---
type: Video
title: "We Rented a car and took a PETRA ROAD TRIP 🇯🇴"
description: Hiring a car in Amman for 20 dinars a day after a week of expensive taxis, driving three hours to Petra, and the most expensive dinner of the trip.
tags: [jordan, petra, amman, driving, car-rental, road-trip, beer, food]
timestamp: 2026-08-07T16:00:00Z
resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X01ujS2bxmk
video_id: X01ujS2bxmk
upload_date: 2021-11-22
duration: 686
---

# We Rented a car and took a PETRA ROAD TRIP 🇯🇴

Harry and [Mac](/people/mac.md) hire a car in [Amman](/places/amman.md) and drive
three hours south to [Petra](/places/petra.md), where they check in for two
nights.

**It opens with the admission that gives the video its point**: they should have
done this on day one, and have instead been taking taxis everywhere at
considerable expense. It is the second half of an argument the
[Dead Sea](/places/dead-sea.md) video started two days earlier, and it promotes
the habit to a page —
[rent a car instead of taxis](/tips/rent-a-car-instead-of-taxis.md). Twenty
dinars a day, against 30 dinars for two hours of taxi at the Dead Sea.

Two mistakes get made inside the first hour, and both are useful: Harry
photographs the car for scratches before setting off, and neither of them checks
the fuel gauge, which was on empty.

The evening in Wadi Musa is the priciest of the trip — 78 dinars for dinner and
drinks for two — and includes the detail that the only place selling beer in town
is inside a museum.

## Key moments

- [00:00] The premise: taxis everywhere have been expensive, so they're renting.
  Online quotes about $30 a day.
- [00:30] Five days, and the counter price is 20 JOD a day.
- [01:00] A Nissan Sunny — and photographs and video taken of every scratch
  before they drive off.
- [01:31] Three hours to Petra, and his first time driving in the Middle East
  outside Dubai. He says it isn't easy.
- [02:03] Cars running with hazard lights on, which neither of them can explain.
- [02:03] They pass a Jordanian wedding convoy with a man filming out of a
  window.
- [02:33] The tank was handed over empty and nobody checked. A fill-up costs 24
  JOD, and he calls it their own fault.
- [03:38] Halfway; the hotel is booked in Wadi Musa for two nights, with Wadi
  Rum after.
- [04:08] The last stretch, in the dark, on full beam and low battery.
- [04:38] Arriving: quiet, hotels and restaurants, and a town whose main use is
  Petra tourism.
- [04:38] The reputation he arrives with — reviews saying this is the scammy,
  less hospitable corner of Jordan — and his intention to find out.
- [05:13] Asking the hotel where to go at night.
- [05:47] About £100 for two nights; a desk for Mac to work at, tea and coffee, a
  television, and a view of the road.
- [06:47] The recommended bar turns out to be inside a museum — which he notes is
  the only place in town selling beer.
- [07:19] Very minty tea.
- [07:49] A half-litre of Petra beer for about $10.
- [08:19] The local beers are sweet, closer to an ale, and they joke about a
  Petra brewery tour.
- [08:50] Chicken breast with peppercorn sauce, chips and vegetables; another
  dish with peanuts that reminds him of pad thai.
- [10:54] The bill: 78 JOD, roughly £85 or $100 — expensive, and he says to
  expect that here, and that it is as pricey as Jordan gets.

## Extracted pages

- [Jordan](/countries/jordan.md)
- [Petra](/places/petra.md)
- [Amman](/places/amman.md)
- [Mac](/people/mac.md)
- [Rent a car instead of taxis](/tips/rent-a-car-instead-of-taxis.md)