Most Inspirational Moment
1. Being in Petra with our guide on Christmas eve and Christmas day: dinner with the family, Turkish bath, free time to walk up to the sacrificial site 2. Our days and nights in the desert 3. Tour of Jeresh 4. Beach morning - cool but sunny I liked it all except the hotel on the first and last nights which is AWFUL. Why on earth would you book people into an hotel with a NIGHT CLUB in the basement ????? We arrived very late on our first night and NO ONE slept. Please change this as friends have asked me if I would recommend this trip and I have said no on this basis. People were exhausted on the first official day of the tour.
Thoughts on Group Leader
Our guide was good humored, knowledgeable and experienced. He knows how to manage his country and was able to navigate the general chaos. He had a great deal to manage and did very well under the circumstances. Our group was was not easy . The weather was challenging which meant that we couldn't cycle as planned, and because there are few roads in Jordan, there were limited options when change was needed ,so we ended up cycling on very busy roads with a police escort just to fill in time. Some people complained about this. They also complained that they couldn't ride ahead of the cycle guide. They didn't seem to understand that it wasn't safe to do that and seemed reluctant to accept that not all countries are safe for cyclists ( which was why the tourist police came with us everywhere we went), and that the drivers in Jordan are reckless and unused to cyclists .
Advice for Potential Travellers
If you go to Jordan in winter insist that EXODUS provides a seasonally relevant packing list so you are prepared for the extremes of temperature which vary from 1 degree and snow to howling gales, thick fog, rain and floods, to 17 degrees and sunny..... You will need, waterproofs, wind-proofs, thin down jackets, base-layers, winter gloves, hats, winter cycle tights, thick socks as well as shorts and swim wear. You really won't need bug spray and hot weather clothing