Originally Posted by
IAATM
I did the same thing (family of four) back in March 2020. We actually skipped the Negev and flew Arkia from TLV down to Eilat, then took an Uber to the border, walked across, and had an old beat up cab drive us to the Hyatt. It’s nice! Great breakfast, too. It’s not downtown, but in a new gated marina development. Still I recommend it.
Then we rented a car from a local Avis outlet in Aqaba, drive to Wadi Rum, parked in the lot overnight, and rode out to the encampment in the back up a pickup. Slept in the tent, ate the goat cooked in the sand pit, rode camels, and watched the sunset. All good and easy.
then returned to the lot in the aforementioned pickup, drove up to Petra, stayed at the Movenpick, walked through Petra for about 8 hrs.
then drive up to the Dead Sea, stayed at the Hilton, swam in the water, and returned the rental car next door at the Avis desk inside the Marriott.
then took an Uber to the border crossing, took the bus over the Allenby Bridge, entered Israel. Took the bus to Jericho, and then had a hostel owner from Bethlehem drive down and pick us up at the Jericho bus station, drive us to the hostel, spent the night, and toured the major Bethlehem sites with the hostel owner (who is also a tour guide).
the hostel owner dropped us off at the main bus stop in Bethlehem, and we caught the bus to Jerusalem. From there we walked to our hotel (YMCA).
After checking out, we took an Uber to TLV airport and flew home.
Great trip, all good, would do it again without reservations or concerns.
I've been reading about driving to Wadi Rum and Petra and I can tell that your experience is typical -- it seems pretty easy. And car rental costs are affordable in Jordan. Do you remember where you'd stayed at Wadi Rum? There are like 2 dozen listings on booking.com for camps there and people love them all. The "base price" for the camps is dirt cheap everywhere, but I assume they make their money on dinner and a tour. Seems hard to figure out the best choice (price/quality and activities you're interested in) without doing a lot of legwork -- too many choices with too little posted info on the web.
From Petra, we were going to turn around because I figured it would be much easier/cheaper to return to Aqaba to reenter Israel. But, everything else equal, we'd much prefer to do what you did and head north to a Jordanian Dead Sea hotel and cross at the Allenby Bridge (we'd get to see the Jordanian Dead Sea resorts and avoid an unnecessary return to Eilat). But it looks a little far to the bridge from the hotels -- and then you're only in the West Bank! How much was that Uber to the bridge? And what was the condition of public transport to Jericho? If I could pick up a new car rental on the Israeli side of the border it would be a no-brainer. And, btw, as a general principle, did you feel safe travelling around the West Bank, especially on public transport?