We are just finishing of our 13 day tour of Jordan with Jordan Horizon tours (JHT). It was a very last minute plan and we booked our tickets only 10 days prior to our visit. We will give my review in 5 parts - planning, itinerary, visa and immigration, accommodation, transport and guides.
Right from the time we emailed JHT about our plan to visit Jordan, Mohammad from their team shared his WhatsApp number for communicating further. He has been very responsive to all requests and gave some great suggestions to build up the itinerary for 2 weeks according to our interests. Our arrival and departure was from Aqaba. After doing some research and some tips from Mohammad, we decided to customise the 11 day Jordan panoramic tour itinerary which can be found on JHT's website. Once the itinerary was set, he sent us out a detailed description of each day's activities, and our accommodation to confirm everything was set.
We started in Wadi Rum where we spent 2 days in a Bedouin camp of which we spent a day hiking the highest mountain in Jordan the Jebel Um Ad dami. From Wadi rum we went to Petra to spend 2 more days to explore the city. From Petra we visited Dana Biosphere Reserve where we spend 2 days and 1 night at the Feynan Ecolodge. These two days we did two of the most amazing hikes you can do in Jordan - the Wadi Dana trail and the Wadi Ghuweir trail. After Dana we headed to Amman visiting the Karak Castle, Madaba and Mount Nebo on the way. We then spent 3 days in Amman exploring the cities of Amman, As Salt and Jerash, visiting the ruins in Umqais, the desert castles and Shaumari wild life reserve. From Amman we headed to the dead Sea to spend a day, staying at the Ramada Resort. After the dead sea, we went back to Aqaba to spend our last 3 days. We were planning to spend time on the beach and do some snorkeling or diving but the weather isn't great for that so we are basically chilling out in the hotel the last 2 days before heading back. There are a lot of blogs online which describe how incredible these places are so I will keep it short saying words will feel a lot less once you have experienced it.
As we arrived in Aqaba airport, we were met with one of JHT's agents with a placard with our names on it. We skipped the queues as he took us through the visa and immigration which was pretty much smooth sailing. In no time we were out of the airport on our way to the hotel on Aqaba.
Our accommodation in Amman (larsa hotel) and petra (tetra tree Hotel) were 3 star. Our hotel in Aqaba (Al Raad hotel) was supposedly a 3 star but we think it was more of a 2 star as the WiFi connectivity was poor and didn't have coffee / tea in the room. They were all of high cleanliness standards and the hotels in Amman and Petra also had great pool and fitness facilities. The breakfast in all hotels was also very nice.
The Ramada Resort in the Dead Sea is at least a 4 star if not better. Excellent room with a balcony view into the dead sea, a private beach on the dead sea, excellent pool, spa and jacuzzi and a lavish selection of breakfast.
The bedouin camp in Wadi Rum was also decent considering we are in the middle of a desert. Clean tents and common toilet facilities. Food was exceptional!
Feynan Ecolodge is ranked as one of the top 25 eco lodges in the world. So I probably don't need to say much - don't miss out on staying at this place which emulates energy efficiency, nature conservation and empowering local communities to the highest standards. The stargazing and moon watching experience through their telescope and the vegetarian meals they serve are hard to beat.
We were pretty happy with the choice of accommodations JHT booked us.
We were driven around the country in a Toyota Camry and where needed (e.g. Wadi Rum desert, Dana off road paths to hiking points etc.) we were transferred to 4x4 vehicles. All transport was comfortable and great efforts were taken to ensure there is always enough water bottles available in the car/jeep. The Camry also had a Wi-Fi thanks to our guide about whom you will read more below.
The best is always saved for the last - The people! We might run out of superlatives to describe our guides who turned our experiences into memories that we will never forget. Our main guide for the trip was Hisham Hale. Hisham was with us through out the trip barring the last 2 days in Aqaba. A funny guy, down to earth, very safe driver, punctual, loves his country to the core and goes the extra mile to help people and ensure tourists have the best experiences in his country. He was alo very proactive to check the weather and flexible to amend the itinerary according to the weather vs activities. Hisham took us to his friend's place in his home town of Petra to spend an evening with the locals and enjoy a sumptuous home cooked Jordanian specials. He took us to some of the best local restaurants (not very expensive but delicious food) in each of the cities we visited and always had fruits in the car for us. He also took us to good places to buy handicrafts and dead sea products. As our trip ended, he took us out for a meal and he left us with some sand art and local crafts as gifts for us. Hisham is much more than just a guide!!
For our hikes, Hisham arranged us a bedouin guide, Suleiman Hassaseen. He has an exceptional skill of keeping people engaged in conversations and with him hiking 16km over 5 hours seem like a walk in the park. His knowledge, his life style and the experiences he carries are commendable. He also invited us to his bedouin tent for tea. Despite his minimalistic life style where electricity is also a luxury, he is one of the happiest persons we met in Jordan.
We were certainly left overwhelmed by these two guys.
We had 2 other guides, Mahmun for showing us petra and Mustafa for showing us Jerash. They were very knowledgeable about these sites and gave us some great insights into history and archaeology of these places.
On the whole JHT have give us exceptional service and some fantastic friendships along with the great experiences Jordan has to offer for its tourists. We would highly recommend them to anyone.