Pyramids & Petra

Tour description

This tour is ideal if you want to see the pyramids & sphinx and Egyptian Museum in Egypt, but concentrate mainly on Jordan. The tour starts with tours in Cairo before flying to Amman and touring the city and the Roman ruins at Jerash. After a day trip to the 'Desert Castles' we have a little time relaxing by the Red Sea before enjoying a short camel ride and a jeep safari in Wadi Rum. Next we tour of Petra and Little Petra and drive up the spectacular King's Highway past Kerak crusader castle and Mt. Nebo. The tour finishes with a night at a spa resort by the Dead Sea.

The tour starts in Cairo where we tour the majestic Pyramids and Sphinx at Gisa and Saqqara, and learn more about Egyptian history and ancient culture in the Egyptian Museum, home to a huge array of artefacts, statues, mummies, and of course, the famous Tutankhamum exhibit.

Other visits in Cairo include the Citadel, Coptic Cairo and the Khan-el-Khalali bazaar before we fly to Jordan's capital Amman to tour the city centre and visit the extensive Roman ruins at nearby Jerash.

Our next tour is a full day trip out into the desert to see the 'Desert Castles' and a desert nature reserves.

Leaving Amman, we head south to the Red Sea on the Desert Highway, stopping en-route to see the Roman mosaics at Madaba. We have some free time to relax at a 5-star beach resort in Aqaba where you can do some snorkelling or try a scuba-dive on an afternoon boat trip if you wish.

Our next stop is for a short camel ride, Bedouin lunch and a jeep safari amid the stunning desert scenery of Wadi Rum before we head on to Petra, rightly one of the world's most famous ancient sites. Here the Nabataean people carved their ancestral tombs into the beautifully coloured sandstone cliffs surrounding this inaccessible hidden city. In the evening, there is the chance to experience the Petra by Candlelight tour, when thousands of candles light up the Siq and Treasury. On your second day in Petra we visit Little Petra, and you also have the chance to revisit the main site to explore some more.

From Petra, the scenic King's Highway takes us through small rural villages, across deep Wadis to the Dead Sea with stops en-route to visit the crusader castle at Kerak and to admire the views of the Jordan Valley and into Israel from Mt. Nebo.

We have time on our last evening to swim in the salty waters of the Dead Sea. 

Extensions to the tour are available to visit the Baptism site at Bethany, or to do a short tour into Jerusalem and Bethlehem in Israel.

Note: This tour also runs alongside our Classic Egypt & Jordan tour in Jordan.