Most people who want both Petra and the Pyramids assume they need two holidays. This 7 day Egypt and Jordan tour does it in one week by flying you into Amman and home from Cairo, with a single short flight in the middle that is already in the price. You never retrace your steps.
The first half belongs to Jordan: Petra on the day you land, then Roman Jerash, the mosaic map at Madaba, the view from Mount Nebo and a full day floating in the Dead Sea. On day four you fly ninety minutes to Cairo for the Great Pyramids, the Sphinx, the Grand Egyptian Museum and the old quarters where a citadel, a church and a synagogue stand within a few streets of each other.
It is a private tour, so the guide and the vehicle are yours in both countries. You stay in 4-star hotels in Jordan and a 5-star standard hotel in Cairo, and the tour can begin on any day of the year. Prices start at $1,580 per person.
One more day gives the Jordan half more room on our 8 day Egypt and Jordan trip. The 9 day Egypt and Jordan vacation package stretches the route further, and the 10 day Egypt and Jordan tour with Nile cruise adds Luxor, Aswan and nights on the river. If Jordan alone is what you are after, the 4 day Jordan tour covers the same Jordanian sites without the flight to Cairo. All of them are on our Egypt and Jordan tours page.
Our representative meets you at Queen Alia International Airport and you set off south on the Desert Highway, about three hours by road, to Petra. The Nabataeans, Arab traders who grew rich on the incense routes, cut their capital into these sandstone cliffs some 2,000 years ago.
You enter on foot through the Siq, a gorge 1.2 kilometers long and in places only a few meters wide, until the Treasury appears through the gap, almost 40 meters high and carved from a single rock face. From there your guide leads you along the Street of Facades, past the theater cut into the hillside and the Royal Tombs. If time and energy allow, you can climb the 800 or so rock-cut steps to the Monastery. Lunch is at a local restaurant before the drive to your hotel.
This day needs a morning arrival. If your flight lands later, tell us when you book and we will reorder the Jordan days.
Meals: lunch. Overnight: Amman.
North of Amman lies Jerash, the ancient Gerasa. You walk in under the arch built for the emperor Hadrian’s visit in AD 129, cross the oval plaza ringed with columns and follow the paved main street, still rutted by chariot wheels, to the temples and the South Theater.
In the afternoon you visit the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint George in Madaba. Its floor holds a mosaic map of the Holy Land made in the 6th century, the oldest that survives. The day ends on Mount Nebo. According to the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses saw the Promised Land from this ridge and died here; his burial place is unknown. On a clear day you can make out the Dead Sea, the Jordan Valley and the hills around Jerusalem.
Meals: breakfast. Overnight: Amman.
Today has no monuments and no schedule. The shore of the Dead Sea lies more than 400 meters below sea level, the lowest dry land on the planet. The water is almost ten times saltier than the ocean, so you float without trying, and the dark mud along the shore has been used on the skin since antiquity. Bring swimwear and sandals, keep the water away from your eyes, and rinse off in fresh water afterwards.
Meals: breakfast. Overnight: Amman.
After breakfast you are driven to Queen Alia International Airport for the flight to Cairo, about an hour and a half. At Cairo International Airport our representative is waiting inside the arrivals terminal with a signboard. He helps you with the Egyptian visa and passport control, then takes you by private vehicle to your hotel. The evening is yours.
Meals: breakfast. Overnight: Cairo.
Your Egyptologist guide takes you to the edge of the desert, where the Great Pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure have stood for about 4,500 years. You hear how they were built and for whom, walk around the base of the Great Pyramid, and go down to the Sphinx beside Khafre’s valley temple. A ticket to go inside the Great Pyramid can be bought on the day.
After lunch at a local restaurant you cross to the Grand Egyptian Museum. Its Tutankhamun galleries display everything found in the tomb, more than 5,000 pieces, in one place for the first time, including the gold mask.
Meals: breakfast, lunch. Overnight: Cairo.
Cairo’s later history fills your last full day. At the Citadel of Saladin, begun in 1176, you visit the Alabaster Mosque of Muhammad Ali and look out across the city to the pyramids on the horizon. In Coptic Cairo you enter the Hanging Church, built over a gate of the Roman fortress of Babylon, and the Abu Serga Church, whose crypt is linked by tradition to the Holy Family’s stay in Egypt. A few steps away is the Ben Ezra Synagogue, where the medieval documents known as the Cairo Geniza were found.
The afternoon is for the Khan El-Khalili bazaar: spices, brass, perfume and a glass of mint tea in one of its old coffeehouses.
Meals: breakfast. Overnight: Cairo.
After breakfast you are driven to Cairo International Airport in time for your flight home.
Meals: breakfast.
| Travel season | Triple | Twin | Single |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 May – 30 Sep | $1580 | $1,640 | $2,790 |
| 1 Oct – 17 Dec | $1,640 | $1,730 | $2,940 |
| 18 Dec – 4 Jan | $2,185 | $2,300 | $3,910 |
| 5 Jan – 25 Mar | $1,640 | $1,730 | $2,940 |
| 26 Mar – 10 Apr | $1,950 | $2,050 | $3,485 |
| 11 Apr – 30 Apr | $1,640 | $1,730 | $2,940 |
Jordan 4-star Hotels: Kaya Hotel. Seas Hotel. Corp Amman Hotel. Rival Amman Hotel and more of the same category.
Cairo 5-star Standard Hotels: Safir Cairo Hotel. Sonesta Hotel. Ramses Hilton Hotel. Cairo Pyramids Hotel. Holiday Inn Citystars and more of the similar category.
