November 15th, 2019
It was complicated to figure out transportation to Jordan. Everyone here sells package deals to go to Petra but they are quite expensive and we wanted the freedom to be able to explore on our own and go to Israel afterward. There is a ferry from Egypt to Jordan and I was very surprised that it was $100 per person one way (and it was only a two-hour boat ride so it wasn’t that far). The owner of the hotel in Dahab was very helpful and suggested we take the bus to the Egypt/Israel border… walk across and then take a bus to the Israel/Jordan border and cross over by land versus taking the ferry. This actually went very smooth and ended up saving us almost $200 between the two of us and only took a couple hours longer than if we had taken the ferry option.
Our day started around 9:30am when we said goodbye to our friend Pascal and took a taxi to the central bus station in Dahab. From there we took a bus to the border town Taba. It was a beautiful, scenic ride up the Sinai Peninsula along the coast (there were a few stops for security checkpoints but not as many as coming to Sinai from Cairo). We were in a comfortable bus and I enjoyed looking out the window during the few hours on the ride. I find the bare, mountainess desert that backs up to the clear turquoise waters of the Red Sea to be very beautiful. I would not want to live in the desert as I know I need flora and trees to be a part of my environment, but the desert is a very pretty place to visit and like I said before, feels very exotic.
We passed many little beach huts where people could stay if all they needed was the sun and beach during their vacation (literally there was nothing else around… I don’t even know where they would get food).
When we arrived in Taba, we walked to the Israel border crossing (there are taxi’s waiting to take you but there is no need because it is only a 10-15 min walk). We had to pay a $1 departure tax leaving Egypt. The immigration office entering Israel was the nicest we had seen. It was a big building that went out over the Gulf of Aqaba with huge windows as their walls so you could look out over the water while waiting in line.
It was a long line as they are pretty thorough checking bags and such at the Israel border. A visa is not required to enter Israel from the US and they no longer stamp your passport so you don’t run into trouble going to other countries that do not like the fact you have been in Israel (this was good for us since we are almost out of room in our passports).
While waiting in the long line we met a nice man from Indonesia who was bringing a whole church group to Israel. He loved the fact that we were from the US and quickly made friends with Brendan. He was telling us all about how great Indonesia was and that we must come. When we reached the end of the line and it was time to say goodbye, he began giving Brendan money from Indonesia and his phone number saying that now we must come to spend the Indonesian rupiahs he gave us. Although the currency there is worth pretty much nothing compared to the rest of the world (the exchange rate is 0.000071 to 1 USD!) it was super sweet and an experience that made waiting in line worthwhile.
We finally made it into Israel and all of a sudden felt like we were back in the United States. Everything was very modern, and no more people trying to hustle us for money. We later learned that things in Israel are more expensive than in the United States, so being American no longer meant “we must have money” like it has been in most other countries we have traveled.
We took a bus into the city of Eliat and from the bus stop we walked about 25 minutes to the Jordan border. We had to pay a $30 exit tax from Israel to cross to Jordan even though we had only been there for an hour. However, it still ended up being a cheaper option than taking the ferry right from Egypt. We got a visa on arrival in Jordan and it was dark by the time we stepped foot on the other side.
We were not sure if we would stay a night in the coastal town of Aqaba before going to Petra by bus the next morning. But we were able to negotiate a fair rate for a taxi to take us all the way to Petra (about 2 hours from the border) so we made it all the way there in one day.
Right away we realized Jordan was much more expensive than anywhere else we have been on this trip. It was also the first country our dollar was weaker than their currency at an exchange rate of 0.71 Jordanian dinars to 1 USD. We had read that even though their dinar is worth more, it goes further but we did not find this to be true. We made it to Wadi Musa (the town where Petra is) and checked into our hotel which is walking distance from the entrance. We had a nice dinner at a restaurant down the street from our hotel as we were starving. During our long day of traveling there was never really a good spot to get food so we hadn’t eaten all day. We went back to the hotel and got ready for an early day tomorrow exploring Petra!
This is our story of how we were in three countries in one day. We could have gone 35 minutes more from Aqaba and been at the border of Saudi Arabia. The end point of the Gulf of Aqaba is really interesting as it is right where four countries come together.
Some final thoughts on Egypt is that it is definitely an amazing place. The history in Egypt is hard to comprehend and yet it has many amazing natural wonders too. I think the days of traveling Egypt really cheap are over (if you want to hit the main sites) as the mark-up on anything related to tourism is huge. The Red Sea was stunning and we really enjoyed our experience in the White Desert. The tourist hustle and scams (ESPECIALLY the taxi drivers) are quite bad. But what you get out of visiting this amazing place does make it worth it. I would definitely come back to do more diving in the Red Sea and also to do a Nile River cruise visiting Luxor, Aswan, and Abu Simbel (places we missed) for more Egyptian history.