King's Highway: Madaba to Petra

Madaba to Petra, central highlands · Jordan

Moderate6 daysAsia~£900 est.

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Overview

Traders, pilgrims, Nabataeans and Crusaders have all used the King's Highway, and Jordan's slow road south remains the finest way to reach Petra — a ridge-top route between the desert plateau and the Dead Sea rift, punctuated every hour by something extraordinary. Start in Madaba with its Byzantine mosaic map of the Holy Land and the view over the Jordan Valley from Mount Nebo. Then comes the drive's great set piece: the kilometre-deep plunge and climb through Wadi Mujib, Jordan's Grand Canyon, the switchbacks pouring you down one wall and up the other. Kerak's crusader halls smell of cold stone; further south, sleep on the rift edge in Dana village, where stone cottages hang above a biosphere reserve running from juniper highlands to sand. Shobak castle and the quiet carvings of Little Petra set up the finale — Petra itself, entered early, before the heat and the crowds. The variables: hire in Amman and treat the Mujib bends with patience rather than power; winter storms occasionally close the high sections with snow; the Jordan Pass swallows Petra's hefty ticket if bought before arrival; and Dana's guesthouses book out, so reserve. Six days, around £900 per person.