Westysclan World Cruise 2023

We arrived at the Petra entry gate at about 11am. The first part of the journey consists of avoiding the souvenir hawkers and the persistent locals who want you to ride one of their not very happy looking Arabian horses to the start of the Siq. The horse ride is included in the entrance fee but a US$10 tip is expected at the end of this very short, about 1km, ride and we had been warned against utilising this service for our own safety.

Additionally, to gallop past on a horse, would have meant missing these photo opportunities.

The next section of the journey is along The Siq (the throat) which is a narrow passage that slopes downwards until you reach the opening at the Treasury. Not only was this narrow passage used to defend the city, but channels carved into the walls were also used to channel water into the city.

This tour had been clearly advertised as strenuous, in part because of the walking involved but also because of the heat. Sure enough we weren’t very far into the Siq before the first tourists began to fall/faint with heat exhaustion. As hard as it was, we determined that today it was not our problem – there were guides and ambulances and we had been looking forward to this day for too long. It is possible to go from the entry gate to the end of the Siq by club car for an additional fee of US$50 return which would have been a good investment for some of our fellow travellers.

At the end of the Siq you are rewarded with your first glimpses of the Treasury.

With our guide setting a pretty brisk pace between commentary stops, it took us about an hour to reach this point. We then had 2 hours to explore the rest of the site on our own before returning to the Treasury and heading back to the meeting point – a hotel in the town.

There is a further section out to the Monastery but we didn’t want to risk missing the bus to go and see it! As it is an uphill walk back through the Siq and to the entrance gate we had been advised to give ourselves an hour and 15 minutes for the return walk. It didn’t take us that long fortunately! While it didn’t feel that steep as we went downhill, coming back the last uphill section was certainly a bit of an effort!