Jerash · With kids

The Cardo Maximus alone is 800m of original Roman paving, and the theatres, hippodrome and Temple of Artemis sit off it. The stone is uneven the whole way, there is no shade, and pushchairs are a fight rather than a help.

The centre by the entrance is where the site is explained before you walk into it, which is the difference between children seeing a plan and children seeing broken columns. Ten minutes, and it is inside your ticket.

The RSCN's ziplines run 5-25 JD a head depending on the line, in oak woodland twenty-five kilometres west. Marked walking trails at the same reserve start at 5 JD, so a morning here costs less than the ruins did.

The reserve's hands-on sessions are 5-12 JD a person, run about an hour and happen under a roof. This is the wet-day answer in northern Jordan, and it wants booking a day ahead rather than arriving hopefully.

There is nothing to buy past the visitors' centre and no shade anywhere on the site. Decide before you start how far north up the street you are going, because the walk back is the same distance again.