We went to Jordan for a week during the Eid holiday.

We expected it to be a tiring holiday because of our young children and nature of the sites that we were planning on visiting. However, surprisingly it was very relaxing and we were proud of the kids for their independence and their ability to cope with the long travel hours and all the walking involved.

After staying overnight in Amman, we took the “scenic route” to Petra. The 300KM journey took about 8 hours because instead of using the desert highway, we used the smaller road network and stopped at many sites such us Mount Nebo (where Nabi Musa is believed to be buried), Karak castle, Madaba and saw some breathtaking scenery along the way.

After a good nights rest, we set of for the Petra site first thing in the morning. The site was literally next to our hotel (Crowne Plaza Petra).  Petra was simply awesome! The scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where they enter the Treasury  (Al-Khaznah) near the end of the movie has stayed with me ever since I saw the movie many years ago.  A feeling of excitement came over me as the Treasury slowly came into view as we traveled along the long winding Al-Siq passageway.

The Petra site is huge and there is no chance to cover the entire site even on multiple visits.

We decided to go to the main attractions so first up was the Monastery (Al-Deir). The monument is located on top of a mountain and the journey up the 850+ steps to get to the Monastery takes more than 1 hour on foot. With this in mind, we each rode donkeys to get up to the site and the journey still took about 45 minutes to reach the top of the mountain.

I think the donkey ride was the highlight of the trip for the kids. I was a bit concerned watching my kids riding the donkeys themselves on the steep mountain ridges but they were having the time of their lives.

After 2 nights in Petra we went to the Dead Sea and once again used the scenic route which passed through Tafilah. We had originally planned to stay 1 night at the Dead Sea but we liked the Movenpick Resort so much we decided to extend our stay by 1 more night.

Our last 2 nights were in Amman where we went on a tour of Amman and Jerash.

For more pictures of our holiday, please click here: