Petra

Billed as the "Inca Trail of the Middle East," the 400-mile Jordan Trail runs from the Mediterranean-influenced villages of Umm Qais in the north to the coral-rich Red Sea in the south, passing through 52 villages en route, as well as two UNESCO-listed sites. 

From Dana, descend 4,000 feet into the Dana Biosphere Reserve’s central valley, with its four unique ecosystems. Lonely trees give way Moon-like rock formations. Then the landscape changes to bone-dry river beds before, finally, becoming rust-hued desert. Crunching underfoot you stomp over fossilized urchins that once lived in the Tethys Seas, and encountering Bedouin-style tents stitched from black goat hair and outfitted with beds.

Petra is a marvel and the views and scenery you take in when getting here on foot are worth the blisters and sunburn.