A trip to Petra & the Dead Sea

After my incredible holiday to Zanzibar, I still had some days of leave left. I didn’t want to stay in Dubai when I have such a great opportunity to get cheap tickets and travel, so my friend Sally and I decided spontaneously to go to Jordan!

Our plan was to visit Petra and the Dead Sea.

Our first stop was Amman airport. After a 3 hour delay due to a technical fault on the plane, and a 3 hour flight, we finally arrived!

In a bid to save a bit of money, we decided to get the public bus to Petra. After a rather squashed, very long journey, we finally arrived in Petra! Our original plan had been to visit Petra in the afternoon, but due to the flight delay and long bus journey, we were a bit later than planned.

The next morning we were up bright and early ready to explore!

Our hotel was just a couple of minutes walk away from the entrance to Petra, and we paid our entrance fee and grabbed a map. The fee includes a horse ride to the beginning of The Siq (which is a high gorge just over 1km long at the beginning of Petra) so we were very excited to get on the horses!

At the entrance to the Siq, you realise just how huge and impressive it is. We wandered through, stopping every few minutes to take pictures!

At the end of the Siq you turn a corner and the stunning Treasury comes into view.

The Treasury (or “Al Khazneh”) is one of the most elaborate temples in the ancient city of Petra. It was carved completely out of the sandstone rock face, and is around 40m tall. Very impressive!

After admiring it for a while (and taking plenty of pictures!) we wandered down the path to see the rest of Petra. What we didn’t realise is just quite how big the whole place is!

Some of the rocks we saw had such incredible, vibrant colours, we couldn’t quite believe that it was all natural.

Everywhere we looked, there were beautiful carvings and natural rock formations.

We decided to hike up to see The High Place of Sacrifice.

It was quite some hike! There must have been hundreds of steep steps, and every few minutes bedouins would pass with their donkeys. They offered us rides on the donkeys but we weren’t quite sure how the poor animals would have carried us up all of those steps!

Once we finally reached the top, we climbed up onto a rock to look hundreds of feet down to the gorge.

On the hike back down we realised just how stunning the view had been from all of those steps!

Before long it was time to head on to our next stop. We’d spent almost 5 hours exploring the beautiful city of Petra, and hadn’t even come close to seeing all of it. We’d wanted to see the Monastery, but it’s a bit of a trek at over 900 steps up. One for next time!

After a quick stop back at the hotel to pick up our things, we were off to the Dead Sea!

Our taxi driver told us it’d be around a 3 hour drive, and he took us through some of the most gorgeous scenery on the way.

Some of the roads were super windy, and we nearly started to feel a bit sick!

Our driver stopped off to show us the edge of the Dead Sea, and you can really see just how salty it is.

Once we arrived at the hotel, we were ready for some relaxation! The sun was just beginning to set and we went for a lovely swim in the infinity pool. Most definitely needed after all that walking in the morning!

The next morning, the weather suddenly turned and we were woken up by rain instead of the beautiful sunshine we’d had the day before! So we decided to enjoy a leisurely breakfast, and luckily the rain cleared up in time for us to head down to the beach.

We decided to try and see if you really do just float in the Dead Sea – and you do! We stepped in and the minute you lie back you literally just pop up to the surface, a very strange sensation!

Of course we had to take our books in for the pictures 🙂

After our refreshing dip in the very salty sea, it was time to slather ourselves in mud.

The hotel has people working on the beach who are ready with big buckets of mud, to cover you in it head to foot.

Quite a fun experience, that’s for sure! We went back for another dip into the sea, and as we were rubbing off the mud, my skin has never felt so smooth!

There was just time for one last dip in the pool before it was time to get ready for our transfer to the airport.

We had the most relaxing stay at the Dead Sea, and it was so incredible seeing the beautiful ancient city of Petra. I hope that I ever get the chance to go back, I’ll have a bit more time to explore the rest of Petra that we didn’t get to see.

Thanks Sally for such a lovely little holiday! 🙂

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