I had a great time in Jordan. The people are very nice and put you at ease at once. All very helpful and nothing was a problem that couldn't be fixed. The highlights for me were the city of Jerash and Petra, which just blew me away. I could have spent a bit more time in Jerash. The Roman architecture and level of detail is a must see. What I thought was nice to see, was all the local school kids which were their as well. All of them wanted their photos taken and had a great sense of humor. We managed to reach Petra on Wednesday night in time for Petra by night. If you can make and do this, it’s a magical introduction. We walked under the most stars I've seen in a very long time, along side 1500 candles which marked our way. Finally, arriving, standing in the shadow of the Treasury, what a sight! We where then treated to a candlelit concert with mint tea. Fantastic! The next day we did a full days walk from one end of Petra to the other. The 1000 steps that lead you up and up and up to the other side are worth the effort. You are rewarded with not only the sight of the Cathedral, the 5th of the king’s tombs, but a fantastic view out over the Wadi Rum Desert. Just lookout for all the donkeys up those steps, theirs not always room for all! Jordan has a lot to offer in history and hospitality; I just wish I'd opted to upgrade my hotel. I'm not saying mine was dirty or anything, but I seem to like mine a little more upper class now days. Still, all good for the night before the days adventure!

1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?

Memorable moments include standing on top of Mount Nebo on a morning that was so bright that it was possible to see Jerusalem with the naked eye.

2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?

Don't bother with the horse/carriage rides in Petra. Make sure that the Amman taxi drivers put the meter on and pay only the fare - rounded up to the next dinar for a tip. Check on the holiday opening times of museums and attractions. Take waterproof shoes for the dead sea - the shoreline is slippery. Take some tissue and wet wipes with you on days out because public lavatories are not always well equipped with tissue or running water.

3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, and minimized impacts on the environment?

In as much as the locals involved were engaged in the tourism industry. As far as environmental impact is concerned, I wonder about the environmental integrity of archaeological sites when too many tourists, and associated souvenir stands/sales kiosks crowd the venues. Given the depletion of the Dead Sea and River Jordan, I also wonder if tourism has a harmful environmental impact.

4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?

A fascinating experience.

Jordan is a wonderful country but the trip was just the opposite of what we expected. The operator's logo "alternative routes to travel" has nothing to do with the trip we were offered. The trip as everything but "alternative": everything was scheduled to the last minute, lunches were always made in big restaurants for tourists and we were even forced to make stops in shops for tourists and stay there for up to 30 minutes.

In all honesty, we think the promotion of the trip is misleading as you are lead to believe that you will discover the true Jordan, far away for conventional trips of package holidays when all you get is the most conventional package holiday you can imagine. Just to tell you an example: we met two groups of French and Spanish holidaymakers in all restaurants, shops, stops for pictures, stops for coffees… The most frustrating thing was that you were not given any time to explore or visit a site at ease and often more time was spent in shops or restaurants than in actual sites. To keep it short, we strongly recommend that you no longer include this trip in your web.

Read the operator's response here:

The trip was set up following a visit by myself to Jordan late last year. As you may be aware this is a new destination for us and the hotels and ground handlers we use are all new suppliers. When I visited with a group of other tour operators I received a very different experience to that being described here but I do appreciate that my trip was an educational for the purpose of encouraging companies such as ourselves to promote the destination and not a holiday. I suggest we continue to monitor the satisfaction of clients and if there is similar negative feedback we will remove the trip from our programme. I have taken another booking today and we continue to receive interest in this destination so I would hope we can gather a broad spectrum of feedback over coming months.

We decided to offer this destination following demand from customers who wished to take our trips in the Sinai and wanted to combine the destination with Jordan. The clients are the first to have taken this trip on its own as a stand alone holiday. You may be aware that the vast majority of our tours are tailor made whereas this itinerary is not. As such it does stand out from our usual offering. We do however market it as a group trip which is run to a timetable and has an English speaking guide in attendance. The decision to include this trip amongst our programmes was made because we received demand from clients to visit sites such as Petra and Aqaba in Jordan.

Whilst we have managed to arrange this in the form of a package operating on a timetable we have ensured that all of our ground handlers are Jordanian, the tour guides are local and the recommended accommodation is locally owned (we will accept upgrades to international 4/5* accommodation if requested by our guests). This is in line with our company responsible travel policy. Larger international tour operators will visit the same sites of course and we can not control this. The clients did choose to take a tour which visits the most popular sites in Jordan (Petra, Dead Sea etc.) hence they will receive a fairly standard experience. We offer an alternative tour (which can be tailor made) that also includes Petra as well as visiting some more off the beaten track destinations in the nature reserves of Jordan. This alternative tour is also listed on Responsible travel.com and on our website’s Jordan pages which the clients were given details of before booking with us. We are at least confident that money spent by our clients on this trip will go directly to the local people involved rather than international tour companies and this is something the clients may not realize.

One thing that was definitely not experienced by myself was to be ‘forced to make stops for shops’. The operators involved certainly offered me a shopping experience but this was done at local markets and shops and not hotel shops or large retail chains. The restaurants used for lunch on the trip are optional and during my visit we were given the option of leaving the group for an hour at lunch time when in cities such as Amman. The large restaurant used at Jerash is popular with tourists because it offers traditional Jordanian foods. We particularly wanted to include this in the itinerary as it offers the opportunity to sample local cuisine whereas guests making their own arrangements in the urban areas may not be able to find such good quality local foods.

I obviously can not comment on the particular experience these clients received but I appreciate the holiday was not what they expected and apologise to you for this. We will continue to stress to potential customers that this trip is a little more organized than they may experience on our other itineraries. I can only suggest we keep it under review and if similar feedback is experienced we would accept the trip should be withdrawn from offer.