The Nabatean cultural village — Local services in Maan

Petra was even more astonishing than I had imagined. We spent eight hours hiking, starting at the entrance, making our way to the Monastery, and then taking the free trail to see the Treasury from above—it was absolutely breathtaking.

We brought our own food and water, which was essential for the long trek. The entrance fee was 30 JD for holders of an Arab passport. In total, we walked 15 km and climbed the equivalent of 154 floors.

If you’re visiting, be sure to use sunscreen, as it gets quite hot. I also recommend wearing layers if you’re starting early—we began our hike at 7 AM, and while it was chilly at first, it became very hot as the day went on (this was in...

Frustrating… the shuttle from the Visitor’s Ctr was just an unmarked SUV. I was skeptical, but it worked fine. No request for $$$. At the village, the 4x4 in the parking lot is only “for the visitor’s ctr”, even though it looks exactly like the one “for the monastery.” Which drove off to go to the supermarket so the driver could get cigarettes (mimed by the other driver). Sat around for 45 minutes for no good reason.

Total transfer time from Visitor’s Ctr to the trail in late morning, including waiting time for other passengers to buy tickets, etc? Just about 2 hours. Lots of unnecessary BS....

Walk past where you think the bus goes from up the road. There you will sit on a bus for an hour until it fills up. Then a long ride to the expensive cultural village, followed by 15 minutes there and then 20+ back to Petra visitors centre. Absolutely not worth it. Pay the money and get the club car back up from Qasr al Bint to save yourself a lot of time, walking uphill without shade, and frustration (they kept saying we were going and then...