Jordan on your own
A rose-red city carved into the cliff, a Martian desert where you sleep with the Bedouin and a sea that floats you effortlessly: Jordan packs the whole epic into 400 km of easy roads.
When to go
Spring (March-May) and autumn (September-November) rule: 20-28 °C, golden light, mild desert nights. Summer crushes the Dead Sea, Aqaba and the Rum (40 °C and beyond) but remains workable at Petra and Dana, up at altitude. Winter surprises: it freezes at night in Petra (1,000 m), it sometimes snows in Amman, and the Wadi Mujib water hikes close from November to March. During Ramadan everything runs, but hours shift — check the dates.
What it costs
A mid-priced destination, weighed down by entry fees: small car €25-45/day (no 4x4 needed), fuel around €1.15/L, hotels and guesthouses €40-90, Wadi Rum Bedouin camps €50-130 half board depending on comfort (from goat-hair tent to transparent bubble). The Jordan Pass (JD 70-80, i.e. €90-105 depending on your Petra days) pays for itself in visa and sites from day one. Budget €2,200-3,200 for two over 10-12 days excluding flights.
Driving & transport
Right-hand driving, signage doubled in English on the main axes. The real traps: unmarked speed bumps at the entrance to every village (the national plague), frequent radars on the Desert Highway, sheep and camels across the King's Highway, and creative urban driving in Amman — best avoided by collecting the car at the airport. Do not drive at night: unlit trucks and non-existent verges. Police checkpoints are routine and good-natured: a smile, your passport, and "welcome to Jordan".
Jordan is the Middle East's great misunderstanding: people imagine it complicated, and it is one of the easiest countries in the world to drive. A territory the size of Portugal, one backbone — the King's Highway, a caravan route 5,000 years old — threading Madaba and its mosaics, the Wadi Mujib canyon, Kerak's crusader castle, Dana, Petra, then Wadi Rum, before dropping to the Red Sea. And everywhere, Bedouin hospitality as the universal language: sage tea comes before any transaction.
Behind the wheel, no ordeal at all: main roads in good condition, sparse traffic outside Amman, short distances (4 hours from the capital to Petra on the Desert Highway, 2 more to the Rum). A small car works everywhere — a 4x4 only matters inside Wadi Rum, where you ride with a Bedouin guide anyway. The Jordan Pass, bought before departure, waives the visa fee and opens Petra, Jerash and forty other sites: it is the trip's first reflex.
The destinations that matter
6No. 012 nights, 3 if you hikePetraAt the end of a canyon of shadow, the Treasury's façade catches fire in the morning light: two thousand years after the Nabataeans, it remains the ancient world's greatest stage entrance.
No. 021 to 2 nightsWadi RumSandstone mesas set on red sand, silence in surround sound and the Milky Way for a ceiling: Wadi Rum is the most memorable night of the trip.No. 031 nightDead SeaThe lowest point on the planet, water so dense you can read the paper while floating, and rust-coloured cliffs: the strangest swim of a lifetime.No. 041 to 2 nightsDana ReserveAn Ottoman stone village suspended on the rim of a canyon 1,200 m deep: Dana is the country's best-kept secret — and its finest walking ground.No. 051 to 2 days from AmmanJerash and the desert castlesAn almost intact Roman city to the north, Umayyad pavilions with unexpected frescoes to the east: around Amman, two loops of history to unspool through the windscreen.No. 062 nightsAqaba and the Red SeaAfter the sandstone and the dust, the big blue: Aqaba's coral reefs start a few metres from the shore — the circuit's final reward, mask pushed up on your forehead.
Our flagship guide — €29
Guide available“Jordan on Your Own”, the complete edition, is out
10 chapters: day-by-day itineraries, driving and transport, a costed budget and checklists — the same method as our Namibia guide.
The guide is currently written in French — an English edition is in the works.
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