My first time doing a travel post here. Hee hee not sure how to format it but I’ll just type away until it’s time to get ready for birthday brunch at Beachcombers *so excited*!
We booked with Jordan Memories and Wonders tours probably 6 weeks before Eid, after some googling and researching. Back then, I found two other tours that was a bit more famous on Tripadvisor – that’s Jordan Direct Tours and Jordan Select Tours, with a lot of positive reviews. You can never be too careful with these things ay – best to make sure it’s a legit tour and that they’re not driving you off to the middle of the desert. I did email these other two and they quoted me prices for that were a lot more than what JordanMW gave me. I’ll ramble on on individual prices for activities on this blog, but I’ll tear the whole thing apart and let you know how much it actually costs (just cause I like numbers, and I’m sure you would want to know too).
Thursday 25 October 2012
Got to Terminal 2 nice and early, but sadly no lounge. 3 hours later, we arrived in Queen Alia International Airport. Not a spectacular airport at all, I thought Kuching International Airport’s probably 10x nicer, ha ha. Our man Jalal had been waiting for us for awhile, and we got into his blue car. The next 3 hours was a nice road trip of ‘Welcome to Jordan’ chit chat and jokes. We couldn’t see too much at night – saw a truck carrying a sheep, donkeys at the roadside, a few random local men, and there was a stretch of road littered with little huts (like kedai runcits), with neon lights above. We thought that was quite cute.
Checked into Amra Palace Hotel around midnight, located in Wadi Mousa in Petra. It’s a classic-looking hotel, kinda reminded me of being back in Paris again, haha. By the way the air was cold that night ay. Our room was sufficient, the bed was comfortable. The toilets looked old as well but the important thing – it was clean. And I mean, we were just staying the night so I don’t think you need to stay in anywhere fancy if you’re just doing Petra for the day? Note this if you’re coming here. According to booking.com, a double room is 270AED including breakfast. I’m not sure how much it’ll cost during EID.
Friday 26 October 2012
We woke up at 5:00a.m the next morning, because the prayers had started. We didn’t realize the local mosque was situated right in front of our hotel. I don’t know if you’ve ever stayed next to a mosque, but goodness me it was soooo loud, and it seemed to go on forever. The roosters seemed to like it and was joining it, haha. It was actually quite amusing. It was then that we realize ‘We’re in the Middle East!’. You don’t get that in Dubai.
Breakfast was decent and enough. Jalal was there at 7:30a.m as promised, and he took us, a short 15-minute drive to Petra…..
(To be continued… Brunch-time!)
Hi,
Your blog is very interesting! I’m thinking of booking a tour with jordanmw.com. Would you recommend them? Thanks.
Regards,
Mary
Hey Mary! Thanks for the comment! 🙂
I meant to finish my blog post on the trip and JordanMW ages ago but kinda got lazy, ha ha.
Erm, they were good, although we did feel that had we organised everything ourselves, it would’ve been way cheaper ay.
Just keep in mind that that the fee you are paying is exactly what they state in their itenary – i.e all transport, wadi rum camp/food, accomodation at the hotels inclusive of breakfast.
It does NOT include Petra entrance fee, donkey rides (be careful not to get ripped off here as I’ve mentioned in my blog post), the jeep ride after Petra to Wadi Rum, Dead Sea entrance fee, historical site entrance fees which will add up. So remember to bring extra cash.
They do not exactly walk you though the historical sites and tell you the history etc like what you would expect from a tour group. What they do is take you there and you DIY, which is fine I guess but it’s just depends on what you’re looking for ay.
So my advise is that, if you’re OK with a very organised trip where they will get you from A to B, guaranteed safe and entertaining, then go for it. But if you’re looking for a cheaper option then book the hotels yourself, only problem is you’ll need to organise the transport yourself (which I wouldn’t be able to give any advise on ha ha). Good luck!