Explore Petra from the other side

If there’s one site you have to explore in Jordan it as to be Petra. The rose city carved out of the rock is truly spectacular. Unsurprisingly it’s Jordan’s most popular tourist site and can be very busy. It’s also a huge site and there’s not much shade. We reckon we walked 10km on a typical day exploring. So, go prepared – wear good walking boots or shoes, take a hat, cover up, use sunscreen. Hungry kids tend to want to eat at the most random times, so some snacks like fruit and energy bars along with a big bottle of water should be in your bag too. We booked a three day pass and it’s highly recommended. This allows you time to really experience it rather than just dashing around in a day. Day one we just walked in through the main entrance and wandered around – we walked all the way to the Monastery and back which was over 10kms! Day two we hopped on the free shuttle bus to Little Petra around 20 minutes away (you don’t need to pay for a taxi!). From here you can pay for an official 4×4 transfer to the start point for the hike in via the rear entrance. The hike is a bit strenuous – kids need to be confident walkers as it takes a good hour or nd there are lots of ups and downs. The views are spectacular, there’s hardly anyone around, and you arrive at Petra at the iconicly majstci Monastery which is well worth visiting twice. If budget allows you could also book to do Petra by Night – when you see the most famous temple the Treasury, lit up by thousands of candles. It is a bit touristy though and it’s not cheap.  

Learn to dive

The Red Sea coast around Aqaba offers relatively shallow, very clear water and fairly decent coral. It all adds up to a great place to learn to dive. It’s not as cheap as Egypt or Indonesia, but the quality of the gear and the standards of tuition, along with the easy diving conditions mean it’s great fir learners. You can dive straight offshore which is really handy. We based ourselves at Tala Bay around 45 minutes drive south of Aqaba. This worked really well as most of the good dive sites are very close by. People staying in Aqaba tend to be driven or boated down to this part of the coast to dive anyway. More expwrienced divers will be super happy too. The King of Jordan is said to be a really keen diver and maybe that’s why the authorities have created an amazing underwater playground of sunken tanks, helipcopters, and even huge aircraft wrecks to explore. It really is truly remarkable. But many of the wrecks are quite deep, so you need to be a fairly competent diver to explore them. Joe did his pool dives and theory for the PADI open water certification here in the UK before we got there. This meant he could do his four open water dives straight away and get his certification. There’s even a shipwreck at less than 18 metres which meant a couple of his qualifying dives took place on a wreck!