How much does Petra cost per day in 2026?

Budget $50 (hostel dorm + local food + Jordan Pass entry amortized over 2 days), midrange $140 (3-star hotel in Wadi Musa + restaurant meals + Petra by Night), luxury $300+ (Mövenpick Resort Petra + private Bedouin guide + vehicle transfers from Amman). The Petra entrance fee is the single biggest line item on any budget here. A standalone 1-day ticket costs 50 JOD ($70), which is more than most backpackers spend on everything else combined. The Jordan Pass at 75 JOD ($106) bundles your visa-on-arrival fee (40 JOD) with 2 days of Petra entry and access to 40+ other Jordanian sites. If you're flying into Queen Alia International and would pay the visa fee anyway, the Pass drops your effective Petra cost to about 17.5 JOD ($25) per day over 2 days. Buy it online before you land. The 3-day Pass at 80 JOD ($113) is worth it if you want to reach Ad Deir, which sits 800 steps above the basin and needs a full morning on its own.

Wadi Musa is the only town next to the Petra visitor center, and every bed within walking distance knows it. Hostel dorms at places like Rocky Mountain Hotel run 8-12 JOD ($11-17) per night, but check whether breakfast is included or tacked on at 3 JOD ($4) extra. Some budget hotels advertise 15 JOD ($21) rooms that balloon to 22 JOD ($31) after service charge and tourism tax show up at checkout. Ask for the all-in price, written down, at check-in. The Mövenpick Resort sits across the road from the Petra gate, and rooms start around 120 JOD ($170) in shoulder season, dropping to 90 JOD ($127) in January. Worth noting, the town is steep and hilly. If your hostel is on the far side, you'll climb 15 minutes uphill in 35°C heat after a full day of walking 12-15 km inside the site. Pick accommodation within 500 meters of the visitor center if your legs matter to you.

Eat in Wadi Musa town, not inside Petra. The Basin Restaurant near the Monastery trail charges 12-15 JOD ($17-21) for a buffet lunch that tastes like it sat under heat lamps since morning. Lukewarm hummus, rubbery chicken, stale pita. In town, a plate of mansaf at Al-Arabi Restaurant costs 4-5 JOD ($6-7) and arrives on a bed of rice generous enough to carry you through the afternoon. Falafel sandwiches from the stands near the mosque run 0.5-1 JOD ($0.70-1.40). A shawarma wrap costs 1.5 JOD ($2). After dark, the smell of roasting lamb fat and cardamom-heavy tea fills the main road. Budget 5-8 JOD ($7-11) per day if you stick to local spots. That said, bring your own lunch into Petra. A packed sandwich, two liters of water from a Wadi Musa shop at 0.25 JOD per liter, and a handful of dates will cost under 2 JOD ($3) and spare you the captive-audience pricing inside the site.

Water is the quiet budget killer inside Petra. Bedouin vendors along the Siq and near Al Khazneh charge 2-3 JOD ($3-4) per bottle. You'll drink 3-4 liters on a summer day when the sandstone radiates stored heat from every surface and shade barely exists before 3 PM. That's 6-12 JOD ($8-17) on water alone if you buy inside. Camel and donkey rides to the Treasury or back from the basin get quoted at 10-20 JOD ($14-28), and the negotiation starts the moment you look tired. These are not fixed prices. Petra by Night, a separate 17 JOD ($24) ticket running Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, lines 1,500 candles along the Siq floor toward Al Khazneh. The candlelight bouncing off the narrow rock walls is worth seeing, but 17 JOD is steep on a backpacker budget. Little Petra, 9 km north of Wadi Musa, is free and has carved facades similar to the main site with a fraction of the crowds. The Neolithic site at Beidha, dating to 7500 BC, sits 1 km beyond it.

Getting to Wadi Musa from Amman costs 10 JOD ($14) on the JETT bus departing 7th Circle station at 6:30 AM. The ride takes 3.5 hours through dry plateau that smells like diesel and warm dust. From Aqaba, a shared taxi runs about 10 JOD ($14) per person, 2 hours along the Wadi Araba highway. Once in Wadi Musa, everything is walkable. No day-passes to consider, no metro, no tuk-tuks. Inside Petra you'll cover 12-20 km depending on whether you push to Ad Deir. Bring broken-in hiking shoes, not sandals. The fine gravel and loose rock inside the Siq shred anything flimsy by noon. Current morning conditions sit around 22°C with clear skies, but expect 35°C+ by mid-afternoon in June.