Jordan Adventure

• Extra Night in Amman pre-tour - 3-star - UK£35

This option adds an extra night to the start of your tour, staying in the same hotel as the main tour itself (subject to availability at the time of booking). Your airport arrival transfer is still included.

• Single Supplement (CAJOJA) - UK£179

This option guarantees you a single room in all the hotels throughout the tour. If you are a single traveller, then you may share a twin or triple room with other single travellers of the same sex in the group. If we do not have any other single travellers available for you to share with at the time of your booking, then we will need to add this supplement to your tour price (this can be refunded to you later if other people book who you can share with). Couples will always be given a private double room.

• Aqaba snorkelling trip - UK£35

This option provides a 3-hour boat trip from Aqaba to some excellent nearby coral reefs where you have time for a swim and snorkelling. Transfers, lunch and snorkelling equipment are included.

• Baptism site at Bethany, and Ajloun Castle - UK£140

This tour takes in two important sites with very different but linked history. Your first stop is in the Jordan Valley, at a relatively recently excavated site believed to be the biblical ‘Bethany-beyond-the-Jordan’ where John baptised Jesus Christ. Several churches, caves and pools dating from Roman and Byzantine periods have been discovered here. Both Pope John Paul II, and Pope Benedict XVI have visited here. An electric minibus takes you from the visitor centre to your choice of one of three sites: Tell Mar Elias, the Baptism Pools and/or John the Baptist's Church. You can also walk between these, but the distances are quite long and the low lying land in the valley can lead to stifling temperatures.
Ajloun castle is an hour or so’s drive away, which involves a long climb up from below sea level up to Jordan’s highest point (around 1240m). The scenery in the region is beautiful with forested hills and olive groves. You can stop for a short walk in the Ajloun Forest Reserve if you wish. The castle itself is now partly ruined but is still huge and a very good example of an Arab/Islamic military fortress. It was built in AD 1184-1185 to control entry into the Jordan Valley, protect against Crusader attacks from nearby Kerak and Bisan, and to control nearby iron mines. There are many rooms, narrow passages and staircases to explore, and you can enjoy magnificent views over the Jordan Valley.

• Desert Castles & Azraq wetland reserve - UK£140

This tour heads into the desert to the east of Amman to visit some of Jordan’s ‘Desert Castles’. Really palaces, fortresses and bath houses rather than castles, many of these numerous sites are now in ruins, but still make for an interesting tour. We start with a stop at Qasr Hallabat, with its elaborate mix white limestone ruins from the 8th century, and some remaining black basalt stones from an earlier 2nd century Roman fort. There is also an old bathhouse about 3km away we can visit. Another stop is at the World Heritage Site of Qasayr Amra, another bath house, famous for its detailed and exuberant frescoes covering the whole of the interior. Our other main historical visit is to Qasr Hraneh, one of Jordan’s most impressive ancient buildings, visible for miles around.
You then visit the Azraq Wetlands Reserve which is an area of marshland and lakes once home to numerous water buffalo, wild horses, and hundreds of thousands of ducks and water birds which stopped off here on their migrations to feed, or over-winter and breed. Over the last few decades extensive draining of the lakes and aquifers has diminished the oasis, and the visitor centre gives a good explanation of the work being done to counteract this, and information about the extensive wildlife which still makes the reserve home. A boardwalk provides access through the reeds.

• Extra Night in Amman post-tour - 3-star - UK£35

This option adds an extra night in Amman to the end of your tour, staying in a 3-star hotel. Your departure airport transfer is included. If you would like to add more than one extra night, please make a note when you make your reservation and we will add them to your booking.

• Um Qais and Ajloun Castle - UK£125

Umm Qais is located around 110 km north of Amman and is the site of Gadara, one of the most brilliant ancient Greco-Roman cities of the Decapolis. There are extensive ruins, and you can see a large portion of the Roman Theatre as well as the main colonnaded street, the Terrace with a courtyard, church and a basicia. As well as these, there is a well-preserved Roman Mausoleum and the ruins of the Nymphaeum, a bath complex. There are great views over the Golan Heights, the Sea of Galilee, Tiberias and the Yarmouk River.
Your drive through this region of northern Jordan to Ajloun is beautiful, through wooded hills and olive groves. Ajloun castle is now partly ruined but is still huge and a very good example of an Arab/Islamic military fortress. It was built in AD 1184-1185 to control entry into the Jordan Valley, protect against Crusader attacks from nearby Kerak and Bisan, and to control nearby iron mines. There are many rooms, narrow passages and staircases to explore, and you can enjoy magnificent views over the Jordan Valley from the highest point in the country.