nabataean capital, cut into red sandstone, listed the same year. The Siq leading in is over a kilometre of slot canyon.
• Wadi Rum. Sandstone and granite jebels standing out of red sand.
• Aqaba. The only coast, with Red Sea reefs a few minutes offshore.

What people come for

Ruins first, and they are Roman and Nabataean rather than pharaonic. Then the desert, the part most people underestimate. Floating in the Dead Sea is third.

Aqaba adds diving. The biblical route is its own trip, from Nebo to the baptism site on the Jordan. Mansaf is the dish to try, lamb cooked in fermented dried yoghurt.

How the trips are sold

Almost everything is a private car with a driver-guide. The distances are the reason. Group departures are thin in winter.

Multi-day loops are the other shape. They run three to six nights with hotels, covering Petra, Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea in one booking.

Practical

• Jordan Pass. Bought online before you fly, it covers the visa fee and entry to more than forty sites, Petra included. It needs two nights in the country.
• Season. March to May and September to November. Summer is hard work in the south and worst at the Dead Sea. Winter nights at Petra and in the desert fall near freezing.
• Driving. Amman to Petra is about three hours, Petra to Wadi Rum another ninety minutes, Wadi Rum to Aqaba an hour.
• Money. The dinar is pegged to the dollar and worth more than one. Cards work in towns, but camps and small places want cash.
• The weekend. Friday and Saturday. Friday morning is quiet everywhere.
• Tipping. Around ten per cent in restaurants, and a few dinars for the driver.