Great visit of Petra, English speaking visitor experience can be improved
The 24h day trip to Petra was very long and tiring with hours in buses, customs and boat.
It was well worth all the travel when we finally arrived in Petra.
The English speaking guide was very knowledgeable. We spent 3 hours visiting the Unesco sites. We did not do the short horse ride but walk the all visit. We had time to visit all the main sites and take many pictures. The walk in the canyons, the Tresury, the Roman Theatre... was amazing.
The down side of the experience (in addition to the long journey which we were prepared for) was the Russian speaking guide.
Our group was 2/3 Russian speaking and 1/3 English speaking. The Russian speaking guide seems to like the sound of his own voice as he monopolised the mike in the bus from Aqaba to Petra and back. He spoke most of the time leaving few occasions for the English speaking guide to give information. This was particularly annoying on the return journey as we were up for more the 17 hours and the constent Russian talk when you don't speak the language only resulted in giving me a migraine.
Also we did enjoy the visit of Petra which was on our bucket list, I would clearly remind the guides that they should be mindful of the various people in the group and not focus mainly on the Russian speaking ones.
Cecile_L · жовт. 2024 р. · через Viator
Long but excellent day
Fabulous day trip to Petra, the guide was excellent and interesting. The schedule was accurate and well organised including the ferry over to Jordan.
Anne_P · бер. 2024 р. · через Viator
Wonder of the world
The positives. You have to see petra at least once. Breath taking wonder.
The negative
24hrs to 25hr excersion from hotel pick up to drop off . Only 4 hrs tops in petra.
1. Even though they say pick up 1am from hotel. You willl wait on the ckuach at least 1hrs b4 starting the trip. (Picking all guests from hotels).
2. Then journey to port for ferry. Ferry will leave 8am. Once you get to jordan . Clocks go.forward 1hr . You lose 1 hr.
3. You will get to.petra about 12.30pm. Then guide will walk through down to the wonder . We had a good guide (ali - elderly dude). Once at the end near the amphitheatre. You have 1.5hr to explore and get back to coach at 4pm. THEN you will have lunch. .
Then do everything in reserve to get back to sharm. A massive journey. Would reccomend seeing petra if you acutely holiday in jordan.
There was 2 guides on our coach . One that spoke english and russian . And ali that spoke english.
Ali was not with us all the way. However the other guide that spoke on the coach ONLY catered for the russians . Spoke 15min in russian then 1min in engish. Half the coach was english speaking nationals
Near the the end of the coach trip i jordan . Only russian was spoken . Obviously for tips. I saw alot of hand shakes but no handing of monies. Next time include all your guests in your trip.
durshna_g · лют. 2024 р. · через Viator
Once in a lifetime experience
A really enjoyable trip to visit Petra which is a once in a lifetime experience. Our guide Karim was excellent and very knowledgeable. Was always on hand and went out of his way to put a smile on your face.
The only downside was the slight lack of information during the travel through Egypt with regards to what was happening (which bus to get on, why at certain points we had to wait etc)
However we would still highly recommend this experience if you can manage the long travel times
nath972019 · лют. 2024 р. · через Tripadvisor
I love Petra!
Everything was nice except a little moment. We had a guide until the ferry in Egypt and then in Jordan we had two guides-english speaker and russian speaker and we had two groups. In the end our guide left earlier and the other guide didn’t care about the people who speak english. We just saw the bus stopping and they started to leave one by one. We didn’t know that we arrived back to the ferry,as the Russian speaking guide spoke only in Russian language at the 🎤 in the bus. This it was not nice of the russian guide.
In the rest,everything was fine. I recommend the trip
emmafK4899PH · груд. 2023 р. · через Tripadvisor
Perfect 🤩
Well done planning. It takes 24 hours but very good planning. Thanks to our guide Ziad , very good knowledge about Petra/Jordan .Thanks to drivers and the other guides for taking care of all tourists. I was a little bit nervous about this trip in these days, but it was very safe. Petra was astonished, no words can describe the feeling, you need too see that.🙏🏻
Olimpia G · груд. 2023 р. · через Tripadvisor
Nice trip if more time given to visit Petra
The English guy was so slow we were not given time to visit all parts of Petra. A real pity because I believe with a better structure it could be done. Worst English guy ever!!!!
PedroJose_J · груд. 2023 р. · через Viator
Petra: intensive experience
Well organized guided 24h tour with very friendly and motivated staff. The guides are knowledgeable with good language skills.
Relax632839 · жовт. 2023 р. · через Tripadvisor
Petra is well worth the journey - The rude wake up call was disappointing!
I will start with the good, Petra from Sharm was well worth the trip - It is truly stunning, and the tour guides were fabulous, the knowledge and enthusiasm was amazing and really made the day.
Travelling for 24 hours flew by, as there was so much to see even during the drive. Lunch was fab, and there were enough toilet and drink stops (remember to bring your own money for these) Everything was so well planned, and ran to time. You are well taken care of throughout the whole journey from Sharm through to Petra and back, especially if you are a solo traveller.
Watch our for the 'Bedouin Boys' at Petra, if you want to get that special up high shot of the Treasury they will extort you in any currency to take a picture on the rocks. And will become quite rude and taunting to you, which makes you feel uncomfortable. Otherwise the ground team at Petra are very helpful!
Where this trip was let down, was the very rude phone call I received at 1:55am from the Sharm bus guide, telling me I had to come to reception now, I was holding up a whole bus. This was a shock to me as the confirmation message of pick-up time from the tour operator stated I would be collected at 2:50am which I was prepared for. I asked for 15 mins to do essentials, was told I had to get there quicker, of which I did so as not to miss the trip - No apology to me for the provided pick-up time being incorrect, I showed the confirmaton message from the operator, and no follow-up from the tour operator offering an apology either.
This was not a good start to this trip, and really left me quite discombobulated and with concern of how the rest of the day would unfold.
Selina_A · вер. 2023 р. · через Viator
Place you must see with one's own eyes
It was great experience for me.
Actually, I was really worried before the tour, but it was pretty good when I started the tour, and the moment I saw Petra with my own eyes was fantastic, and the English guide was really kind and explained well. I went to the Kunapa restaurant he introduced me to, and it was the best Kunapa in the world🤤🤤🤤🤤 so I hope you guys try it😆😆
Heesu_Y · бер. 2023 р. · через Viator
