20 Mar 2023
Definitely recommend this trip if you're around the Tel Aviv or Jerusalem area and want to see Petra! The guide and driver we had were amazing and gave us the perfect amount of time at our stops between a guided tour and free time at the stop. The guide also handled customs/border control on the Jordan side which was very helpful! Also, in Petra, the guide said you can't get to the Monastery if you do part of the guided tour with him (and don't get a donkey). This isn't necessarily true - as long as you're a decent paced walker, you'll have time to get to the Monastery as I had plenty of time to do the Monastery and another trail with his guided tour.
A few recommendations to travelers looking to book this:
- try to only take a backpack and leave all other luggage at Abraham hostel. I'm not sure if the hostel will store it for you if you're not staying any other night, but having luggage will cause a headache on the Israel side of the border (a few others from another group were stuck for over an hour because of their luggage).
- Jordan side is very safe and accepts USD or Jordanian Dinar. Most places in Petra and service station stops will also accept Visa/Mastercard.
- Most toilets in Jordan do not have toilet paper - so load up on tissues (provided on the bus) or bring a roll in your backpack.
Only negative aspects of our trip or things I can recommend to Abraham tours:
- Make it so anyone in the WhatsApp group can message the group rather than only admins. We were joining a group to go back to Jerusalem/Tel Aviv and some of the other group was stuck in Israel border control for over an hour. Our drivers disappeared and we had no way to contact Abraham to get a status update or what the plan was to see if we could take 1 bus to Jerusalem/Tel Aviv and the 2nd bus to wait for the delayed travelers.
- It would be nice if the price of the tour included the entry/exit fees to Israel/Jordan. Just one less thing to worry about for travelers.