How to Get From Aqaba to Petra

Rental Car From Aqaba to Petra

Unlike Amman which, even for the most experienced drivers, can be a little unpleasant to drive through, the much smaller city of Aqaba is significantly easier to negotiate with a rental car; using your own vehicle to head out on a day trip to Petra is therefore perfectly possible.

The best thing about having your own vehicle, is that you can choose when to arrive in Petra, and as we say in our ‘Complete Guide to Visiting Petra’ (published soon), the earlier you can arrive the better!

The drive time between the two popular touristic locations is approximately two hours, largely along a quick highway, and you will find free parking a couple of minutes’ walk from the Petra Visitor’s Centre, near the Petra Moon Hotel. Find it here on Google Maps.

The downside of doing your day trip this way is that the driver will have a pretty long day ahead of them, as meaningfully exploring Petra requires several hours of walking under the sun.

If you’re planning on heading out on a lot of day trips from Aqaba, you may be better off picking up your car on arrival at the airport where a number of rental companies have offices and collection stations at the terminal. For those of you travelling to Jordan primarilyy for winter sun and a relaxing resort break, who may only choose to leave Aqaba once or twice (say to Petra and Wadi Rum), picking up the vehicle from one of the city centre offices is more practical and costs about the same.

The only thing to note is that during Aqaba’s high season (October-November), the airport will have more vehicle stock and availability than downtown offices.

We rarely go direct when hiring cars abroad, instead preferring to use two popular rental aggregators to compare costs and find the best deal. The two companies we use are AutoEurope and RentalCars – both of which we have had excellent experiences with and saved substantial amounts over going direct (never entirely certain why, but it’s a common outcome when we do a comparison).