We did a private two day tour from Tel Aviv to Petra. There are a lot of logistics on both the Israel and Jordan side that were all coordinated smoothly and timely. This was a great way to see Petra on limited time and it was beyond amazing. The 5 star hotel accommodation was very nice and our tour guide at the Petra site was very knowledgeable. A few tips and things that were not explained well: Remember to bring cash for tipping. If you are doing a private tour your driver from Israel will not be the same driver in Jordan (regardless if you are on a group tour or private). Tourist Israel has the border crossing very well coordinated, it will take approximately 45mins to cross the border. You will take different transportation on the Jordan side but all coordinated through TI and straightforward. For the private tour the driver in Jordan will drop you off at a tour agency in Jordan that will keep your bags and take you to the Petra site and introduce you to your tour guide. You return back to the Jordan tour agency and they coordinate transportation to your hotel and back in the morning. The hotel they use is Old Village Resort which is about a 5 min drive from the Jordan Tour experience. They will also coordinate your transportation back to the border where you will meet with TI on the other side and have your transportation back to TLV for you. Knowing this information will hopefully save you some of the questions and anxiety I had about the trip.
Thank you TI for the wonderful experience, I have already booked another tour to the Dead Sea with you for this same trip!
Don't do it. Just don't do it. I don't even have the mental energy to recount how horrific this experience was. This company is cheap and transparent with its attempts to scam you.
A few examples, on day 1, it took four hours to cross the jordanian border. The email claimed a representitive would there to help us. There was no one. We were alone and with zero instructions and no one to reach out to. Because of this delay, we didn't get to visit 2 of the three sites we were supposed to see on the first day. Also, scam number 1, lunch is included on the first day. But then the tour guides tell us that lunch is bad and not worth it and we should go to the restaurant at the first site. Obviously he gets a commission if we eat there. But because we were stressed abuot time we opted for the included meal. It truly was terrible. piece of bread with probably 25 grams of chicken rolled in, grapes that had dirt on them, and warm unseasoned cut tomatoes and cucumbers. We were also suppsoed to recieve dinner that evening at the hotel - which we didn't because we only arrived at 12:30 at night because of all the delays. Everyone was shown to their room and then my boyfriend and I were told actually we were in a different hotel. Ok, strange. We drive to the other hotel - where they then tell us no, you're at the original hotel. We were finally in our room at 1:30 am, hungry and exhausted.
The next day was Petra. Petra is impressive and the only reason the trip wasn't a complete throw away. During the tour, the guide shared with my boyfriend and I that the operations manager for Tourist Israel had called him 8 times on Wednesday (two days before the trip) begging him to do it because they had no one. The guide said after the whole experience with them thus far, he would never work with them again. After Petra, we had our first real meal of the trip LOL. There, Salah, the operations manager for Tourist Jordan told us he was there for anything we need and how was it going so far. When we shared with him our experience to every point he had a shut down and an excuse and it was very clear he didn't actually care to hear. One girl had to actually ask him to allow her to finish her sentence he was so rude.
That night we stayed at the beduoin camp which is perfectly fine. We were looking forward to the two hour jeep tour the next day of Wadi Rum. We should've know it would be just as dissappointing. Instead of driving around and hearing about the desert we were driven and stopped every 5-10 minutes at identical looking bedouin tents selling the same trinkets as each other. At this point, our entire group was jsut ready to go home. We actually contacted Salah and asked him to move the shuttle up earlier on the Israeli side so we could leave early. When he said it wasn't possible we looked into public transportation but because of the holiday it ended early and we were stuck. So we said ok, we'll make the best of our last afternoon in Aqaba. WHAT A JOKE. When we arrived, the guy who met us there straight up told us that 7 hours is waaaay too much time to spend in Aqaba but that he could arrange a private beach for us, for a price of course. We were all so infuriated at this point. They literally built the trip to make money off of you. With no options, we asked the guide for a restuarnt recommendation. We said authentic Jordanian. He sent us to Papaya, a bright yellow retaurant. Sounds super authentic, no? As our group arrived at the entrance, suddenly we see the guide already there holding a menu ready to explain to us. One more minute and I was sure he was going to start taking our orders.
In conclusion, please please please do not waste your time and money on these thieves. I thought I was doing myself a favor by removing all the headache of planning a trip like this but in the end, you are so much better off putting your hard earned money towards an experience that will be memorable, for the right reasons.