Kimkim Trip Reviews for Jordan

Our trip to Petra and Wadi Rum was one of the most memorable, and it was very much thanks to outstanding planning by Andy. I was trying to communicate with local tour operators to schedule a very specific, customized private tour and was not very successful doing so. I ran into the KimKim team and gave it a shot, best thing I could have possibly done.

Our trip was surprisingly smooth, everything was scheduled impeccably and the itinerary executed flawlessly. Andy captured my vision, and delivered exactly what I was looking for. We started our day in Tel Aviv, visited Petra, and spent the night under the stars in Wadi Rum in a beautiful camp. The following morning we admired Wadi Rum and all it has to offer during the day. I also want to thank our Jordan-based driver, Ali, who was nothing short of amazing. He really made us feel very welcome and was accommodating to our needs throughout the trip. I was amazed at this hospitality and professionalism.

To Andy, Ali and the other local operators: thank you!

Overall the trip was great and all of us think that Petra was the highlight. It was a rush, but that's because we had time constraints and entirely our doing. Carmen is a great planner and was in constant contact & communication before and during the trip. My thanks to her. The guides were good and knowledgeable. Najeeb may have been a little overbearing but overall no complaints. They were punctual and helpful.

The Art Hotel (Downtown) was a great location and good place to stay and get a feel of life of the ordinary people in Amman. The Bedouin camp in Wadi Rum was below our expectations in terms of accommodation. However, the staff were excellent and the jeep tour in the desert was good. (Again I am not pointing any fingers as it was my choice for a 3 star accommodation, but if I may suggest a little more information about the accommodation during the planning stages would have helped).

We were not aware that we had to pay for towels & lockers at the Dead Sea Resort - an alert/info on this matter would have helped.

Overall, we were happy. Cheers.

I could write a book or a love song about My trip to the Jordan, a story and a song that will forever remain in my heart,

The trip started with kind Tamara who knew what I wanted and the places I wanted to visit, between Jerash, Wadi Rum, PETRA, and the Dead Sea,

At the Queen Alia airport, I was met with gentleman who had a sign with my name on it waiting for me, (sincere apologies don’t remember his name) in no time he arranged for my Visa, got my luggage and out of the airport,

Outside, I was met by a familiar face, the face of the Jordanian Hospitality, named Mohammad, I was transferred to his clean well air-conditioned, safely and skilfully driven vehicle, who realized coming from Canada, not accustomed to warm weather offered me cold water and made sure I was happy and comfortable, I felt right at home enjoying every bits of every place I visited

Later, I was accompanied by Mu’ath, a gentleman a guide-who, by his knowledge made the past alive in front of my eyes, thru Petra’s ancient ruins,

My trip to the Jordan exceeded my expectations, glad I left the booking to the professionals, (no headache, and never got lost :)

I left Jordan, it’s beauty and it’s kind people but the Jordan, a song will forever remain in my heart

Overall, our trip to Jordan and Israel was great.

Our journey to Jordan was well-taken care by Akram. He led us to many spectacular spots, which were unforgettable. He also shared Jordanian history and culture. The service Akram provided was exceptional.

We were particularly grateful to be arranged to accommodate in the luxury camp in the Wadi Rum Desert. Our camp was so luxurious and beautiful, which was beyond our expectations. The food was good. And our favourite part was hooka-ing under the starry night in the middle of the desert. This was an experience that we would never forget.

However, there is still room for improvements for hotels we lived in Jordan. While it was true that the rooms are spacious, they were not as clean as we expected. There was little hair on the pillow cover in one of the hotels that we lived which implied that the hotel did not wash their pillow cover for every guest they served. Moreover, Worst of all, our experience in the Dead Sea Spa Hotel was horrible. While they had a good buffet, we were disappointed with the attitude of their staff members. Our room lock was not walking initially and the hotel made a promise that it only took five minutes for them to fix it. However, it eventually took us two to three hours to wait for the response from the hotel, in spite of our repeated and kind request to the hotel to fix the lock. We only had one night in the Dead Sea area and much time was wasted in fixing the lock of our room. What a pity!

Moreover, we were advised to purchase a 2-day Jordan pass. It turned out that we only spent one day in Petra. Perhaps better communication should be made between different parties so as to save us some money.

For our journey in Israel, we are amazed by the choice of hotel, which were so fancy. Also, the group tours are generally good. The tour guides were humorous. Yet, there was one exception, our tour to Bethlehem was poorly arranged. The tour guide looked grumpy all the time. Worse, our tour was conducted in both English and Spanish. Since it was apparent that the tour guide was more proficient in Spanish, I and my friends felt neglected by the tour guide. The queuing arrangement in the church of Bethlehem sucked! People just pushed others, without order and discipline.

