Petra by Night, Is It Worth It?

The magical photos of the Treasury at Petra lit by candlelight are world famous, but is the experience worth it or is it a tourist trap? 

But first, Everything you need to know to plan your visit!

>The ticket costs 17JOD, on top of your standard ticket. It's also not included in your Jordan pass!

Technically you are supposed to buy it in addition to your day ticket but no one checked ours, so l think you could easily go without a day ticket purchase.

>It's not possible to book, reverse or pay in advance for tickets. You can only purchase on the day, but we turned up about 10 minutes before the gates opened and had no issues.

>It's only on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, so if it is something you are really passionate about, make sure to schedule your trip around those days.

>Gates open at 8:30 and the show at the Treasury starts about 9pm, so you have plenty of time to walk through the Sia, enjoying the candle lit path.

>During the day, you can pay for a golf buggy to take you from the visitor centre to the treasury, but at night that's not possible. Be prepared for the walk, uneven ground in near darkness. It's possibly not accessible for older people or mobility issues.

The ambiance of the candles and the magic of the treasury was really pretty, when you first arrive at the Treasury, it’s hauntingly beautiful, but this experience has mixed reviews and I can see why. The area in front of the Treasury is quite small, there’s no cap on tickets so I can see how it can get too crowded quickly. I visited Jordan during a time of instability in the surrounding countries, affecting tourist numbers drastically. I was lucky, there was plenty of space and not so crowded, my friend and I sat near the side on the ground, instead of the centre chairs, so we had an unobstructed view. We were lucky that no one chose to sit between the candles on the ground, as I’ve heard happens a lot when it’s busy.

The music was okay, it was hard to hear the talking, the light show is just a flood light rotating through the colour wheel. But it was quite romantic, the candles are pretty, the sky is beautiful and you can see so many stars! 

The walk through the Siq on the way down was nice, the candles lit the way and it was exhilarating imagining what was near the end, an added excitement since I arrived in Wadi Musa in the afternoon so this was my first time visiting Petra! 

The walk through the Siq on the way back was horrible. My feet hurt, I was tired, it was dark and it’s up hill so I struggled a lot since I had had quite a tiring day already. 

I would definitely recommend visiting Petra by Night on a separate day to visiting in the daytime because it will really take it out of you!