Rose colored Treasury and many treasures beyond
How to visit Petra- One of the wonders of the world, 3 hours away from Amman by taxi, the best way to reach here. The alternate option is to take a bus from Amman which goes once a day with JETT
It was quite a bit of walk, about 20k+ steps each day, so bringing your hiking poles is recommended, particularly for monastery hike
We arrived in the morning from Wadi rum into Wadi Musa, checked in at Petra, took a taxi to visitor centre and started at about 12 PM.
Wadi Musa, named after Moses, is the name of the town which has the archeological site of Petra.
Pick up the free map at visitor centre- it is quite helpful to navigate inside. There is an option to take the buggy from visitor centre to Siq at 25 JOD one way. We wanted to take our time walking through and absorbing the beauty of Siq, so did not take the buggy
Walk through the canyon/Siq was out of the world! The Siq creates a lot of suspense with twists and turns before unravelling The Treasury
We visited Treasury, upto Qasr Al Bint (point where 800 step trek to Monastery starts) and turned back same way to visitor centre, reaching there around 4:30 PM. Beyond the popular treasury, there are quite a lot of caves, temples, Roman Theater to visit inside
We took the 5 PM free shuttle back to hotel. We were not aware that there is an exit point from Qasr al Bint- that is also an option to head back to city instead of walking all the way back. In hindsight, we would still walk all the way back to cover some of the attractions we missed or skipped while going in.
Trek to Monastery
We covered Monastery on Day 2 starting at 7 AM from the hotel via free shuttle. There are shuttles from visitor centre from 7:30 shuttle to Little Petra. From Little Petra, we took a 5 JOD vehicle to start point for Monastery trek
Unlike what is popularly mentioned, we found three things that were different
- It was not a 4×4 vehicle. It was a normal car that left us quite behind what it could potential take us to, which we realized later.
- We had to walk for about 40-60 minutes from there before the steps started. The vehicle could have dropped us closer to the stairs, but looks like the drop point has been shifted further away now. The trail is not clearly marked. We just followed the first point that our driver showed atop the hill and kept looking for Jordan flags on the way
- The back door route from Little Petra, we found the hike probably equally difficult as climbing 800 steps from front side. While we didn’t count the exact number of steps, they were significant for sure. The only respite was a combination of steps up and down vs. all up from front side
We reached monastery around 3-3.5 hours later. It is quite similar to the Treasury in looks but colored in a different tinge and slightly larger
We spent an hour there and started climbing 800 steps down from the front side, reaching Qasr-al-bint around 1 PM. There does not seem to be an option to track back the original route to Little Petra since there are no set points that are visible at an elevation to track back with minimal route signs. We heard the vehicles also stop operation by 2-3 PM, so you may not find a return option if you come back late in the evening
The exit point at Qasr-al-Bint also requires 30 min of walk to reach the shuttles although there quite a good road, thanks to donkey riders mafia. The map from visitor centre is helpful in navigating exit direction,, but does not show the path after that. Keep walking till you see shuttles
From there, the free shuttles must mandatorily drop passengers for 30-40 minutes at a Cultural village which had nothing much beyond a few shops. None of the passengers were interested in buying anything, but getting out of the vehicle and waiting for 30 minutes was not optional
Overall travel time was about an hour and we reached visitor centre at 2 PM
Where we stayed
Petra Marriot hotel thanks to redemption booking. The hotel was very good across aspects- food, service, interiors etc., but we had a tough time checking in as they could not find our reservation. A rare instance for Bonvoy. I was left a bit stranded as none of the Bonvoy toll free helplines worked outside India and there was alternate option. Bonvoy did not have a Jordan customer care. I received no response across chat, mail at short notice. I ended up booking a second room which also took a lot of time to appear on their systems. I was not charged for cancellation and support once I got back was good
The hotel is a bit farway from main town of Wadi rum and a taxi is required. Fare is typically 8 JOD from the hotel fixed and open to bargaining on the way back at 5-6 JOD
The hotel offers free shuttle 3 times a day from about 7 to 10 AM and back from about 3-5 PM depending on summer/ winter times. The shuttle was not there a the visitor centre at 5 PM. We had to call the hotel and they sent one after our call