Petra Jordan: Tickets, Hours, Getting There
Petra is the reason most people book a Jordan trip, but it works best as one stop on a bigger loop, not the whole itinerary. Wadi Rum is ninety minutes down the road. Aqaba’s Red Sea coast is about two and a half hours south. The Dead Sea is three hours north, Amman three and a half. Plant your flag in Wadi Musa, Petra’s base town, and everything else in the country is a manageable day trip or an overnight hop away.
Key facts
| Price | 50/55/60 JD (1/2/3-day, overnight-in-Jordan visitors); 90 JD flat for day-trippers; Jordan Pass 70/75/80 JD |
| Hours | About 6am-6pm in summer, 6am-4pm in winter (last entry earlier) |
| Time needed | 1 full day minimum, 2 days to actually cover it |
| Booking lead | Jordan Pass online before you fly; Wadi Musa hotels weeks ahead in March-May and September-November |
Full site detail, the Siq, the Treasury, the Monastery climb, ticket tiers explained, lives in the Petra site guide . This page is about the logistics of fitting Petra into a wider Jordan trip.
How far is Petra from Wadi Rum?
About 110km, 1.5 to 2 hours by road, partly on unpaved sections near the end, so daylight driving is the safer call. It is the single most efficient pairing in the country: spend the day at Petra, drive to a Bedouin camp in the Wadi Rum Protected Area for the night, and you have covered two of Jordan’s headline landscapes without a wasted hour. Check Wadi Rum camps on Booking.com if you have not locked one in yet. Our 2-day Petra-Jordan itinerary walks through exactly this pairing hour by hour.
Can you visit Petra as a day trip from Amman?
Technically yes, on a 90 JD flat day-trip ticket if you are not overnighting anywhere in Jordan, but it wastes the site. The Desert Highway run alone is 3 to 3.5 hours each way, which leaves a rushed handful of hours at Petra and none of the Monastery. Overnight in Wadi Musa instead; standalone tiered tickets (50/55/60 JD) or a Jordan Pass both work out cheaper than the day-trip surcharge anyway.
Do you need the Jordan Pass just for Petra?
Not strictly, but it is worth it for almost anyone staying two or more nights in the country. It bundles Petra with Wadi Rum, Jerash and 40-plus other sites, and waives the roughly 40 JD entry visa fee, provided you buy it online before arrival. Confirm current pricing on jordanpass.jo before you land, since tiers and conditions get revised without much notice.
Getting between the stops
Desert Highway covers Amman to Wadi Musa in 3 to 3.5 hours over roughly 220km, the fast and dull option. King’s Highway takes 4.5 to 5 hours with stops at Karak Castle and Dana’s canyon views, daylight only. From Petra, Aqaba is 2 to 2.5 hours, Wadi Rum 1.5 to 2, the Dead Sea about 3, Amman 3 to 3.5. Jerash is best reached via Amman rather than direct from Petra; driving it straight from Wadi Musa burns 3 to 3.5 hours for a single stop.
Practical notes for the wider trip
Confirm entrance fees and hours for every stop before you travel on the official Jordan tourism board site ; prices move year to year. Pack for both climates in one bag: layers for cold desert nights in Wadi Rum, a swimsuit for the Dead Sea, and sturdy shoes for Petra’s uneven stone regardless of which other stops make the final route.