How to Visit Petra from Amman: Fees, Hours, Tours and Everything You Need to Know (2026)
The short answer. A one-day Petra ticket is 50 JD if you are spending a night in Jordan, and 90 JD if you are not. No tour fare from Amman includes it. The park opens at 6am in summer and 6:30am in winter. The drive down the Desert Highway takes about three hours each way, and the walk back out from the Treasury is uphill and over a kilometre long. Get those three things right before you book anything else.
Most people planning this trip start with the wrong question. They look for a Petra ticket price built into a tour, and do not find one. Then they assume something is being hidden. It is not. The Petra Development and Tourism Region Authority sells its own ticket, separately from every fare on this road. The price you pay for it depends on where you sleep, not on anything you do inside the gate. What follows is what a day actually costs, when the park is open, how you get south, and which tour shape fits the time you have. Every departure is compared with petra jordan tours from amman.
What does a Petra Amman trip actually cost?
Start with the gate, because it is the one figure every fare on this road leaves out.
| Ticket | Price | Who pays it |
|---|---|---|
| One day | 50 JD | You are spending at least one night in Jordan |
| Two consecutive days | 55 JD | Same rule, over two days |
| Three consecutive days | 60 JD | Same rule, over three days |
| One day, no overnight in Jordan | 90 JD | You arrive and leave the same day |
| Under 12 | Free | During daylight hours |
A full breakdown of what you pay at the gate covers the arithmetic on the Jordan Pass as well. The Wanderer pass is 70 JD, and it also covers your entry visa on two published conditions. For the right traveller, it can beat the ticket price outright.
Do the sums before you book. If your trip already has you sleeping somewhere in Jordan for a night, your ticket is 50 JD no matter which tour you book. If it does not, ask whether a Jordan Pass changes that math for you.
When is Petra open?
The authority runs two timetables and switches between them on fixed dates. Summer hours are 6am to 6pm, from 2 March to 1 October. Winter hours are 6:30am to 5pm. No separate last-entry time is published, so you plan backwards from the closing hour rather than from a cutoff nobody states. Petra by Night runs on a different clock again: five nights a week, Sunday to Thursday, from 8:30pm to about 10:30pm. You need a daytime ticket or a Jordan Pass before you can buy one.
No day trip from Amman reaches Petra by Night. The show starts after every one-day departure is already three hours down the Desert Highway toward home. If seeing it matters to you, look at a tour that keeps you in Wadi Musa overnight instead. See what the show actually is and what it does not cover.
How do you get south from Amman?
Two roads make the trip, and which one you take decides your itinerary. The Desert Highway runs about 235 km and takes roughly three hours. Every one-day departure uses it, because it is the only way home the same night. The King's Highway is longer, at about 274 km and four to four and a half hours. Only the three-day tours take it, which is why Mount Nebo, Madaba, Dana and Shobak Castle only ever appear on those itineraries. A JETT coach also runs from Amman at around 6:30am and reaches Petra by about 10am, with no fare published on the operator's own pages. Every way south, with the arithmetic on each, sets out what a coach, a private car and a guided tour cost you in time, not only in money.
Which tour fits the time you have?
- One day, and you want it simple: a straightforward day trip at $90, with the ticket sold as a grade you tick at checkout.
- One day, and you want Wadi Rum too: the combined day at $117, which trades an hour at Petra for two hours in the desert.
- You are already at the gate: a licensed three-hour guided walk at $75, for anyone who wants the carving explained rather than a long drive as well.
- You want the ticket to cost less: a two-day run at $249 that puts you in a Wadi Rum camp for the night, which moves your Petra ticket from 90 JD to 50 JD.
- You want the King's Highway stops too: a three-day tour that adds Mount Nebo, Madaba, Dana and Shobak Castle on the way.
The full set, grouped by shape, sits on the one-day page, the Wadi Rum combinations and the two-day tours.
What does your fare cover, and what does it not?
Read the fare the way it is actually built, not the way you would expect a ticket to be sold. The vehicle, the driver and the fuel are always in the price. The park ticket, and often two or three hours with a licensed guide, are sold as options you choose at checkout. Meals, tips and the Wadi Rum gate fee of 5 JD are almost never included. None of that changes what you actually walk through once you are inside: the Siq, the Treasury, the tomb facades, and on the longer days, the Royal Tombs and further.
What should you pack?
Shoes you can walk several kilometres in, a hat, sunscreen and more water than feels necessary. The site is stone and sand, with very little shade on the main approach. Carry small dinars for the gate, the carriage drivers and the tea stalls, since cards are only useful at the online ticket office. If a wet forecast lines up with a winter date, check ahead. The Siq is a slot canyon, and the authority closes it when there is a flood risk.
80% of the city has never been excavated, on the authority's own published line. That is worth remembering the first time you stand in front of a single carved facade and assume you are seeing the whole place.
For the season that suits you best, the month-by-month page sets out what the heat and the daylight do to a visit here. For everything else — accessibility, horses, the trails that need a guide — the full set of answers covers it in one place.
Ready to pick a day? The three below are the straightforward one-day answer, the Petra-and-Wadi-Rum combination and the overnight run that changes your ticket price; every fare is compared on Petra Amman Tours.
Ways to start a Petra Amman trip
From Amman :Private or Group Full day tour to Petra
The straightforward one-day answer, with the ticket as a tickable grade.
From $90 per person
Check Availability
From Amman: Petra & Wadi Rum Private or group Day Tour
Both places in fourteen hours, off-road time included.
From $117 per person
Check Availability
2-Day Tour: Petra, Wadi Rum, and Dead Sea from Amman
The night that moves your ticket from 90 JD to 50 JD.
From $249 per person
Check Availability