My wife and I will take a college alumni tour of Jordan next March. We plan to leave Amman after breakfast on the 16th, go to Aqaba, cross to Eilat, rent a car and spend about a week in Israel.

Question: How do Jordan experts recommend getting from Amman to Aqaba? We're U.S. citizens, speak no Arabic, older but with no physical limitations, and not afraid to try new things or get off the beaten tourist path. Costs is a consideration but not necessarily an overriding one if a much-better option costs a bit more than another one. We wouldn't want to stop to see anything en route, since we will have seen those places during the previous ten days.

Some of our questions:

- It takes about four hours to drive from Amman to Aqaba. Does that also apply to public transportation, or do busses make a lot of stops en route?

- Will there be enough time to complete the border crossing if we get to Aqaba in mid-afternoon?

- RJ has two flights a day, which are inexpensive to start with and for which we could use AA miles, but one is at 7 am and the other doesn't arrive until 6:30 in the evening. Does that pretty much rule out flying?

- Other thoughts? Any and all are welcome!