Days 1 & 2, Wednesday & Thursday - Depart for Amman, JORDAN

Journey accommodations begin with the hotel night on Day 2. Check-in time is approximately 3pm.

Included meal services begin with Breakfast on Day 3.

Leave your home city for Amman on Wednesday. Upon arrival on Thursday you will be met at the airport and transferred to your luxury hotel.

Amman, a bustling city of two-million people, spread over 19 hills (or jebels) is known as the White City because all its buildings are finished in the local white limestone. Amman is the modern, as well as the ancient, capital of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. While much of it has been built over the past 50 years, significant archaeological remains give testament to this ancient city’s place in history. Recent excavations reveal that Amman was inhabited in the early Bronze Age, and is mentioned in the Bible as the capital of the Ammonites around 1200 B.C.

Day 3, Friday - Amman & Jerash

This morning travel out of the city to Jerash, which boasts an unbroken chain of human occupation dating back more than 6,500 years. Most archaeologists agree that the soldiers of Alexander the Great founded Jerash around 332 B.C., although the site was informally occupied from Neolithic times. It is said to be one of the best-preserved Greco-Roman provincial cities in the Middle East. Hidden for centuries in sand before being excavated and restored over the past 70 years, Jerash is a fine example of grand, formal provincial Roman urbanism, with paved and colonnaded streets, soaring hilltop temples, handsome theaters, spacious public squares and plazas, baths, fountains and city walls pierced by towers and gates. You will see the enormous oval-shaped Forum, the Temples of Zeus and Artemis and the Street of Columns.

This afternoon return to Amman where you will visit Citadel Hill and the Jordan Archaeological Museum. It contains antiquities dating from prehistoric times through the 15th-century, Umayyad artwork, Iron Age coffins and examples of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Citadel Hill offers a view across the Old City and is the site of the ruins of the Temple of Hercules, the Umayyad Palace (an Arab castle dating from the 7th-century), a Byzantine church, and the remains of Roman walls. At the foot of the Citadel, carved into the hill, lies a 6,000-seat Roman amphitheatre resembling a deep-sided bowl, and which is still used for cultural events today.

Day 4, Saturday - Amman, Madaba & Petra

This morning’s trip along the 5,000-year-old Kings´ Highway is one of the most memorable journeys in the Holy Land, passing through a string of ancient sites. The first city you encounter is Madaba, or "the City of Mosaics." Known for its spectacular Byzantine and Umayyad mosaics, it is home to the famous 6th-century mosaic map of Jerusalem and the Holy Land. With two million pieces of colored stone, the map depicts hills and valleys, villages and towns as far as the Nile Delta.

You will also visit Mt. Nebo, thought to be the burial place of Moses. It was from this point that Moses was permitted to view the Promised Land. You will see across the Jordan Valley to Jerusalem, over the Great Rift Valley to the Dead Sea.

The Kings' Highway winds through the picturesque, shallow Wadi Wala Valley, then plunges more than 2,000 feet into Jordan's miniature Grand Canyon, the Wadi Mujib (or the Arnon of the Bible).

Visit one of the crusader castles before arriving in the ancient rose-red Nabataean city of Petra. It was the fulcrum of the ancient world’s spice and incense routes. A city securely hidden in encircling mountains, it is one of the most unique travel experiences in the world.

Day 5, Sunday - Petra

Petra lies on the edges of the mountainous desert of the Wadi Araba. The city is surrounded by towering hills of rust-colored sandstone, which gave it natural protection against invaders. Arguably Jordan’s most famous attraction, it is an extraordinary and compelling sight.

Carved from sandstone cliffs by the ancient Nabateans in the 3rd-century B.C., it was forgotten for 1,000 years and only rediscovered in 1812. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Petra has captivated the imagination of many an adventurer, explorer, historian and archaeologist. Today you will explore this fascinating hidden city, set in a canyon where the only entrance is a half-mile-long, narrow chasm (or siq), the walls of which soar upwards over 650 feet. Begin your excursion by horseback, and continue on foot to the exquisite facade of the Treasury, the Corinthian Tombs, and for those adventurous types, a climb to the Monastery.

Petra's most famous monument, the Treasury, appears dramatically at the end of the siq. Used in the film "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," the towering facade of the Treasury is only one of a myriad of archaeological wonders to be explored at Petra. Walks and climbs reveal literally hundreds of buildings, tombs, baths, funerary halls, temples, arched gateways, colonnaded streets and haunting rock drawings – as well as a 3,000 seat open air amphitheatre, a gigantic 1st-century monastery and a modern archeological museum.

Day 6, Monday - Petra & Amman

Today you will drive directly back to Amman, about a three-hour journey. You will have the afternoon at leisure to explore more of Amman or to do some shopping. This evening enjoy farewell cocktails and a dinner party with your Travel Director and fellow sojourners to reminisce about this incredible journey.

Day 7, Tuesday - Depart for Home

This morning you will be taken to the airport and depart for home or on to your next destination.

Journey accommodations end with the hotel night on Day 6. Check-out time is approximately 11am on Day 7.

Included meal services end with Breakfast on Day 7.

NOTE: The Daily Itinerary above is subject to change dependent upon local conditions and/or operational changes or improvements. The specific times and order of inclusions within each destination may also be altered to best accommodate unscheduled closures, special events, weather, traffic, etc. Please contact your Vacation Planner before scheduling any coinciding appointments. You will receive an updated itinerary approximately 30 days prior to your journey’s scheduled departure date.