Moreover, it will be great if there were fewer 'shopping stops' in those group tours in Israel. Frankly speaking, we were not really interested in shopping and we found those compulsory stays in their assigned shops was quite annoying.

Thank you Lena for all the arrangments, we really appreciate that. Generally speaking, we had a good experience. Yet, there were still minor parts that Lena should take care of to further improve the quality of similar tours later on.

Guides were great, in particular Jerusalem guide. Drivers were great, Jordan driver was very funny/full of knowledge and you can tell he really enjoys his job. When we experienced a bad hotel and had to change in Tel Aviv, Walid was great. He assured us the company would reimburse us and that their first priority is to take care of customers. I will discuss the hotel in an email/further on this, was our only bad experience, but was quite bad, unfortunately. Hotels in Jordan and Jerusalem were great, and wadi rum was really great as well.

Tamara provided great service for the booking of our last minute trip.
Khalid was an amazing guide and took great care of us over the course of three days.

I want to say BIG Thank you to my wonderful agent Tamara, who I was happy to meet in Jordan, she did a excellent job to organize my trip. She was very welcoming and kind to me when we spoke in the office. I also want to say my special thank you to my guide in Petra, and my very big thank you to my guide and driver Bassam Helalat. Bassam is the best driver and wonderful knowledgeable person. With his help I was able to see and feel Jordan, meet amazing people and see unforgettable land-scarps. I miss you all, I miss Jordan very much. It was an honor to know you all. If I ever will have an opportunity to go to Jordan, I would be the happiest person in the world. My best regards to all team. Love you all.

We are back home after a great trip to Jordan, all thanks to Carmen. Carmen was always kind and quick in responding to our endless questions. She suggested an alternative itinerary to save some transfer time and it worked well for us. She was very accommodating to all our requests and changed the hotels to meet our requirements and budget. Our driver Audi was very cheerful, helpful and a kind person and we had a wonderful time with him. The whole itinerary was well planned, all the pickups and drops were on time and everything was perfect. We loved Jordan, the people and their hospitality. Altogether we had an amazing trip. We highly recommend Kimkim, Carmen and Audi. Thank you so much :)

Been there. Done that. Have the t-shirt to prove it.

That’s usually what people say when they have travelled to a place, or have completed a task.

Well two out of three ain’t bad, especially since buying t-shirts is not part of my aesthetic. LOL!

Instead, I’ll sit grinning madly with memories of the “been-there-done-that” when I flip through my passport, my gmail account or my phone photos.

Jordan was amazing. The people are amazing. The food is incredible. The history is epochtic. The landscape is jawdropping.

Ahmad was waiting to pick me up at the airport and from the-get proved to be the best companion for this five day trip that I could ever ask for. He was my driver, my dj, my translator, my dance partner, my diary, my sidekick, my smilemirror, my protector, my lunch partner, my tea connoisseur, my phototakeouter and the best tourguide that I’ve ever had on any of my travels.

On our many roads to cross journey, I was introduced to songs that I had never heard before! Music, dancing and laughter was our modus operandi. He even played an Arabic song that would become the songtrack of my trip – so much so that I made him stop the car so that I could get out and dance barefooted in the desert. I wish I remembered it now. He told me the name but I forgot. Needless to say I had F.U.N!

Unto Jordan.

I loved visiting Jordan. I loved it. It helped that I was riding a wave of happy. The visit to Jordan was the culmination of my one-a-year odyssey that I started in 2012, visiting one of the New Seven Wonders of the World every year. Jordan was the one that happened last and may arguably be the best visit for several personal reasons.

Considering its location, the country is pretty peaceful but mostly known for the ancient Nabataean city of Petra which was carved out of rock over 2000 years ago and is one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

The city is carved out of these massive towering boulders that occupy several complexes. There is one gate in and one gate out but you rarely ever repeat your steps; often every cornerturn yields a new and magnificent site. Its dramatic and astounding and the walls echo a remarkable history.

After you enter through the gate, you walk through what is called a Siq which highlights the way in which water was harvested and channeled throughout the city, the Siq opens you up to this massive monument called the Treasury. I got there at 7am, it was kinda cold, not many tourists were around, so I got to poke around, peep in, explore at leisure and have not too many people in my pictures. A few hours later, the place was crawling with tourists.

