My first encounter with the desert was in Namibia. It is impossible for me to forget that moment for the rest of my life; It was as if the interplanetary journey in a car had begun and we suddenly found ourselves in a place other than Earth.. However, in our new life, which was transferred to Bahrain later on, the desert started to lose its attractiveness for us when it became an ordinary formation we live in.. But the Wadi Rum Desert, which we included in the Jordan itinerary out of formality, seduced even me with its beauty! It hosted the most enjoyable 24 hours we spent in Jordan with its food, Bedouin entertainment, desert safari and magnificent sunset.
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- General Information About Wadi Rum Desert
- When to Go to Wadi Rum?
- How to Go to Wadi Rum?
- Where to Stay in Wadi Rum? Wadi Rum Desert Bedouin Camps
- Food and Drink in Wadi Rum Desert
- Wadi Rum Attractions and Tour Details
- Recent Tips
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General Information About Wadi Rum Desert
Where is Wadi Rum? Wadi Rum desert, a protected desert region in the southern part of Jordan. It is important both culturally and geographically, as it has hosted human beings since the prehistoric period and mountain formations rising from the red sands.. It is even said to be the place most similar to the surface of Mars.. It is also a precious region on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
The other name you will definitely hear along with Wadi Rum is Lawrence.. one. The British agent Lawrence, who was the architect of the Arab Uprising during World War II, is said to have been in Wadi Rum a lot.. It is even rumored that he took a bath in places such as “Lawrence’s Spring”, which is included among the places to visit in Wadi Rum, but there is no evidence to support them.. I think the bathroom thing was made up to attract the attention of tourists.
You can find the meaning of Wadi Rum as “Valley of the Moon”, but I need to open a parenthesis here: The Arabic word “Wadi” is literally “valley / valley”. doesn’t mean. There is a common situation in the desert region; Streams emerge with rains in winter and dry up in summer.. The full meaning of “Wadi”, which is a term specific to the Arabian Peninsula, is “the creek bed that dries up in the summer”.. And to us in Oman, “What kind of valley is this!” when we were surprised.
When to Go to Wadi Rum?
December, when the winter season is experienced -February is the lowest season for the Wadi Rum desert. Don’t be fooled by the average temperatures around 18 °C during the day, these temperatures can go below zero at night.. It is even possible to coincide with snowfall in this period.
Another low season is between June-August, where the summer season is experienced.. Although it is bearable at night, the temperature rises to 40 degrees during the day.. Taking a desert tour during the day can be a bit of a challenge, but you can fall asleep watching millions of stars without getting cold at night.. The biggest problem in this season is the frequent sandstorms.
The ideal time to visit Wadi Rum is between March-May and September-November. The air temperature during the day is 25-30 degrees; it gets a little cold at night. The weather conditions will please those who want to spend a night without freezing in the tent and take a desert tour during the day without cooking under the sun.
BUT; Although we went in the last week of April, that is, at the most ideal time, we came across a terrible cold air wave, purely by luck.. We spent the night in underwear under double blankets and the sunset in layers of sweaters.. Since all weather conditions are experienced at the extremes in the desert climate, remember that you may encounter very unrelated weather conditions depending on the period you visit.
How to Go to Wadi Rum ?
Before entering the Wadi Rum desert, you must come to the Wadi Rum Visitor Center and buy a ticket.. Wadi Rum entrance fee5 JOD ($7). If you have a Jordan Pass, you do not need to pay an entrance fee.. You can find detailed information about Jordan Pass in Jordan Travel Guide with Basic Information». You can also arrange a jeep or camel safari tour, guide or Bedouin camp from the Wadi Rum Visitor Center.
After the visitor center, the road continues a little further and reaches the village part of Wadi Rum (Wadi Rum Village).. The headquarters of the companies are here; this is where they greet you and their day safari tour begins.
Drive to Wadi Rum
In Jordan Renting a car is definitely the most comfortable way to visit places.. Click here» you can choose and book the most affordable rental cars.
There is road access to Wadi Rum village; so if you have rented a car, you can go to the village with your car.. After the village, the road ends and the sands begin; After this point, entry with private vehicles is prohibited.. Therefore, to enter the desert, you need to use the vehicle of the camping company you have booked or the jeeps you have arranged at the Visitor Center.
How many kilometers is between Wadi Rum and Amman? If you come via Desert Highway No. 15, it is approximately 325 km; The journey takes 4.5 hours.
The distance between Wadi Rum and Aqaba is 70 km; The journey takes an average of 1 hour, but since Aqaba is a free zone close to the Saudi Arabian border, you will pass 99% of the police checkpoint, and this pass can vary between 5 and 30 minutes depending on the tendency of the police to chat with you.
