Travelling from Egypt to Israel and Jordan

You will not be allowed to hire a car in Egypt and take it over the border into Israel.

However, driving in the east part of Sinai is not dangerous as long as one is careful. Indeed it is very pleasant. If you do not know the roads try not to travel at night, especially as camels may sometimes be walking along the road.

Thank's a lot! As I understand it is quite complicated to arrange such trip by ourselves. Maybe you know some travel agency in Sharm we could go to for arrangement of trip to Jerusalem and Petra? Many agencies offer separate trips to Jerusalem and to Jordan, but we do not want to waste our time going to Jerusalem, coming back and going to Petra and back again.

I'm surprised you can't find a tour that takes you up to Jerusalem and to Petra from there, that seems like a natural itinerary. Are you willing to try it by public transportation? Not as comfortable as your own car but then you can decide how much time you want to spend in each place.

Make your way by bus to Taba. Cross into Eilat and rent a car there. About 4 hours straight through driving time from Eilat to Jerusalem. I looked into it but rather expensive for a solo traveller. Unfortunately I do not know if you can take an Israeli rent a car into Jordan. If not you can travel by taxi to Aqaba from the Eilat/Jordan border very cheaply and rent a car in Aquaba for the Petra portion.

All very doable if you are willing to undertake the logistics

the best you can do - get to Taba boarder, cross to Israel, take a taxi to Eilat (10 minutes from boarder) rent a car go to Jerusalem. take 3 days to be in Jerusalem. take the car down to eilat again (4 hours drive) return the car, cross the boarder, take a bus or taxi back to Sharem...

I would also imagine that the bus service in both Israel and in Jordan would be a good alternative to renting your own car.

Visiting Jerusalem is extremely easy : you take the bus until Taba, then you walk until the border (5-10 mn) and you cross the border. Once in Israel, take a taxi until Eilat (there are also buses from time to time). You have two possibilities : take a bus until Jerusalem (5 or 6 hours, depending on the traffic jam) or go to the airport and fly until the airport located between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv (I don't remmeber the price but it is not very expensive). It is extremely easy to travel on your own, just like it is easy to visit Jerusalem by yourself. In 2-3 days you will already have a good idea of the city, the old part is extremely small but I agree one day is not enough, especially since one of the greatest things to do is walk very early in the morning, when tourists and touristic shopkeepers are still sleeping.

For Petra, you can cross the Gulf of Aqaba from Egypt but it is faster to enter Jordania from Israel, there is a border close to Eilat. There should be travel agencies in Jordania who can take you at the border.

Another option is to fly from Sharm to Amman. It's not too pricey. If you book with a hotel in the village where Petra is located (can't recall its name at the moment- Wadi Mussa?) they can hook you up with a car and a driver for a fairly reasonable rate. We did this once while living in Cairo. My parents were visiting and wanted to see Sharm, Petra and Jerusalem. We flew Sharm to Amman. The driver picked us up at the airport and drove us to Petra. Spent a few days there, then the driver took us from Petra to the border crossing outside of Amman via the old King's highway, which is a beautiful drive. At the border and to and from Jerusalem we did the bus, taxi thing, which is quite easy. On our return from Jerusalem we just took a taxi from the border straight to the airport.