What should I avoid in Petra?

The worst mistake is the day trip: from Amman it is roughly three hours each way on the Desert Highway. Visitors who don't sleep in Jordan pay JOD 90 at the gate, about USD 127 at the current rate, while anyone staying overnight pays JOD 50. Day-trippers arrive at 10am with the tour-bus wave, shuffle through the Siq shoulder to shoulder, and see Al Khazneh behind a wall of selfie sticks. Sleep two nights in Wadi Musa instead. The Jordan Pass, roughly JOD 70 to 80 depending on how many Petra days you pick, covers entry and waives the visa fee if you stay at least three nights in Jordan, so buy it online before you land. At 6am the Siq is cool, the sandstone shows a faint rose colour, and the only sound is gravel crunching under your boots. Skip the Basin Restaurant buffet near Qasr al-Bint, too: it charges hotel prices for trays that have sat out, and a falafel wrap from a Wadi Musa bakery tastes better eaten on a rock below Ad Deir.

Say no to the animals. Your ticket includes a horse ride over the first kilometre from the Visitor Centre toward the Siq, and the handlers then often push for a JOD 10 to 20 tip, but that stretch is flat and gently downhill, so walk it. The donkeys on the 800-odd rock-cut steps to Ad Deir are the bigger problem: welfare groups including PETA have filmed lame, overloaded donkeys on that staircase, and the Petra Development and Tourism Region Authority's enforcement still looks patchy. On foot the climb takes 40 to 50 minutes. It smells of dust and dung, the steps are worn smooth and slippery, and the view from the Monastery plateau feels earned in a way a donkey can't give you. At Al Khazneh, a camel photo tends to cost JOD 5 to 10 once the handler has posed you, and what you end up paying rarely matches what he quoted.

The view of the Treasury from above is where most first-timers get hustled. Men near Al Khazneh will tell you the Al-Khubtha trail is closed or dangerous, then offer a private route for JOD 20 or more, but the Al-Khubtha path climbs from the Royal Tombs as a free, signed trail of about 45 minutes, with a Bedouin tea tent at the top that charges a small fee to sit at the ledge with a glass of sweet sage tea. Do not buy postcards or stones from children, a practice Jordanian authorities discourage because the trade keeps kids out of school. Women travelling alone report persistent flirting and sometimes a Bedouin romance that ends in a request for money. TTDI scores solo-traveler safety at 7.8/10 (see the TTDI Solo-Safety Index), and that reflects what happens on the ground in Petra, where the risk is pressure and overspending far more than violence.

Respect the Siq when it rains. A flash flood through the gorge in 1963 killed 23 people, most of them French tourists, and in November 2018 about 1,700 visitors were evacuated as runoff poured in from the hills above Wadi Musa. Flood season runs from October to March, and if thunderheads build over the Shara Mountains, get out of the narrow sections and climb to higher ground. Summer brings the opposite hazard. July middays pass 35°C on the exposed path to Ad Deir, so start that climb before 9am. On 16 October 2026 at 8pm, Wadi Musa read 18.9°C under clear skies, which is fleece weather once the sun drops. Petra by Night, held Monday, Wednesday and Thursday for around JOD 17, is overrated on a first visit: expect hundreds of people, phone flashes over the 1,500 candles, and a short music set in front of the Treasury. Save it for a third night.