Transport to petra

Hi I am new to cruise critic I am enquiring about the cost of a taxi from aqaba to petra the lost city . We are traveling on the sapphire princess leaving Singapore 28th Mar. I am interested in anyones thoughts on the best way to get to petra cheers Tony

Hi Tony, & welcome to Cruise Critic.

This is a stop where picking up transport on-the-fly is difficult & probably not cost-effective.

There are no locally-booked coach tours that suit a cruiser's circumstances or time-scale.

The port at Aqaba is a secure area (no walking and no un-booked taxis permitted to enter) so you'd need to take the port/ship shuttle to the gate or the couple of miles into town, & negotiate with taxi drivers. That's also kinda tricky because many have poor or nil English and some don't want to take fares to Petra, which is over two hours away.

And if you choose that option, do check out the entrance fee to Petra - it's steep, so what might appear to be a bargain taxi fare compared to ship's offering won't work out that way.

We did it, but couldn't find sharers (our first port-of-call, & everyone had already booked ship's tours). For the two of us, the taxi plus admission saved us £2 over ship's coach tour - but theirs included a guide & a sumptuous buffet lunch in a 5-star restaurant whereas ours included only a muddy cup of roadside coffee

If you are four or more, DIY on-the-fly may provide a saving.

Or cost you more, or you may lose out entirely. :eek:

So I wouldn't recommend it anyway.

I know that a few cruisers pre-book private excursions, and hopefully you'll get a recommendation or two.

If not, I suggest you bite the bullet & book ship's tour. If guided tours aren't your scene you can break away once you're through the ticket office, do your own thing, and get back to the bus / lunch / whatever at whatever time the guide / courier says.

We're inveterate DIYers, but there are occasions when it's not the best option.

This is one of them.

JB :)

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

JB has given you a lot of good information.

I have done this twice privately but had the cruise line make the arrangements for me on board the ship.

Let me suggest that you post this on the Ports Of Call Board Forum dedicated to the Middle East and Africa to see if someone has a recommendation to do it privately.

The drive is about 90 minutes each way.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=-1&f=32

Keith

As mentioned, I would also try the port of call forum.

Have you joined the Roll Call for your cruise. We have done a small group tour to Petra from Aqaba. There may be someone there planning a tour and looking for others to join.

Thank you for posts I will check out the roll call forum