Aqaba, Jordan

[Wayfairers]

We’ve been to Aqaba before for an ON stop and saw Petra and Wadi Rum.   We are going to be there on the HAL Grand Africa this fall and  on the HAL World 2024.  Both are ON stops.    I’m thinking one stop we may go to the Dead Sea.  Any suggestions on things to do or experiences with private tour guides?

[John Bull]

The Dead Sea is easy from an Israeli vacation or overnite cruise, close to places like Jerusalem and with other sights like Herod's fortress at Masada.

But folk who' did the coach trip from Aqaba were unimpressed. Long & boring drive, access to the Dead Sea at a resort hotel, long & boring drive back.

If the Dead Sea is on your bucket list and you don't think you'll have another opportunity, go for it. But if you can, put the Dead Sea on the back-burner for a future visit to Israel.

 

We've had two overnight visits (doh - I've just cottoned-on to your "ON" 🙄)

Second time round ........

- we didn't visit the Dead Sea, even though at that time we'd not been there from Israel.

- we repeated Wadi Rum because it was inexpensive and fun.

- we looked round Aqaba. Took all of 20 minutes.

- we'd considered visiting Eilat, but transportation was uncertain - taxi to the border, walk thro the border, pray that there'd be a taxi on the Israeli side. Also a question whether our passports would be stamped in Israel, creating possible future problems (not stamped at Israeli sea-ports). So we just got our driver to take us to see the border & turn round. If you're prepared to research better than us, Eilat might be an option.

 

JB 🙂

[Wayfairers]

Thanks for the very helpful info.  Long and boring drive doesn’t sound too appealing.   I’ll look into it more before booking.  
 

We will be visiting Israel for the first time on the 2024 HAL World.   Don’t think the tour we are on goes to the Dead Sea but I’ll check.  

[John Bull]

16 hours ago, Wayfairers said:

 

We will be visiting Israel for the first time on the 2024 HAL World.   Don’t think the tour we are on goes to the Dead Sea but I’ll check.  

 

if this is on Zuiderdam, it has a full day in Ashdod on Fri April 19th and next day in Haifa (10.30pm departure).

So - depending whether you have other priorities from Haifa - you could spend the friday and overnite in Jerusalem, then Dead Sea and Herod's fortress at Masada  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_5isCkT3T0 on the saturday (or vice-versa) and re-join the ship in Haifa - under 2 hrs from Jerusalem by road, The late sailing gives you stax of wiggle room for delays and/or time to visit places like Tiberias or Cana or Nazareth.

Be aware that the saturday is the Sabbath in Israel, and that affects public transport and car rental but not taxis etc.

 

JB 🙂

 

[Wayfairers]

5 hours ago, John Bull said:

 

if this is on Zuiderdam, it has a full day in Ashdod on Fri April 19th and next day in Haifa (10.30pm departure).

So - depending whether you have other priorities from Haifa - you could spend the friday and overnite in Jerusalem, then Dead Sea and Herod's fortress at Masada  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_5isCkT3T0 on the saturday (or vice-versa) and re-join the ship in Haifa - under 2 hrs from Jerusalem by road, The late sailing gives you stax of wiggle room for delays and/or time to visit places like Tiberias or Cana or Nazareth.

Be aware that the saturday is the Sabbath in Israel, and that affects public transport and car rental but not taxis etc.

 

JB 🙂

 

Hmmmmm….I had read that there are some places (Palestinian areas I believe) that if you have the wrong tour guide you won’t get through checkpoints.   Because of that I had chosen to use a ship tour.    Having never been there I just don’t know.  Thanks so much for your input….have you heard about having issues accessing some areas?

[John Bull]

23 minutes ago, Wayfairers said:

Hmmmmm….I had read that there are some places (Palestinian areas I believe) that if you have the wrong tour guide you won’t get through checkpoints.   Because of that I had chosen to use a ship tour.    Having never been there I just don’t know.  Thanks so much for your input….have you heard about having issues accessing some areas?

 

 

Yes, that issue involves just a few parts because they're Palestinian-controlled.

It includes Bethlehem - tours which visit have to switch to a different  guide at the border A quick google brought up 

https://www.getyourguide.co.uk/tel-aviv-l487/jerusalem-and-bethlehem-full-day-trip-from-tel-aviv-t22202/

(Scroll down to "know before you go").

 

We rented a car for our two days in Jerusalem & Dead Sea, and our research had shown that we couldn't enter Jericho in the rented car so we simply avoided it. We weren't interested in Bethlehem.

From Ashdod we drove across the Negev Desert, past Beersheba, round the southern end of the Dead Sea and up its western shore to Jerusalem to a hotel just inside s Palestinian residential (but not Palestinian-controlled)  area close to the city centre.

From there back to Ashdod.

No problems, no borders, etc, no different to driving thro any other country.

Same cruise, Haifa one-day port of call, trip to Nazareth & Sea of Galilee - again no borders, no worries.

 

Another cruise, Haifa heading north no worries.

 

JB 🙂