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I'm leaving for India on March 1st. I decided I will be going to Jordan, Egypt, Israel afterwards. I'm not sure WHEN, but I think I have my itinerary set... it's a rough draft.. but tell me what you think (??) Is it accurate?

- Fly into Amman, Jordan; but SLEEP in Madaba (closer to Airport)
- Leave Madaba, hit up the Dead Sea and Mount Nebo. Go back at Madaba.
- Take bus from Madaba > Petra via Kings Highway
- Stop {briefly} at Kerak to see castle
- Stop {briefly} at Wadi Mujib for canyon
- Continue via Tafila and Shobak and arrive at Wadi Mousa/Petra & spend 1-2 days
- Take early morning bus to Wadi Rum leaving Petra at 6am
- Spend 3-5 days at Wadi Rum
- Take early morning bus from Wadi Rum to Aqaba
>>>>>GO TO EGYPT<<<<<<<<
- Obtain visa from Egyptian Consulate in Aqaba
- Take bus from Taba TO CAIRO
- SOMEWHERE ON THIS ROUTE STOP AT ST CATHERINE'S TO SEE MT SINAI!!
- Continue to Cairo, see pyramids, hang out for 2-3 days
- Cairo > Aswan & board felucca sailboats to Edfu
- Transfer Edfu to Luxor
- Luxor - Hurghada
- Take boat to Sinai, Transfer to Dahab on the Red Sea Coast
- DAHAB!! - Snorkel @ Red Sea
- Dahab - Taba
>>> TO ISRAEL <<<<
- Taba - Eilat, ISRAEL
- Eilat to Jerusalem
- ...Travel around Israel...
- Tel Aviv - LOS ANGELES, CA

OTHER QUESTIONS:

- Do I need cholera/malaria vaccinations before entering egypt/jordan sine I'm coming from India (eRr.. I'm aware I should get these before even entering India, which leads to another question-- can I get vaccinated there!

- Do you think I can pick up guidebooks for these cities when I arrive? Or should I pick them up here in the USA first?

- Reservations. Since this is all last-minute, would it be too risky to figure out hostel situations when I arrive? I am willing to couch surf, offer volunteer work for housing!

Help GREATLY Appreciated...

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- Do I need cholera/malaria vaccinations before entering egypt/jordan sine I'm coming from India (eRr.. I'm aware I should get these before even entering India, which leads to another question-- can I get vaccinated there!

- There's no such thing as a malaria vaccine. What's available are anti-viral drugs, so if you catch malaria it does not become a lifelong, recurring problem.
- Nobody mentioned cholera at the travel clinic. I have no idea how India might affect this, but it was apparently unnecessary for us coming from Canada.
- There is no malaria risk in Jordan and only very small pockets of risk in Egypt (the one that was mentioned was el fayoum), and we were told anti-malarials would be unnecessary unless we were spending a significant ammount of time (I believe it was at least 2 weeks) in one of the risk areas.

Can't answer the rest of your questions as I haven't been yet, though I'm pretty confident that you could find a guidebook after arriving. The challenge is finding an english bookstore without a guidebook.

My wife and I just did this trip a couple months ago. Spent about 4-5 weeks to do:
Egypt-
Aswan
Marsa Alam
Luxor
Cairo
Baharia (Western Deserts)
Back to Cairo
Nuweiba
Jordan-
Aqaba
Wadi Rum
Petra
Dead Sea
Israel
Jerusalem
Tel Aviv

This gives you an idea what is possible. We spent 3-4 night in most places. The highlights were the Nile felucca trip from Aswan to Komombo, the White Desert and the whole western desert region, Nuweiba, Aqaba, Petra, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Cairo is terrible. Spend one day to see the pyramids and haul ass. Marsa Alam is terrible. Wadi Rum is nowwhere as cool and awe inspiring as the white desert in Egypt. I would can Wadi Rum and head to the White Desert.

I have the name of a great felucca captain in Aswan and we are just starting to get pictures posted on our website. Check it out and PM me if you have any other questions or want details on the pictures.

Do not try to get guidebooks in Egypt. You won't find much. Jordan and Israel are a little better, you can probably find all you need in Amman. After that, we had no luck.

Your itinerary looks good. Some comments:

Mt. Sinai is worth the trip. You might consider doing it when you’re in Dahab. They run trips out there from the guesthouses, and if you’re going to do it like everyone else (which I recommend), you leave Dahab at about 11 p.m., start hiking with thousands of pilgrims at about 1 a.m., and reach the summit around sunrise. Then you hike back down, ride back into Dahab ... and sleep! Doing this trip at night with the pilgrims is good for three reasons: You get the “pilgrim” experience, you avoid the daytime heat, and you get to see an absolutely surreal sunrise.

On getting from Aqaba to Egypt: Consider the ferry. You won’t need an Egyptian visa. You just get it at the port on the other side. It will drop you off in Nuweiba, where you can easily get to Dahab or Cairo.

Cairo is a place that provokes strong reactions. Royce hated it. I loved it. It’s of course dirty, noisy and crowded, but I also thought it was vibrant, exciting, and a hell of a lot of fun.

You won’t need a cholera vaccination or malaria pills to get into Egypt or Jordan.

Guidebooks: We were desperately searching for an Egypt guidebook from Petra to Aqaba. Couldn’t find a recent one at a reasonable price. We were finally able to get a new copy in Luxor. I believe we saw some in Dahab (they’ve got a ton of used bookstores), but they were all like 10 years old. You can probably get a Jordan guidebook in Amman.

Reservations: No worries there. There’s plenty of cheap hotel space in these countries. The exceptions might be some of the better-known hostels in Amman and Cairo. (The lodging situation is not the best in either place, so it does pay to reserve a room at one of the better places, i.e., Pension Roma in Cairo).

hahahah
yeah, JV is right, Cairo is cool, but I am not much of a city person. It was also later in our trip and since every Egyptian city is dirty, noisy and crowded, and Cairo somehow tops them all, I think I hit my break point with dirty, noisy and crowded.

The guidebook thing takes me back to a daydream I had while in Jordan. We were finishing up our time in the Middle East and I had two slighly used LP "Egypt" and "Jordan" guidebooks that I needed to get rid of. I always just leave them behind in a hotel lobby or something like that, but I got thinking about how funny it would be to bury them behind some rock in Petra and make a treasure map. I could wait for some person like yourself and give you the treasure map in this forum! Logical thinking got the best of me and I realized it was a stupid idea, but now I am wondering if maybe I should have went through with it. Damnit!

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I could wait for some person like yourself and give you the treasure map in this forum! Logical thinking got the best of me and I realized it was a stupid idea, but now

That's actually a good idea ... that's been acted upon. Check this out.

Hi therootbeer

I'll be in Jordan on the 5th of March till the 9th of March. It's just a short visit as I'll be heading to Kuala Lumpur on the 11th of March.

In case you're going to be in Jordan within these dates, send me an email.

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Marsa Alam is terrible.

Please elaborate. I am going there soon. Just wondering what you didn't like.