We , we came from Amman to Wadi Rum village with our rental car and parked the car in front of the headquarters of the Bedouin camp where we made the reservation.. There are places to park in the village, but it is safer to use the places directed by the company you have agreed with.
Going to Wadi Rum by Bus
Since there is no direct bus from Amman to Wadi Rum, your alternatives include connecting from Aqaba or Petra.. How can you come?
• You can come to Aqaba from Amman by using Jett Bus or local minibuses. To get from Aqaba to Wadi Rum, you can arrange a desert tour including transportation/accommodation, take a taxi for around 30 JOD ($42) or use local minibuses with a ticket price of approximately 3 JOD ($4).
• Amman’ After visiting Petra from Petra, you can proceed to Wadi Rum.. Minibuses to Wadi Rum depart from Wadi Musa Bus Station, where Petra is located.. More information on how to get to Petra is in the Petra Ancient City: Route Details and Tips».
Things to remember when planning; local minibuses do not operate in the afternoon and on Friday. There are no specific departure times.
Where to Stay in Wadi Rum? Wadi Rum Desert Bedouin Camps
Wadi Rum desert is a protected area of Jordan, so there is no construction other than the village. Therefore, if you intend to spend the night in the desert – and I think you definitely should – your only option for accommodation is campsites.
You wouldn’t believe the number of campsites in the Wadi Rum desert! So many that even when you go without a reservation, you will definitely find a place to stay.. But if you want to stay in a cheap and good service, you need to book in advance.. The most important issue you should pay attention to is the Bedouin camps outside the Wadi Rum desert.. You don’t have to think you’ve booked a place in the desert and have to sleep in a tent close to the city. It is necessary because it fills up very quickly due to high demand.
If you are worried about comfort and hygiene, there are tent camps that provide high standard service.. In these facilities, you can stay in tents with private bathroom-toilet and air conditioning and enjoy open buffet meals selected from world cuisines.. click here to review and book campsites in Wadi Rum»
There are also Bedouin camps that you can book from $25 per night. We used one of them, Bedouin Lifestyle Camp and we were extremely satisfied.. Breakfast and tent price was $25 for 2 people on Booking.com. click here to review and book»
There is only a double bed inside the tent, it was enough as we used the tent only for sleeping. Since we were in very cold weather, I was worried about freezing at night, additional blankets were distributed for that day, my worry was unfounded.. Bathrooms and toilets are shared and mixed for men and women.. It has an adequate breakfast by Jordanian standards. The lively dinner with Zarb, which is a Bedouin barbecue, and the subsequent verbal entertainment with saz was great.. You can see the details in the video below.
Food and Drink in the Wadi Rum Desert
You should plan what to eat and drink during your stay before you come to Wadi Rum. Are you going to eat the food in the camp you are staying in or will you bring it with you? There is no other place to shop.. At most, you can have coffee at the gift shop in a very popular spot like Khazali Canyon.
My advice is to arrange your accommodation and/or desert tour food included. The campsite we chose served buffet dinner with Bedouin dishes for 10 JOD ($14) per person, but we did not pay this fee because we bought a tour including dinner.
Wadi Rum Attractions and Tour Details
A desert safari in Wadi Rum is a must, but the type and length of the safari is up to your taste.. You can join jeep safari tours that last 2 hours / 3 hours / 5 hours or all day, or you can do the same tours on a camel.. Since there are so many alternatives, I will only talk about the details of our tour and the places we visited.
After we went to Wadi Rum, we arranged the tour from the Bedouin Lifestyl Camp where we stayed; Not every camping site organizes tours, we chose this place in order not to deal with it separately and I say again that we are extremely satisfied.. Our guide was so sweet and cheerful. Dances, halay dances, eating and drinking never ended during the day.. Even if you do not use it for accommodation, you can use this company to arrange tours.
The company offered us the most suitable package and all day desert tour including breakfast + accommodation + lunch (in group of 8-10 people) + 70 per person for dinner. JOD ($98.7) priced. We paid 90 JOD ($127) per person because we wanted a private tour.. As the advantage of the private tour, we were away from the tourist crowds in most places we went, as we followed the route in reverse.. In addition, we were able to spend a long time at the place we wanted and quickly leave the place we did not want.. Our guide handed over the steering to Uğur for a while, so he also tried driving in the desert.
We were very excited for the sunrise, but they did not recommend it because it was too cold for the period.. Also, sunset is included in the full-day tour, but sunrise is extra and costs 25 JOD ($35) because a separate vehicle and guide are arranged for it.
If the prices are high but you still want to wander around Wadi Rum, If you go in the spring, you can also walk around certain points, not everywhere.
Wadi Rum Desert Our Tour
The tour started at 09:30 in the morning from our campsite.. (If we had chosen the tour with the group, it would have started from the village of Wadi Rum, so we would have to return to the village first.)
