Aqaba to Petra Day Trip - Private Tour from Your Hotel

Petra sits ninety minutes north of Aqaba, which makes it comfortably reachable as a day trip — and this private tour gives you the site without the coach.

Your tour leader collects you from your hotel in Aqaba, and you'll travel by private air-conditioned vehicle to Petra, founded around the 6th century BC by the Nabataean Arabs. They built a trading empire on the incense route and carved an entire capital into rose-red sandstone, with water engineering sophisticated enough to sustain a city in the desert.

From the visitor centre it's a 700-metre walk to the entrance of the Siq — a 1,200-metre gorge with walls rising more than 80 metres overhead. The Nabataeans cut water channels along both sides, and you can still trace them as you walk. The rock shifts through reds, oranges and violets as the light moves across it.

The Siq opens onto the Treasury, and there is no photograph that prepares you for it. Your local guide covers this stretch with you, explaining how it was cut, why it stands where it does, and what the carvings mean.

After your time at Petra, you'll walk back through the Siq and stop for lunch at a local restaurant before returning to your hotel.

Around nine hours, entirely private — your own vehicle, your own pace.