Petra in 6 Days on a Budget (With Daily Costs)
Six days: the same three tickets, plus a real day off
Six days over five buys one thing specifically: a full rest day in Wadi Musa between the Monastery climb and your flight home, instead of stacking that recovery onto a rushed departure morning. The ticket math stays identical, three consecutive Petra days on an Expert-tier Jordan Pass, Little Petra free. If you want the extra day spent in Wadi Rum or the Dead Sea instead of Wadi Musa, that’s the petra-jordan 6-day plan , not this one. For the full ticket and cost breakdown behind these numbers, see the Petra budget page . Tighter on time? The 5-day version drops the rest day; a full week is the 7-day plan .
Book these before you go:
- Jordan Pass, Expert tier : buy online before you land, or the visa waiver doesn’t apply.
- A Wadi Musa guesthouse : budget rooms sell out first in spring and autumn.
- A short guided Siq and Treasury walk : worth it on day one for the myth-busting context alone.
| Day | Focus | Rough spend (per person) |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Arrival, Wadi Musa, afternoon Siq and Treasury | 10-15 JOD |
| Day 2 | Royal Tombs, Street of Facades, High Place of Sacrifice | 15-20 JOD |
| Day 3 | The Monastery, back route down, optional Petra by Night | 15-45 JOD |
| Day 4 | Little Petra, Petra Museum | 10-15 JOD |
| Day 5 | Wadi Musa rest day: town, market, Cave Bar | 15-25 JOD |
| Day 6 | Slow morning, departure | 10-15 JOD |
Tickets, budgeted properly
Ignore any claim that a Jordan Pass makes Petra “free.” It doesn’t; it bundles Petra entry with a waiver of the roughly 40 JOD Jordan visa fee, and the waiver only kicks in if you buy online before arrival and stay 2+ nights or 3+ days. For a 6-day trip using the site on three separate days, get the Expert tier, 80 JOD for three consecutive days. Explorer (75 JOD, two days) and Wanderer (70 JOD, one day) exist too; pick based on how many separate days you’ll actually enter the site.
Not overnighting in Jordan? A day-tripper pays a flat 90 JOD for the single day allowed, no multi-day tiers and no visa benefit, a deliberate anti-day-trip surcharge. The 50/55/60 JOD one, two and three-day tickets are only for overnight-in-Jordan visitors. Petra by Night runs on its own ticket again, roughly 30 JOD; as of 2026 the official schedule is paused and arranged case by case rather than run on a fixed weekly night, per petrabynight.jo . Confirm it at the Visitor Center once you’re on the ground rather than planning a whole evening around it in advance.
Day 1: Arrival, Wadi Musa, first look at the Siq
Base in Wadi Musa, the town at Petra’s gate. A private taxi from Amman runs about 3 to 3.5 hours on the Desert Highway; from Aqaba it’s closer to 2. Budget rooms in town run 15-20 JOD for a dorm bed, 35-40 JOD for a private double, well below what the Movenpick and other resort-style properties charge.
If you land with daylight left, walk the Siq that afternoon, the 1.2km gorge that opens onto the Treasury, this is your first ticketed day. Worth saying plainly: the Treasury is a carved tomb facade from the 1st century, not a treasury, no interior rooms, no gold. The name comes from a Bedouin legend about the stone urn on top, nothing more.
Day 2: Royal Tombs and the High Place of Sacrifice
Second ticketed day. Work through the Street of Facades and the Royal Tombs, the Urn, Silk, Corinthian and Palace tombs, in the morning, then climb to the High Place of Sacrifice in the afternoon for the best valley views you’ll get without doing the full Monastery trek. Lunch at the Basin Restaurant near Qasr al-Bint if you want a sit-down buffet inside the site, or carry your own and expect a small charge for Bedouin tea on the trail.
Decline any horse, donkey, mule or camel offer today. The pitch is usually “included” or cheap, and the real cost lands at the end as a demanded 20-50 JOD tip, with pressure if you push back. It’s rough on the animals too. Walk it.
Day 3: The Monastery, then Petra by Night
Third and final ticketed day, and the one that changes people’s minds about Petra. The Monastery (Ad-Deir) sits above 800-plus rock-cut steps, roughly 45-60 minutes up at a steady pace, and it’s a genuinely bigger facade than the Treasury with a fraction of the foot traffic. Go early to beat both the heat and the tour groups, then take one of the quieter back trails down past the Byzantine Church rather than the main path.
Rest that afternoon, then go back for Petra by Night if the schedule lines up during your visit, confirmed locally, not assumed in advance. It’s a candlelit walk back through the Siq to a lit-up Treasury, worth the roughly 30 JOD once, skip it on a return trip.
Day 4: Little Petra and the museum
Morning: Little Petra, 15-20 minutes from Wadi Musa, free, quick, and a good contrast after three days of crowds. Pair it with the Petra Museum near the main entrance for context on everything you’ve seen. No ticket needed for either.
Afternoon: keep it easy. Wander the strip of restaurants near the entrance, or nap through the worst of the afternoon heat; you’ve earned it after the Monastery climb the day before.
Day 5: A full day off in Wadi Musa
This is the day the extra night buys you, and it’s deliberately unstructured. Walk the town’s main market, price-check souvenirs before buying, and stop at the Cave Bar, a 2,000-year-old Nabataean tomb repurposed as a bar by the entrance, for a sundowner. Get your laundry done at your guesthouse if you need it; most budget places offer same-day service for a few JOD. If you’re still curious about the site, a slow walk to the Visitor Center for a last look at the Siq entrance costs nothing since you’re not going back through the ticket gate.
Day 6: Sunrise and departure
Sunrise over the mountains from your guesthouse roof if it has one, a slow breakfast, then the drive back to Amman or Aqaba for your flight, 2 hours from Aqaba, 3 to 3.5 from Amman.
Is six days worth it for a site-only Petra trip?
Yes, if the rest day is the point rather than an afterthought. Six days without a single out-of-town excursion still leaves Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea for a future trip, which is a fair trade for anyone who’d rather actually recover from a 200-plus-metre climb than drive straight to another activity the next morning.
Does the extra day change which Jordan Pass tier to buy?
No. The Pass tier is set by how many separate days you enter the ticketed site, three on this plan, not by trip length. The Expert tier (80 JOD) covers three consecutive Petra days regardless of whether the whole trip runs five days or six; the extra day here is unticketed rest time.
Rough total for six days beyond flights and the Jordan Pass itself: 85-135 JOD for food, one guesthouse stay, and daily incidentals. The Monastery climb is the one thing on this itinerary not to schedule for your last morning; do it while your legs are fresh, and let day 5 be the day you actually do nothing.