• Walk reverentially through the nighttime siq at Petra, with the way through this iconic canyon lit by candles and escorted by strains of traditional music.

• Soar noiselessly above Wadi Rum in a hot-air balloon. The eagle-eye view is almost as epic as Sam Lean's film of Lawrence's life among the Arabs, filmed in the dunes below.

• Stay with the Bedouin (website: www.jordantracks.com) near Wadi Rum and spend the day touring the desert by jeep, on foot or astride a camel. In the evening, enjoy a traditional feast in a Bedouin tent then fall asleep under the stars. 

• Bob like a cork in the dense salt water of the Dead Sea. When the salt begins to smart, brush away the tears in an extravagant spa treatment at one of the neighbouring resorts.

• Go diving at Aqaba (website: www.aqaba.jo) and be wowed by the psychedelic underworld of the Red Sea. If the beauty of the fish doesn't make you vegetarian, sample a few marine delicacies in one of the town's many fish restaurants.

• Imagine the striking of ancient hooves on cobbles at the Crusader castles of Karak and Ash Shawbak. If you listen extra hard, you may catch the whisper of the wind penetrating the underground passageways of these superb pieces of military architecture.

• Visit one of Jordan's wildlife reserves, such as the Azraq Wetlands (website: www.rscn.org.jo). The residents - including hyena, wolf, gazelle, ostrich and oryx - are notoriously elusive but the infectious beauty of each location is easily caught.

• Hire a guide with a 4-wheel drive vehicle and disappear into the eastern desert. Just when you think you're on the road to nowhere, you'll stumble across Qasr al Tuba, the remotest of the Umayyad desert castles.  

• Explore the souk in Amman: watch a Middle East market in operation and bargain along with them.

• For the ultimate rail experience, take a trip on the Hejaz Railway (website: www.jhr.gov.jo) from Amman to Damascus. This slow-moving relic of the Ottoman Empire is one of the world's classic rail journeys but don't expect it to be comfortable. 

See Contact Addresses for further tourist information.