Jordan and Palestine Culinary Tour

Our representative will be waiting for you after your plane lands. He will arrange your free visa for you and see you to your English speaking driver once you collect your bags. Depending on your arrival time, your driver will either take you to your hotel for your overnight, or to dinner at the delicious Sufra restaurant. Sample a variety of Jordanian dishes in this traditional home turned restaurant.

(Hotel: 3-5 star based on your preference, Meals: none)

After breakfast, you’ll head to the Mars-like Wadi Rum.  Our Bedouin guide will take you on a jeep tour through the nature reserve, sharing his love for the desert with you.  You’ll have lunch in the desert, scramble up sandstone boulders, and take in a silent otherworldly sunset. Your dinner will be cooked over an open fire under the star filled night. Tonight you’ll set up your tents and camp within the nature reserve far from any other tourists.

(Hotel: private camping, Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner)

After breakfast, your driver will escort you to Petra, one of the new 7 Wonders of the World.  A marvel of natural beauty and jaw-dropping engineering, Petra is incredible. Today you’ll enter through the Siq, a mile long canyon that ends at the Treasury, Petra’s most famous carved facade.  Spend the rest of the day exploring this ancient city. Your driver will then take you to a Bedouin camp for a traditional dinner and overnight in goat-hair tents. This camp is owned and operated by a cooperative in the nearby Bedouin community.

(Hotel: Ammarin Bedouin Camp (toilets and showers, but please bring your own towel), Meals: breakfast, dinner)

Optional add on: take a culinary course where you will have the opportunity to cook some of Jordan’s most well known dishes alongside Jordanian men and women.

After your first few days of adventure, you’ll need a break. Spend the day at the Dead Sea, floating in the remarkable waters, laying by the pool, or relaxing in the spa at one of the 5 star resorts located on the Dead Sea.

(Hotel: 5 star resort, Meals: breakfast)

This morning your driver will take you to the border to cross into Israel/Palestine. From there your private Palestinian driver will take you to Jericho, one of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities, for lunch.

After lunch, you will visit the old city of Jericho and Hisham’s Palace, dating back to the Ummayed Dynasty. This evening (pending on your tour dates) you will have a traditional Shabbat dinner with a Jewish family in their home.

(Hotel: 3-5 star in Jerusalem, Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner).

Today you will get to see the best of the West Bank as your driver will take you to the city of Hebron begin your tour. Take the morning walking around the old city of Hebron with its traditional souk set amongst narrow winding streets and the Tomb of the Patriarchs, the historical burial place of Abraham. You will have an opportunity to sample local cuisine including camel meat. Next you will head to the Tent of Nations, an organic farm outside of Bethlehem.

This afternoon you will visit the old city of Bethlehem, the Church of the Nativity and Shepherds Field.

Tonight you will cook and eat dinner in a Palestinian home. Afterwards your driver will take you to your hotel in Bethlehem (Hotel: 3-5 star hotel in Bethlehem, Meals: breakfast, lunch & dinner)

After breakfast you will head to Jerusalem where you will take a culinary tour of Jerusalem’s Old City and the famous Machane Yehuda open air market and (if possible) include a stop at Chef’s For Peace, chefs committed to peace through the sharing of food. This afternoon you will visit a winery located in Jerusalem. Afterwards your driver will take you to your hotel.

(Hotel: 3-5 star hotel in Jerusalem, Meals: breakfast, lunch & dinner)

After breakfast, you will begin your tour in Nablus with a stop at the Beit Al Karameh, the first female-run cooking school in Palestine. Afterwards you will have a chance to wander through the old city in Nablus including a visit to one of the 6 hammams (traditional bath houses) in the old city. You will sample local flavors at a tahini factory and a kanafeh stop (a traditional Palestinian dessert with cheese and phyllo). This afternoon you will have a cooking class where you will prepare a traditional Palestinian dish. This evening your driver will take you to Tiberias for dinner and overnight.

(Hotel: 3* hotel in Tiberias, Meals: breakfast, lunch & dinner).

This morning you will visit the Mount of Beatitudes, Capernaum and Tabgha, where Jesus performed his miracle of multiplication. For lunch you will get a chance to eat of the local specialities, fish at St Peters. If time allows you will visit the Nazareth Church of Annunciation in Nazareth before heading to the border Sheikh Hussein border.

Upon returning to Jordan, your driver will take you to the village of Orjan in Northern Jordan. There you will join Um Mahmoud in preparing a traditional dinner and dining together with her and her family. Tonight you will stay in their home (Overnight: Abu Mahmoud’s home, Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner).

*If you prefer not to stay overnight in a local home, we will arrange cabins for you in the nearby Ajloun Nature Reserve.

After breakfast you will visit Ajloun castle, built by the nephew of the famous Arab general Saladin. After your castle visit, you will head south to Jerash, one of the largest Roman cities in the Middle East. From there you will continue on to Amman. This evening, you will join a cooking class at Beit Sitti, which means “My Grandmother’s Home”, where you will prepare and enjoy a delicious 4 course meal.

(Hotel: 3-5 star hotel, Meals: breakfast, dinner)