I undertook a two day private tour, guided by Omar, to visit Petra, Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea in early October 2023, overnighting in Wadi Rum (as part of the tour package). The tour cost roughly £500, which was a lot of money (but I understood that this would be an opportunity to see some once-in-a-lifetime sights and was encouraged by the positive reviews that I read on Tripadvisor.
To be clear upfront, this ‘tour ‘ was not worth the money, and I would warn others against booking it. Whilst it followed the itinerary advertised, it did not warrant the high cost and did not meet my expectations at all. I’ve provided further detail below with the hope that you can understand my criticisms with this tour.
Firstly, this tour was advertised as having an English speaking driver. Whilst Omar did speak some English, this was very limited and he was often unable to answer my questions. In addition to this, Omar did not provide any background information to the sites we visited or much detail on the itinerary (so I was dropped at each site with an abrupt “this is x, you have y amount of time here”). This meant that the experience didn’t feel much like a tour (and I could have just as well have hired a car and done the journey myself or booked a taxi to do this, as Omar didn’t add anything). Whilst driving between sites, Omar frequency used his phone, ringing and answering calls from people (in Arabic), over the car’s Bluetooth; this was unprofessional and meant that the journey wasn’t even relaxing. We also made several stops at ‘rest stops’, which seemed to be souvenir shops at the side of the highway. At several of these, Omar subsequently disappeared for 20-30 minutes to ‘make a phone call’, leaving me with very little to do (and disappointed that we were wasting time at a rest stop instead of utilising that time to enjoy Petra/Wadi Rum/the Dead Sea). Each time Omar disappeared, I had to text him to tell him where I was (as I was concerned by the amount of time that he disappeared for).
In terms of the sites we visited, Petra was amazing (but I had to purchase my own ticket to access the site - utilising the Jordan Pass). The ‘tour’ did not provide a guide around Petra, and Omar dropped me a little far from the main entrance (so I had to walk to/from here before my Petra visit and afterwards). I was given three hours at Petra, which wasn’t enough time to properly enjoy it (and was less time than I was expecting, given the itinerary on the tripadvisor page referenced more time). It was shame that this felt rushed when we then subsequently wasted a lot of time at rest stops (outlined above). The Dead Sea was also enjoyable, those the resort that we visited (the Ramada) was a rough and ready, with a lot of visitors. Again, I was only given two hours at this site to visit the Dead Sea and have lunch.
Wadi Rum was also very interesting. In terms of the 4x4 Jeep Tour aspect - this was not private (as I’d have presumed), but shared. The accommodation in Wadi Rum was disappointing, with the ‘deluxe tent’ being a cloth covered concrete block which was well in need of an update. The shower area was disgusting (dirty, with discarded shampoo bottles). Soft drinks at the ‘camp’ cost 4JD (roughly $5 USD) each, but we were not told this until we left (ridiculously, we were invited to help ourselves to drinks during dinner and then were told that they cost money the next morning, when a member of staff stopped around at each ‘tent’ to request payment - this seemed to annoy everyone staying in the ‘camp’). Whilst staying at the ‘camp’ we were also hassled to take a camel tour early in the morning, several times, whilst eating dinner.
My final criticism would be that, on top of all of the above, Omar spent much of the tour trying to sell me extra ‘upgrades’ or other tours. Despite me telling him that I had plans for Saturday, he told me to cancel these and said that he would provide me with a tour of Amman (to be clear, I did not ask for this and had to explicitly say no to it several times). I was also offered ‘upgrades’ of additional stops during the tour itself - including at Mount Nebo - which we drove past. It was disappointing that this couldn’t have just been offered as an additional free stop (as we drove past it, and I had already paid so much). These several attempts to upsell me on other tours and additional stops made me disappointed, and it was not professional.
If you’ve read this far, you’ll have gathered that I did not really enjoy my time on this tour and would not recommend it. If you do want to visit Petra, Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea, DO IT ON YOUR OWN in a hire car and renting a room in a hotel in/near Wadi Rum and DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY OR THIS TOUR! Safe travels!