I was recently given the opportunity to travel to Jordan with G Adventures and a group of travel agents. I can give you lots of reasons to add Jordan to your list of places to see, but this blog post is about why you should consider traveling with G Adventures. For those of you wanting to find out more about Jordan, check out the bottom of the page for more information and highlights from the tour.
This was my second tour with G Adventures, but my first without knowing everyone else on the tour. This allowed me to get the full experience, and I was quickly reminded of all the reasons G Adventures is one of my favourite tour operators. These 5 reasons really stood out:
Small Groups. Most G Adventures tour have a maximum group size of 16 travellers, but the average is 10-12 people. Our group had 14 travellers, so with our guide, we were 15. We were a small enough group to sit at one table in restaurants, get enough rooms at smaller hotels, and have loads of room to spread out on the bus. Did you know that you can turn a tour into a private group by simply booking 8 people?
The Tour Guides - known as CEOs, or Chief Experience Officers. These guides are always locally based, meaning they know the destination like the back of their hand. They are responsible for offering local insights, pursuing great experiences as they happen, and adding a unique personal perspective to every adventure. What matters most to a CEO is making the tour the best it can be. These photos are of Ayman, the CEO for our tour of Jordan. He was incredibly knowledgeable about the history of each place we visited, and his passion and story-telling really brought every place to life. He also seemed to know everyone in town, and knew where to find the best places to buy local food, spices and anything else anyone wanted to buy. He also knew it was worth convincing the group to wake up at the crack of dawn to avoid the crowds at Petra and Jerash! Tip: It was definitely worth it!
n the culture, CE
Os are so m
uch more than guides; they’re the key to an incredible experience.
Focus on local travel. The Ripple Score for this trip was 100. That means that 100% of the services used to create the tour (e.g. accommodations, restaurants, transportation) are locally owned. By traveling this way, we support the local economy and enjoy more authentic experiences.
G for Good Moments: G Adventures is committed to making travel a force for good. Planeterra projects help empower local communities by focusing on supporting women, children, Indigenous culture, and environment conservation. Planeterra selects projects that can benefit from the G Adventures tours, creating experiences that are equally beneficial for the locals involved in the project, and travellers who visit.
We were lucky enough to experience 2 of these moments on this trip.
The first was Beit Khayrat Souf Experience - click the link in the name to learn more about this program. Beit Khayrat Souf is a women-run cafe with the purpose of training and employing women to gain their own financial independence. Women manage the cafe and lead cooking classes on site. They engage more women outside the organization by sourcing and making preserves sold at the cafe. We learned how to cook a traditional Jordanian meal by helping prepare it, then enjoying it in a beautiful setting. Then the women in the group were invited to a private dance party with the women running the cafe. So fun!
The second program was another lunch spot, this time at Safi Kitchen near the Dead Sea. This nonprofit is working to create a sustainable future for community members. Their mission is to raise awareness about the importance of cultural heritage and natural resources of the area. We were able take a tour of the grounds, taste a delicious meal with the freshest ingredients from Safi’s farms, and learn about the program.
Photos from Beit Khayrat Souf Experience:
Photos from Safi Kitchen
Packing so much fun into one trip! If you have not experienced an escorted tour yet, check out the itinerary and highlights of the tour to see how much can be covered in one week when you let the local experts plan it. There were so many little touches that saved us time and hassle, like not waiting in lines for tickets, or having reservations in top local restaurants. Every detail made for a seamless vacation that would have likely required 2-3 extra days if doing on your own.
Click on this link to read more about this itinerary: Highlights of Jordan
To get a better feel of what my experience was like, check out the reels I created on Instagram with highlights from each day:
Finally, check out these 2 short but helpful blogs from G Adventures: 5 Things I wish I'd known before travelling to Jordan and Top 5 Experiences in Jordan