Then I took a different route to climb to the top of an adjacent mountain to see the Treasury from the top. After I dismounted one mountain, I began an epic journey of climbing 1000 steps to view the Monastery – the largest of Petra’s carved structures and an amazing monstrosity of a building. The symmetry of the structure built at a time when engineering was not what it is today, is a sight to behold and the views from on top of the mountain of the surrounding landscape were nothing short of amazing.

As I was making my way off of the mountain, possibly at the last one hundred steps, the sky got dark and it started to rain. I had my umbrella, so the torrential rain was hardly a challenge, but I got to see first-hand how the water is channeled through the gorges of Petra, and how the engineering actually worked. That in itself was an amazing sight. After a couple of minutes though, the water grew fierce. The guides started shouting “save yourself, run for your lives” as the water started swiftly collecting and gushing through the Siq. Not exactly what you want to hear on your travels! The Treasury was opened and tourists piled in as its higher ground provided security and shelter. Needless to say, no one died, the tourism authority trucked the tourists who were stuck far into Petra out. I walked out, but my sneakers never made the journey back. I lost them to Petra.

I called Ahmad to pick me up, I got home and changed and got to Petra Kitchen just in time for my culinary dinner tutorial on the food and delicacies of Jordan, myself and about 20 other persons cooked five courses and sat and ate them all. By the time I got home, I was spent but completely satisfied.

Over the next few days, I toured the enchanting desert landscape of Wadi Rum, where I camped out one night under the desert moon listening to a very silent night. I also visited little Petra, Shobak, the Dead Sea, Mt Nebo and Madaba. When I left Jordan, I felt such a connection with its people who at the drop, were less interested in me buying their wares, and were more intrigued to invite me for copious amounts of fragrant tea, have me sit with them as they tried to figure out from whence I came and laugh uproariously at their confusion of what the Caribbean is.

Jordan is a country of settlers and refugees in that many persons moved there from neighbouring states; and were forced to forge an identity out of a new landscape – possibly one of every three persons hail from a neighbouring country. Quite similar to what the Caribbean represents – it is a place that people make their own. I felt awed by the landscape which since biblical times had held such importance to the region and I felt moved by the culmination of my own insatiable desire to see the world as the world sees itself.

Oh, the joy of travel.

A friend recently reminded me of a response that I had given to the question of my travels, where is my favourite place in the world, and my response to him, is that I haven’t been there yet! That’s so me!

Now that the seven wonders are done, I need to see more. I need to travel even more. There is so much more to discover and so I wonder and I wander and I can’t wait to see where my wanderings take me to next!

My experience in Jordan would not have been what it was without my travel specialist, Carmen answering ALL my questions, working around my own plans etc., and just being accommodating! My driver, atef, was unbelievable. He was so gracious and kind and knew all the routes and gems of each place. My Bedouin guide, Ibrahim, who took us through Petra's backdoor to the monastery was wonderful. He was patient, helpful, and an overall great guide who showed us so many cool things along the way. From jerash, to the sites in Amman, to the absolutely magestic Petra, my husband and I had an incredible time. Petra by night was also such a beautiful experience. And driving along the dead Sea was really beautiful. It was thanks to Carmen's expertise, I was able to pack so much into my trip. I highly recommend working with this team! It'll make your life and experience that much better!!!! Thank you Carmen!

We loved our trip to Jordan! We saw everything we wanted to see at our own pace. It was the perfect blend of rest, relaxation and activity, all thanks to Lena, our kimkim trip organizer and Wael, our tour guide and driver, Wael. Lena was professional, answered all our questions in a timely manner and planned an amazing trip for us. She worked with us as we requested for numerous adjustments and changed itineraries. Thank you Lena for your patience!
Wael showed great customer experience. Super friendly. Kept us safe. Gave us the appropriate warnings at certain sites. Highly knowledgeable of Jordan. Always prompt. Drove extremely well through the changing terrain and crazy traffic. Introduced us to delicious authentic Jordanian cuisine. We felt like we were on vacation throughout the whole trip. No stress at all, like our other trips. Would highly recommend this trip to anyone! Thank you kimkim, Lena, Wael and Jordan for give us an awesome vacation!

We were very happy with all of the arrangements made by Kimkim. Our drivers and guides, both city and hiking were excellent . They were warm and welcoming and all went beyond the call of duty making extra stops where they thought appropriate. We learnt a great deal about modern day Jordan from them . Of special note were Fahdi ( Abu Hamza), Fawaz and Bilal. The hike from Dana to Feynan and from Little Petra to Petra were especially memorable and we will treasure our memories of our stays at the Dana Guest House and the Feynan Ecolodge . The home hospitality meal was a great addition to the itinerary. Thank you Andy for always keeping us informed of pickups and arranging the last minute drive to Amman from Aqaba.

