Petra is phenomenal, but it is vast. You won’t see it all in a day and certainly not in a half day – it has over 600 tombs for starters. But by picking your route carefully and going against the tourist flow, you can see most of the sights at a relaxed pace in a full day.
Most people who visit Petra are on organised tours of Jordan from Aqaba or Amman. They spend half a day walking the main drag to the centre and back before rushing off to Wadi Rum massively missing out. Here’s are our tips on getting the best experience in this remarkable site.
Need to know:
Petra is linear, so the vast majority of visitors walk the 4 kilometre main trail from the Visitor’s centre to the basin (a restaurant hub) and back the same route totalling 8 kilometres.
From the basin, you can add on 2 more kilometres and climb up to the Monastery. It’s 45 minutes up a steep trail and involves dodging donkeys and haggling from the multiple stalls lining the slippy route. You then return by the same steep route to the basin.
In addition, to explore the phenomenal tombs or visit various viewpoints on side paths, you will also be adding kilometres. Many people total 12 kilometres on their visit.
Given the distances involved, it’s easy to feel exhausted and rushed which can spoil your experience. So how do you maximise your experience if time is against you? Take the back entrance.
The back entrance route:
It is possible to walk the route just once, halve your kilometres, avoid the crowds for significant sections and have a less gruesome hike up to the monastery.
Simply enter near Little Petra and exit near the main Visitor’s Centre walking the whole route one way, not two. Some tours do this, but we were travelling alone and organised it ourselves very easily. Here’s how:
From Wadi Musa (the town at the main entrance) get one of the frequent shuttle buses, or a taxi, to Little Petra 15 minutes away.
One of many advantages of this route is your first experience will be to really appreciate Little Petra (free) – a stunning site in its own right, but a bit of an anti-climax if you’ve already visited the main site.
At the gateway to Little Petra there is a ticket booth for Petra (if you’ve no Jordan Pass, buy entrance tickets here, or at the main entrance in Wadi Musa). This is also where you get the ticket for the jeep shuttle transit to the back entrance. The large open jeep leaves a few metres away (next to a large rock – the ticket office will point it out) and takes you on a 15 minute bouncy journey to the start of the hike. Next you will hike for roughly 45 minute through the rocky desert to The Monastery.
The first section of the route is hardly marked, but reassuringly you will be with the other jeep visitors at this point, after about 5 minutes the hike path becomes clear with several small cafes along the route. The views are stunning and you can feel totally alone in nature if you stagger your pace.
After 45 minutes hiking – with several climbs, but enough flat sections to recover – you see the tip of the Monastery roof, turn a corner and virtually have the masterpiece to yourself. Having started our hike at 8.30 there were about 30 people in the large area of the Monastery.
We suggest chilling at the cafe and just taking in the splendour for 30 mins or so. This will be one of the quietest sections of your visit, so enjoy. There’s even WiFi too!
Next our least favourite section of the visit, the descent to the basin. The good news is you are walking down so it’s easy, just listen in to the conversations of everyone having to walk up it and notice how many turn back. The bad news is it’s lined with shops and after the silence of the monastery, it’s a harsh introduction to the main part of Petra.
Once you reach the basin, there’s cafes and water and if you’ve time you can go right and explore some lesser visited tombs. As we wanted to take our time and savour the headline sights we hit the main path and were instantly wowed by the ruined temple and colannaded street.
Continuing on the central road you will pass the Roman Theatre, The Street of Facades, The Treasury and The Siq. All highlights. But we do suggest exploring as many tombs as you can on the left – especially the Urn Tomb, Silk Tomb, Corinthian Tomb and Palace Tomb.
Taking this route you see the Treasury last – the most famous building in Petra – so you end on a high.
We entered at 8.30 and left at 4.00 and felt we’d seen all we wanted to see at a pace that allowed us to stop, chill and linger.
If we are lucky enough to return to Petra, we would certainly repeat this route.
Be prepared:
Number one – comfy, sturdy shoes. You will be covering a lot of kilometres and some of the paths are basic and slippy.
Take water – you can buy water in Petra, but only on the main path.
Expect Petra to be crowded, the central path is full of stalls and tour groups, but you can easily avoid the crowds if you venture onto one of the side paths.
There are several cafes where you can eat, but they are more expensive than Wadi Musa.
There’s not much shade, take sunscreen.
Dress respectfully.
and don’t use the donkeys.
To recover:
We suggest the excellent restaurant, The Red Cave, a few metres from the Visitor’s centre.
Pingback: Jordan: Wadi Rum, how to do it independently - GapBeetle