During my recent stay in Amman, I decided to see Petra for the first time and choose to do it as a day trip, since the ancient site is only a 3 hour drive from Jordan’s capital city. However, even my journalists’ research skills were unable to find online any updated instructions, phone numbers or locations for transportation for a Petra day trip. Without the benefit of staying at a hotel that could arrange the trip for me, it took me two days of asking around, calling the directory service, calling the bus company, and figuring out how to get to the bus company’s station before I was able to succeed in my trip. So here below I’m providing the instructions for travelers who have to arrange the trip themselves.
For a photo feed of the day trip described here, see Petra Day Trip Photos
While private taxis and drivers as well as service (shared taxi) lines are available during business hours to take travelers from Amman to the Petra ruins 3 hours south, the JETT bus schedule as of recently, allows the trip to be done in one day. The Jordanian Tourist and Transportation bus company rules the bus landscape in most of the country, offering professional, courteous service and clean, air conditioned, non-smoking buses to most common destinations from Amman.
Travelers wishing to go to or from Petra are advised to make reservations the night before. The JETT bus company number as of October 2008 is (locally) 566-4146. They asked me to come make reservations in person at the office, which I was unable to do, but fortunately I was able to get a seat (one of the only available) when I showed up in the morning. A round-trip ticket is 15 Jordanian Dinars.
Buses to Petra leave daily from Amman near the Abdali bus station at 6:30am. They return from Petra at 4pm in the winter, 5pm other times of the year. The trip takes about three and a half hours there, including a 30 minute break at a rest stop that offers food, drinks and souvenirs. The way back is slightly less, with a shorter rest stop.
If you’re not having arrangements made through a hotel, you’ll need to find a way to get to the Abdali bus station, where the JETT bus office is nearby. I called a private taxi the night before to arrange a pickup from the house at 5:45am. (You can try to find any taxi in town during the day who will agree to do a pickup for you on the morning you want to leave, or call a taxi office and make the arrangements, but my warning is to do this during daytime hours and not attempt it the night before or the morning of. I had a hard time finding a phone number for a taxi office that was open in the evening hours when I started to look).
Arrive at the JETT offices, just around the Abdali bus station, by 6 or 6:15am — if you haven’t made a reservation, the earlier the better — and buy your tickets.
The JETT bus offices near the Abdali station in Amman, Jordan
Read more details of the Amman-Petra day trip by clicking below:
During the first hour of the trip out of Amman, the bus leaves the city and the dwellings taper out to be replaced with spaced out simple stone shacks followed by a flat desert. Look out for bedouin campsites, sheep and the occasional camel.
About two and a half hours after departing from Amman, the bus turns right at a sign saying “Petra – 57 Kilometers.” It’s about 45-50 more minutes to the ruins. From the sign, the terrain changs into hills dotted with green spots of brush and the bus winds up and down the road through a couple of small towns. Shortly after, the great sandstone mountain formations appear from between the surrounding hills and you’re on your way into the ruins.
The sandstone formations of the ancient ruins of Petra appear from the road
The bus parks in a lot just outside the entrance, and the first stop is an area of souvenir and snack shops, restrooms and a visitor’s center. Buy entrance tickets here — as of Oct. 2008, the entry was 21JD and 1JD for Jordanians. There’s also a discounted price for students.
You can also get a guide from the visitor’s center for 25JD for two hours and 50JD for four hours. The guides are credentialed from the Jordanian Ministry of Tourism and assured to be fluent in the language of request and knowledgeable and accurate with their facts. My first experience in Petra was with another American woman I met on the bus, and a guide for whom we split the 50JD for four hours. While I can say I’m certain we got a far more educational experience and saw things we wouldn’t have noticed without the guide, the guide is also not necessary for navigation or enjoyment, and most people we saw were walking the road without.
A day trip will allow you about six hours between getting off the bus and getting back on to go back to Amman. Experiencing the sights begins with a 10-15 minute walk downhill past tombs and carvings until you reach “Bab al Siq,” or the entrance to the Siq gorge, a narrow walkway with soaring sandstone mountain cliffs surrounding visitors with vivid pinks, reds and the occasional blue and yellow swirls in the rock formed by natural erosion.
About 15-20 minutes of leisurely stroll through the Siq, past tombs, carvings and the remnants of the aqueduct built by the ancient Nabeteans who built this city carved into stone, one emerges to the indescribable experience of the Treasury and its pillars and carvings looming several stories into the sky.
Past the the Treasury into another siq-like path, you can find merchants selling souvenirs, glass bottles with colorful sand designs, and tea and other snacks. Don’t miss the amphitheater and the other tombs and houses carved into the mountainsides before it’s time to turn around and walk balk to the bus. Give yourself one to two hours to make the leisurely walk back up and stop at things you want a second look at, especially since the light is constantly changing the look of the sandstone.
If you share my curious and inquisitive tendencies, strike up a conversation with some of the incredibly well-cultured young men who work at the souvenir stands. Mostly bedouins from the local towns, many of these guys speak from three to seven languages from the exposure they get to tourists from all corners of the world, and had much to say when I asked them about the US presidential elections.
Also don’t be afraid to haggle politely for prices, as they’re sure to be inflated — that’s just the way things are here. And my advice is either avoid buying sunglasses from these sort of tourist traps in Arab lands (with my apologies to my fellow Arabs), or you can’t avoid it, try to pay about 1/10th of what they’re asking. No, those are NOT real Ray-Bans, in answer to a question I overheard a tourist asking a merchant who tried to convince him the worthless plastic sunglasses were more than $50US. I see that pulled a lot in Jerusalem and saw it in Petra, so had to throw it out there.
Make sure to get back to your bus on time, hydrate well any time of the year, and remember your beautiful memories as you ride the three hours back to Amman and leave behind this jewel of human culture.
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I’m traveling to petra, too, this summer, and I was wondering if you knew of a return route from petra to amman in the morning rather than the late afternoon. I would like to spend more than just 6 hours in the town.