We could not have been more pleased with the overall tour! Our driver was absolutely amazing!!! The tour, guides and the hotels were also top notch. We would definitely book with this company again! Thank you so much!!

My trip to Jordan was everything and a bit more from what I have expected :)
Carmen has provided me with an amazing service from the beginning and she was great accommodating all the places I wanted to visit in only 5 days, thank you so much for that!
Amman was very interesting and I really enjoying walking around the Paris Circle and getting lost on Circles 1 and 2... also on day 2 going to Mount Nebo and Bethany beyond the Jordan was a great experience, and needless to say that a pit stop by the Dead Sea it's always a great idea ;-)
Qusai my driver was super nice and flexible and always making sure to make pit stops to get me black tea with sage, water, sweets and the best falafel that I have ever had in the middle of nowhere on my way to Fernan Ecolodge.
I always wanted to go to Petra and I can only say that it was amazing! I am happy I spent 1 and 1/2 day there as this gave me enough time to do the back trail to the Monastery the first afternoon and enjoy the Trail to High Place of Sacrifice ( 4.5 hours and lots of steps) and the some other interesting spots on the second day.
I have really enjoyed my stay at the Feynan Ecolodge and the night at Khaled's Camp in Wadi Rum, to be honest, I never thought I would have liked to be in the desert as much as I did... Khaled is amazing and he even managed to get me on the hot air balloon the next morning, although I forgot to tell Carmen that this is something that I wanted to do and they were super flexible helping me with the payment, as I did not have enough Jordanian Dinars with me. Shukran again Khaled and Qusai :-)
Last but not least l couldn't leave Jordan without enjoying a beautiful afternoon in Aqaba relaxing by the beach sipping cocktails on the Red Sea...
By now, I hope you will drop Carmen a message for your personalized trip and go enjoy the best of Jordan! I am already looking forward to go back...

Great support by Andy. Local guide, Waleed, had very in-depth knowledge and was able to show us exactly what we were looking for.

I'm the Head of Content at kimkim, and booked the first half of my recent trip to Jordan with Andy from Experience Jordan. A major goal of my trip was research for original article ideas, and my criteria was challenging. Andy did an amazing job of curating unique activities in Amman and throughout Northern Jordan that lived up to my "off the beaten path" standards.

Two favorite memories come to mind from my trip. I loved the hike that Andy arranged in the Ayoun area of Northern Jordan, complete with a local guide and home-cooked Jordanian lunch. The day before my hike, the length of the hike had to be shortened significantly to accommodate a meeting I had later that afternoon. Andy was able to quickly make the change and worked with the hiking guide to find a shorter route that was still beautiful and enjoyable.

Andy also booked a tour of the winery facility at Eagle Distilleries, the oldest distillery in Jordan. It was so special to chat with the winery director, who was so passionate about his work, and to sample some of the best wines made in Jordan. These tours are now available to the public, and getting a sneak peek was a treat!

Thank you so much Andy for your incredible flexibility and responsiveness during my trip (and for making my border crossings from Israel so seamless)!!

I'm the Head of Content at kimkim, and booked part of my recent trip to Jordan with Carmen from In2Jordan. A major goal of my trip was research for original article ideas, and my criteria was pretty challenging. Carmen did an amazing job of curating interesting, unique, and immersive experiences that lived up to my "off the beaten path" standards.

One of my absolute favorite memories is from my time in Wadi Rum, the desert wilderness in southern Jordan. I was originally scheduled for an overnight "digital detox" experience, complete with private yoga sessions and sleeping under the stars (no tent!) in the middle of the beautiful desert. Due to crazy weather and some other unavoidable circumstances, this had to be canceled day-of. Carmen immediately got to work finding alternate options for me, and managed to book one of the very highly coveted bubble tents at Wadi Rum Night Luxury Camp (see photo). This was unforgettable - I felt like I was waking up on Mars!

Thank you to Carmen for being reliable and available during my trip, and quickly coming to my rescue with a fantastic alternative to my original plan!

Everything on this trip was great except for the mishap with the Visa situation upon our arrival and the pick up from the airport. Also, our last hotel was changed and the hotel didn't have a double bed option in the non-smoking room. My roomate and i had to share a bed.

If I were to do this again,

I would want more information up front from the guide about what has been paid for already and what hasn't.

Wonderful country and nice people.
We enjoy a lot and our trip was a great experience.
Good organisation, maybe just one driver had been better as a new one every day !
Thank’s a lot !