Tala Dabain

My compliments to all the support staff. From Abdullah our Bedouin guide to all the drivers, cooks and Wilderness Camp workers, they were all very kind, helpful and attentive to our comfort and safety

As for me, being an older, slower and more deliberate hiker, I found the terrain and heat more than I have ever experienced on previous hikes. I would like to do that trek over 10 days instead of 5 but that would be difficult from a logistical point of view. I was able to walk 2/3 of the trail but was happy to have the donkey or truck for the other 1/3. Gratefully, Mahadi was understanding and never made me feel that I was a burden.

Of course, the last 2 days, the hike to Little Petra and then to Petra were the highlight. Other than Machu Pichu I have never experienced anything like the hike from the Monastery and through the Siq to the Treasury. It was truly magnificent. The hardship of the trek was worth all that I learned about Jordan and its' people and customs. We all came away with a much greater understanding of the Middle East and the peaceful religion of Islam. It is very unfortunate that many politicians, for their own gain, paint Islam with a terrorist brush. It would be a better world if more Americans had the same experience we had.

There is a possibility that I will be returning to Jordan next April to work with a medical team at the Syrian Refugee Camp near Amman and I told Mahadi I would contact him and we would have a cup of tea together

Best regards
Bill Tedesco

This trek in Jordan as arranged by Tala and guided by Mahdi was a life-satisfying experience like none other. Hiking through the desert took me from modern times and troubles to the depths of where
it all began. Throughout the trek, our excellent guide showed professional competence and patience easily seen reflected in the faces of the people young and old in Bedouin communities we passed through. He was able to take us back in history to the Nabatean era to the present with ease and understanding. Our accommodations were comfortable and complete offering us the modern eco-friendly to the more primitive camping styles. My favorite times were having tea through the day, prepared in the way of traditional Bedouin tribesmen, as if to take timeout to remember to enjoy and experience the moment, a time that often is missed back home. Thanks to all who made this possible. I will never forget this outing nor those who joined me on this adventure!

The overall experience planning was easy and fast!

Tala organized an amazing trip. We visited the places we wanted to visit in addition to some places that she added to our trip and they were all worth it. Also she provided us with all the necessary information. She made sure that everything went as we wanted. Thank you for the great experience Tala! Also the driver we had with us, Ahmad, stopped us at some great views and took us to visit places on our way that we were interested in. The car was very comfortable. The overall trip was amazing, a great experience!

Almost perfect. There was a slight mismatch between our expectations on tour length and the expectations of the guide. Specifically, our request for a deeper dive into the historical details of sites above and beyond the usual time limitations of a fixed length standard tour was mis-matched with the guide's understanding that the standard tour length would suffice. I'm not sure where the communication could have been more complete and apologize if this is a detail that we missed somewhere in the exchanges. In any event, we raised the question with our guide and he was able to quickly clarify that he was hired for time-limited tours each day in line with the needs of regular tour customers. Overall, he was an absolute delight to work with and very impressive in terms of the depth of his knowledge clearly resulting from a deep personal passion for the history of Petra. Thank you!

It was not completely clear to us why our border crossings between Israel and Jordan were so far north and at such a remote border point. We guessed that it was due to the need to enter and depart by the same ports of entry and the relative time savings offered on the tail end of our trip when we needed to get to Haifa.

This is significant in part due to the remoteness of the Jordanian port of entry seems that it may have contributed to the delay of over an hour when the immigration officials withheld my visa stamp with no rationale or information on whether or not I would be permitted to enter Jordan.

It is very possible that the information was offered to one or both of us and we just missed it in which case I apologize. Thank you!

Everything met and exceeded our expectations. The guide was flexible, knowledgeable and friendly. If we asked for a change, we were always accommodated. Our plans were worked out and we had many great surprises and not a single bad one. Thank you kimkim and see you soon.

Rania our guide was amazing and our coordinator Tala was kind understanding and very very helpful.

Everything went according to plan, The drivers and the guide were all fantastic. Well done!