Petra Amman Tours — Frequently Asked Questions
Everything travellers ask before they book a Petra trip out of Amman, answered with the authority's own figures rather than an operator's. Where a fact is not published, you will find that said plainly instead of guessed at.
The questions below are grouped by what you are actually trying to settle: what you pay, how you book, how the day is timed, and what the walk itself asks of you. If you are still choosing a departure, compare the Petra tours from Amman side by side.
Tickets and what you pay
How much does a Petra ticket cost from Amman?
The Petra Archaeological Park charges 50 JD for a one-day ticket if you are spending at least one night in Jordan, and 90 JD if you are not. Two days cost 55 JD and three cost 60 JD, used on consecutive days. Children under 12 go in free during daylight hours. None of that is inside any tour fare on this list — Petra Amman ticket prices are settled separately, either at the gate or as a grade you tick at checkout.
Do these tours include the entrance ticket?
No. Every listed trip leaves the park ticket outside the base fare. Many of them sell it back to you as a booking option, which is often the easiest way to handle it, and the rest expect you to buy at the window or arrive with a Jordan Pass. Read the grade you choose: the words to look for are entry, entrance or admission.
Why is there a 50 JD price and a 90 JD price for the same day?
Because the park charges by where you sleep, not by what you see. A visitor spending at least one night in Jordan pays 50 JD; a visitor who leaves the country the same day pays 90 JD. The rule is aimed at day-trippers crossing from Israel and back, and it catches anyone flying in and out on one ticket. One night anywhere in Jordan saves you 40 JD at the gate.
Is the Jordan Pass worth buying?
Almost always, and the arithmetic is short. The Jordan Wanderer pass is 70 JD and covers a one-day Petra ticket that would cost you 50 JD on its own, plus entry to more than forty other sites and your tourist visa. Buy it before you arrive and stay at least two nights and the visa waiver applies. Explorer at 75 JD and Expert at 80 JD add a second and third day at Petra.
Can I buy the Petra ticket online before I go?
Yes. The authority sells tickets through its own online office, and a Jordan Pass bought before you arrive covers the same entry. Buying ahead saves you a queue at the window and lets you settle the fee in your own currency. Jordan Pass holders using the back route to the Monastery still have to present the pass at the ticket office first.
What is Wadi Rum's entry fee and is it in the fare?
The Wadi Rum Protected Area charges 5 JD for a foreign visitor, and a Jordan Pass covers it. No fare here includes it. Some listings quote it in dollars instead, at a figure above the published one; the authority's is the number to budget for.
What currency should I carry?
Jordanian dinars, in small notes, for the gate, the carriage drivers, the tea and the tips. Fares on this list are quoted in US dollars because that is the currency the listings publish. The park's online ticket office and the Jordan Pass both take cards.
Do I need a visa, and does the pass cover it?
Most visitors need a tourist entry visa, and the Jordan Pass includes the cost of it — on two published conditions: you buy the pass before you arrive in Jordan, and you stay a minimum of two nights. Check your own nationality's requirements with the Jordanian authorities before you travel, because the pass is a ticket product and not an immigration service.
Booking and cancelling
How far in advance should I make a Petra Amman booking?
Three to five days is comfortable in spring and autumn, when the road is busiest, and a day or two is usually enough the rest of the year. One three-day departure sells out more often than the others. Since almost everything here refunds in full at twenty-four hours, an early booking costs you nothing to change.
Can I cancel a Petra Amman reservation?
Almost every trip here refunds in full up to twenty-four hours before you travel. One does not: the transfers-only day is sold as a final sale, and its card says so. Check the policy line on the card before you pay, because the site-wide promise is not a promise about that one.
Are these tours private or shared?
Most of them are private, meaning your party travels alone in the vehicle. A handful offer both a private and a group grade at different prices, and one group option states a maximum of a hundred travellers. Vehicle caps on the private runs range from three seats to fifteen, and the cap is on each card.
What happens if my tour is cancelled?
Where the operator cancels — bad weather is the usual reason, and several listings name it — you are refunded. Where you cancel, the twenty-four-hour window on almost all of these trips gives you your money back in full. The transfers-only day is the exception and refunds nothing.
Can I be picked up from Amman airport?
Several departures state hotel or airport pickup in Amman, and one adds a surcharge for collection outside Amman city. It is a practical option on an arrival day, though a twelve-hour round trip straight off a flight is a long way to start. Confirm the pickup point when you book.
Are tips expected?
They are customary rather than compulsory, and several listings put gratuities in their excluded list to say so plainly. Carry small dinars rather than notes. Drivers on the long runs from Amman do a twelve-hour day at the wheel, which is worth remembering.
Timing the day
How long is the drive from Amman?
About three hours each way on the Desert Highway, which covers 235 km and is the road every one-day departure takes. The King's Highway is the scenic alternative at 274 km and four to four and a half hours, which is why only the three-day trips use it. Expect six hours in the car on a day trip, before you have walked anywhere.
How long do you actually get inside the site on a day tour?
Between three and seven hours, depending on the departure, and it is the number that separates one fare from another far more than the price does. Most one-day runs give you four or five. Three hours reaches the Treasury comfortably; five gets you to the Royal Tombs; seven makes the Monastery climb realistic.
Can you see Petra in one day from Amman?
Yes, and a great many people do — but you will see the front half of it. Four or five hours takes you through the Siq to the Treasury, along the Street of Facades to the Theatre and the Royal Tombs, and back. The Monastery is a climb at the far end of the site and needs most of a day on its own. If that matters to you, take a departure with seven hours inside or stay the night at the gate.
