1

I can answer several, but not all of your questions.
1. Intro to diving in Aqaba: try Dive Aqaba (http://www.diveaqaba.com) or Red Sea Dive Centre (http://www.aqabascubadiving.com). There are other companies, but these two I have experience with and know the owners personally.
2. Driving in Jordan is not a problem... except for maybe Amman. Roads have signs in both Arabic and English, and there are brow/white Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities signs in English pointing to all the major attractions. My son and I drove all over Jordan just using the LP Jordan guide and map in the front to show us which direction to aim for + the road signs . We used Avis, but only because we wanted to pick up the car in Amman and drop off in Aqaba--and at the time, only the major international chains offered this.
3. If you rent a car and want to see Amman, suggest you park in the lot in one of the major malls (on the airport road--->Jerash, Salt, there's City Mall, with a Carrefour which has an underground monitored parking lot. Park the car, go upstairs and out the door, and grab a cab for downtown. Make sure cabs use the meters--they might try to convince you that their meter is broken and try to bargain an astronomical rate with you. From City Mall, a trip to the Roman Amphitheatre shouldn't cost more than JD3.5 during the day
4. If you're renting a car, the drive down the Kings Highway between Karak and Petra is spectacular. You can take the Dead Sea highway south to the Karak turnoff--and pick up the Kings Highway in Karak. There are castles to see in Karak and Shobak along the way, if you're interested. The other main hightway, the desert highway, is a straight line from Amman to Aqaba and qualifies for one of the most boring rides on the planet--until you get to the Wadi Rum--Aqaba area.
5. For information on your other questions, you might try Ruth's fantastic www.jordanjubilee.com; discusses all things travel-related.

2

Dear Ruth,
we have made the following plan, and drive own rented car and hence use those places as based for expeditions around country:

23 sept. Leaving home 7.20 --> Amman Airport, 14.50--> Madaba (hotel Mariam)
24 sept. Madaba
25 sept. Madaba
26 sept. Madaba
27 sept. Madaba----> Kerak carstle ----> Aqaba, Arriving late afternoon
28 sept. Aqaba, scuba diving
29 sept. Aqaba, scuba diving
30 sept. Aqaba, scuba diving
1 Oct. Aqaba, scuba diving (Likely Wadi Rum)
2 Oct. Aqaba, scuba diving (likely Wadi Rum)
3 Oct. Aqaba, scuba diving
4 Oct. Aqaba, scuba diving
5 Oct. Aqaba, scuba diving
6 Oct. Aqaba, up very early for ------> Petra
7 Oct. Petra
8 Oct. Petra
9 Oct. Petra, late morning ----> Amman Airport, flight leaves kl 16 ---> home at 22.

We plan to stay way from amman as if any troubles comes along it is bound to be there!

Ou of Madaba we plan do: jerash, Madaba City, Dead Sea Panorama Complex, Mt Nebo. And Maybe Ajloun the East carstles.

Karak carstle we do on driving down to Aqaba.

From Aqaba in between my scuba diving we will se Shuboak carstle, maybe dana and ofcouse wadi rum.

Feedback to you questions on Scuba Diving:
A scuba discoving is one day, but you can often go and take the full cetrification in 4 days. So I would advise you to plan as you have the option to go further on.........else the snockling spots around south Aqaba (15 km south of city center) shoudl be realy good.

Staying i Karak it not really recommend as the options is rather low according to my information and the ones there is there should not be good. As we have a 2½ year old kid with us we deem it to be better going down to aqaba for lowering the number of places.

Question:
"Litlle Petra? the tented camps there look so nice to stay!" Do you have some link or information according to what you have fund?

Klaus

3

Thanks for the answers!

regarding staying in Little petra, I just read the reviews on Tripadvisor, which are very good for the tented camps in Little Petra.
Follow this link: http://www.tripadvisor.com/HACSearch?geo=318895#02,1343821123943,cat:S3,rad:S0,sponsors:A
or just enter Petra as search term on tripadvisor.com, the look at the speciality lodging!

4

You should go to www.jordanjubilee.com for informtion about traveling throughout Jordan.

Good luck.

5

For Petra try PetraBedandBreakfast guest house.
For Jerash if do not get answer from Walid try Alzaytouna hotel jerash similar if not better.
Having 3 weks in Jordan you cn easily include visiting Um Qais in the north of Jordan Ruins overlooking Lake Tabaria
cheers

6

For what it's worth, I agree with marcopoloo regarding Umm Qais.

Jerash is interesting and well worth the visit, but it is also very touristy and commercialized. Umm Qaiss is much more scenic and rustic. They don't get any where near the amount of visitors simply due to it's location off the tourist trail.

Have a great trip.

7

Thanks for the Umm Qais suggestion!

Marcopoloo, do you have some information about Alzaytouna hotel jerash, as I can not find anything about it!

Thanks!

8

We loved Umm Quais, definitely worth the trip.

We stayed at Olive Branch near Jerash, it's only 3JOD by taxi to the ancient site and the hotel's surroundings high above the city and amongst olive groves are much more pleasant than these of Hadrian's Gate Hotel, which is situated on the main busy road.
They'd confirmed our booking immediately.
They also might have a swimming pool open(it was closed when we were there)-so you might have a nice dip after a tiring day at Jerash.

If you want to hike in Ajloun why don't you stay at RSCN accommodation in the forest? Hiking trails will be on your doorstep.

The best way to visit Kerak is on your way from the Dead Sea to Dana.

9

If you head out to Ajlun, make a small diversion to Abila. Nearly deserted old Roman town. By then I assume the trees will be full of pommegranets.