Our first stop is the vantage point with the scenes we know from the movie The Martian.. We realized here that the desert is not just red.. The desert landscape with shades ranging from yellow to red is definitely worth seeing. It is one of the places that should be included in your tour plan.
The must-haves of the Wadi Rum trip are definitely the bridges made of natural rocks.. It has 3 known bridges classified as small, medium, large. We first went to the Um Frouth Rock Bridge called the Middle Bridge. It was the right decision to come early in the day.. We were able to climb on top of it and take lots of pictures when no one was there.
Another place we enjoyed the most was Burrah Canyon. We did a canyon crossing over the sands that took about 20 minutes.. This is one of Wadi Rum’s popular walking routes.. That’s why it was good that we came here in the morning.
Our Bedouin style lunch was prepared by lighting a fire in the desert.. We kept our expectations low in this regard, but both the meat and vegetable dishes and the salads were quite delicious.. Let me also underline that we had to hide in the shade during our lunch break after a night spent in a tight fit.
The spots we stopped by in the afternoon were quite crowded, so I can’t say that we enjoyed it very much.. Mushroom Rock is a point of two overlapping rocks; They named it that way because its shape resembles a mushroom.. Small Bridge is the smallest of the bridge made of natural rocks, there are places to drink Arabic coffee around it, the view is beautiful, but the bridge itself is not as impressive as Middle Bridge.
With drawings from the prehistoric period On the other hand, >Khazali Canyon was the day of the parents, so to speak.. The part of the canyon where you can go is around 10 meters and it is really difficult to walk.. It was a crowded environment as all the groups entered at the same time.
There are not as many high dunes in Wadi Rum as in Namibia.. Those who want to climb the dune take their breath in the sand dunes called Red Sand Dunes. It is one of the places where families with children should come, especially since it is extremely fun to run down the sands and walk bare feet.. It reveals itself with the sage greening around it.. One of them is Lawrence’s Spring. We reached here after climbing for about 30 minutes among the rocks.. Rumor has it that Lawrence would hide in this area and clean up in these caves.
And we came to the star of the activities to be done in Wadi Rum: Sunset We definitely did that as we experienced one of the most beautiful sunsets we have ever seen in our lives. I suggest you add it to the Jordan plan.
What to Wear in Wadi Rum? Clothing Recommendations
The weather conditions in the desert do not progress according to the standards we are used to, and there are very serious temperature differences between day and night.. While you can cook during the day when the heat wave in winter arrives, you can encounter freezing temperatures in the summer cold wave, just like we encountered at the end of April.. In addition, there should be thermal underwear, fleece or sweater and a beret for the top and bottom.
As a Jordanian tradition, you should dress in layers when you set off in the morning.. In the middle of the day, I started the morning with a double sweater, trying to escape into the shade with a t-shirt; At sunset, I went under a blanket.
While touring Wadi Rum, a hat that doesn’t fly in the wind will be a savior.. Everything you wear will be red sand to the tiniest speck.. In particular, you should choose shoes accordingly.. I say don’t bring your precious shoes, because it will turn red.. It’s very difficult to walk on the sand with slippers or sandals, I wouldn’t recommend it.
“Can you wear a dress?” The question came a lot.. You can wear a long dress, you may not feel comfortable walking the places I mentioned above with a short dress.. Otherwise, there is no problem in terms of conservatism.. In my personal opinion, you will be much more comfortable with a spacious jumpsuit rather than a dress.. The color that looks best in desert photos is white But remember that it will start to turn red in 10 minutes.
Recent Tips
• Most of the campsites are very night time. it’s getting dark. You don’t need to buy it, but you can throw a head lamp in the bag if you have it.
• No matter what season you go, don’t forget to take sunglasses and sunscreen with you.
• The toilet you will use during the desert safari, there will be behind the rocks where no one is. Get ready to adapt to the natural environment.
• You should come knowing that you will not have a telephone and internet connection during your stay in Wadi Rum.
• Bedouin tea, which is served very often, is extremely sugary, keep in mind.
• We arranged for the continuation of Wadi Rum to dive in Aqaba.. In the 24 hours we spent in the desert, we felt so dirty and dirty that it felt so good to go to Aqaba and mingle with the water.. Glad we continued with Petra, free from all our filth.
OTHER JORDAN ARTICLES THAT MAY ATTEND YOU
- Basic Information Jordan Travel Guide»
- Places to Visit in Jordan | 8-Day Trip Plan»
- The Ancient City of Petra: Route Details and Tips»
- Visa-Free Access to the Red Sea: Diving in Aqaba»
- Is Jordan Expensive? Prices and Trip Cost in Jordan»
- Don’t Leave Without Trying: 10 Traditional Middle Eastern Drinks»
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