What time do the tours leave Amman?
Early. Most pickups run between 06:00 and 07:00, and one small-group departure states 06:30 with a thirty-minute allowance while it collects everybody. The park opens at 06:00 from 2 March to 1 October and 06:30 through the winter, so an early start buys you cool air as well as hours.
What are the opening hours?
The site and the Visitor Centre open at 06:00 and close at 18:00 from 2 March to 1 October, and open at 06:30 and close at 17:00 from 2 October to 1 March. The Little Petra ticket office keeps shorter hours in both seasons. The authority publishes no separate last-admission time, so plan around the closing time and the walk back out, which is uphill.
How hot does it get, and in which months?
June to September is the hard stretch, and the park's 06:00 summer opening exists for a reason: the first two hours are the only cool ones. Spring and autumn are the comfortable seasons and the busiest. Winter is cold, short on daylight and occasionally wet, which brings its own problem.
Can you do Petra by Night on a day trip from Amman?
No, and that is the clearest argument for staying over. Petra by Night runs Sunday to Thursday from 20:30 to about 22:30, and a day trip is already three hours down the road home by then. The Petra nights tours Amman travellers actually reach are the overnight ones, which put you in Wadi Musa on exactly those evenings. Tickets are 30 JD and you need a daytime ticket or a Jordan Pass as well.
Is Petra worth a day of a short trip to Jordan?
If you have three days in the country, Petra is the one to build them around. It is a carved city rather than a single monument, the walk in through the Siq is the reason people remember it, and 80% of the site is still unexcavated. The honest caveat is the driving: six hours of it on a day trip from Amman, which is why the overnight options exist.
Walking the site
Do I need a guide at the site, or is a driver enough?
A driver gets you there; a guide explains what you are looking at. Most fares here buy the driver only, and several sell two or three hours with a licensed local guide as an add-on at a stated price. Petra Amman guided tours are worth it if you want the Nabataean water system, the tomb sequence and the carving read out to you; if you would rather wander with a map, they are not.
Which trails need a licensed guide?
Four of the seven official trails may only be walked with one: the Ad-Deir Back Route, Ad-Deir to Kharubat Al-Fajjah, and both of the Beidha trails. The Main Trail, Al-Khubtha and the Ad-Deir Main Trail do not require a guide. Guided-only routes need to be arranged locally, not through a transfer booking.
How many steps to the Monastery, and how long?
The authority grades the Ad-Deir Main Trail as moderate and does not publish a step count, so no honest number can be given here. Allow most of a day for the round trip from the Visitor Centre, and treat any day tour with fewer than seven hours inside as too short for it.
Is Petra wheelchair accessible?
Partly, and some of the trips here state wheelchair and stroller access in the vehicle. The site itself is another matter: the approach to the Siq is a firm gravel track, the Siq floor is uneven, and everything beyond the Treasury involves sand, steps or both. Ask the operator what the vehicle can do and treat the walking as a separate question.
Can children walk Petra?
Under-12s enter free during daylight hours, which is a real saving nobody advertises. Whether they enjoy it depends on the distance rather than the difficulty — it is over a kilometre to the Treasury and the same back, on flat but unshaded ground. A departure with five or more hours inside gives you room to stop; a three-hour one does not.
Can I ride a horse or a carriage through the Siq?
Horses work the stretch between the Visitor Centre and the Siq entrance, and carriages run the Siq itself. Neither is included in any fare here and both are arranged and paid for on the spot. Agree the price before you get on.
Is there food inside the site?
There are places to eat inside the park and more in Wadi Musa at the gate, and almost no fare here covers a meal. One two-day departure includes breakfast, lunch and dinner; a few camps include dinner and breakfast. Otherwise carry something, because the walk between the entrance and the Monastery is long.
Does the Siq ever close?
It can. The Siq is a slot canyon, and heavy rain upstream puts water through it, so the authority closes the site when there is a flood risk. It is a winter problem rather than a year-round one. Book a fare that refunds and the risk costs you nothing.
What should I bring for the day?
Shoes you can walk several kilometres in, a hat, sunscreen and more water than you think. The site is stone and sand with very little shade, the walk in is over a kilometre before the Treasury, and the walk out is the same distance uphill. Carry small dinars for the gate if your fare does not cover it, and a card for the online ticket office if you would rather buy ahead.
What does a two-day tour include that a day trip does not?
A night in a Wadi Rum camp with dinner and breakfast, a two-hour jeep run through the valley, and the Dead Sea on the way back to Amman. It also changes what you pay at Petra, because a night in Jordan moves the ticket from 90 JD to 50 JD. What it does not include, on any grade, is the entry fee itself.
What do the three-day tours see that the others do not?
The King's Highway. Only the three-day departures take it, so only they stop at Mount Nebo, at Madaba and its sixth-century mosaic map, at the Dana reserve and at Shobak Castle. Those gates cost 3 JD, 3 JD, 10 JD and 1 JD, and a Jordan Pass covers all four.
Still deciding which Petra tour to book?
The comparison table lays every trip out by hours at the site, what the fare covers and what you still pay at the gate.
Petra Amman tickets are compared with the hours each trip gives you at the site, and the ticket arithmetic in full, including the Jordan Pass, is on visiting Petra from Amman. Petra Amman Tours keeps both in step with the authority's published figures.