Jordan - Petra & the Dead Sea

Itinerary

• Day 1
  Arrive in Amman, settle in to your hotel and enjoy a first evening in this friendly city that's built between desert hills and mixes modern amenities with occasional, striking remnants of the past. Depending on the time you arrive, you may have time to enjoy a cocktail or perhaps take a stroll before a light plated dinner is served in the hotel.
• Day 2
  Board the coach this morning to head north to Jerash. Just outside the modern city lie the impressive remains of Gerasa, once one of the Middle East’s most important Roman strongholds. The great Hippodrome, theatres, plazas, streets and baths that archaeologists have recovered from the sands over the last 80 years are startlingly well-preserved, and have led to Jerash being nicknamed the Pompeii of the East.This afternoon, return to Amman for a guided tour. Visit the ancient citadel, atop the highest point in the city and famed for its Roman, Byzantine and Islamic Umayyad remains, see the striking city-centre Roman amphitheatre and discover two of the city’s most fascinating collections, at the Archaeological and Folklore museums. You’ll also have the opportunity to taste some of the city’s famous street foods - like falafel and sticky, sweet kanafeh pastries - as you wander in the company of your guide. Return to the hotel for dinner at the end of a wonderful day.
• Day 3
  Board the coach after breakfast, and relax as you take a two-hour drive south, into the desert, to the extraordinary rose-red mountain outcrop of Wadi Rum, which rises from the endless, inhospitable sands. Here, you’ll board a rugged 4x4 all-terrain vehicle for a two-hour drive through the unearthly landscape. You’ll have the chance to walk to hillside Lawrence spring, and take a gentle hike through a desert canyon to visit a Bedouin camp, where you will be greeted with mint tea and traditional bread.At the end of the tour you'll turn north again, heading to your four-star hotel close to the extraordinary desert city of Petra. Rest, relax and enjoy dinner amid wonderful, surroundings as you enjoy your first desert sunset.
• Day 4
  You’ll have an early start and an early breakfast this morning, but an unforgettable day awaits. Follow the breathtaking trail  through the narrow, 80-metre-high red-rock gorge of the Siq and into the ancient Rose Red city of Petra. Your first view of the city as the passage widens will be of Al-Khazneh (The Treasury), the iconic temple/mausoleum carved into the rock over 2000 years ago by the Nabataean people who settled here. Petra is a magnificent architectural and engineering marvel that extends across hundreds of acres into the sands of Wadi Rum, inevitably exceeds all visitors' expectations, and unquestionably deserves its status as one of the Seven New Wonders of the World. It simply has to be seen to be fully appreciated. At the end of a wonderful day, return to the comfortable surroundings of your desert haven.
• Day 5
  Leave Petra and your hotel behind after breakfast, today, and travel a little way north to the excavations at the Al Beidha Siq, known as Little Petra, and an intimate, less-visited contrast to the glories of the Rose-Red city.Back aboard the coach, head north once again, following the King’s Highway before turning east to ancient Madaba. Here the 19th-century Greek Orthodox Church of St George stands guard over an extraordinary Sixth-century mosaic map of the region that has drawn visitors for centuries. Later this afternoon you’ll climb Mount Nebo, the supposed resting place of Moses, from which you can just make out the rooftops of Bethlehem and Jerusalem across the vast expanse of the Great Rift Valley and the River Jordan below. You’ll then head down onto the valley floor to the northern shores of the mysterious, mineral-laden Dead Sea where another sumptuous resort hotel waits to welcome you.
• Day 6
  Enjoy all the delights of your shore-side hotel today, including the chance to float in the waters of the Dead Sea itself - one of the strangest sensations on earth. Take advantage of the hotel pool, laze on the private beach, treat yourself to a spa treatment using natural Dead Sea products, or make use of the hotel’s well-equipped gym. How you spend your last day in Jordan is up to you.
• Day 7
  Board the coach for the return journey up from the Dead Sea shore, and back to Amman’s Queen Alia International Airport where you'll check in for your flight home at the end of a truly fascinating and unforgettable few days.