What you need to know to visit Wadi Rum Desert
Wadi Rum is one of the world's most beautiful deserts. It has drastic landscapes, different colors of sand and dunes, rugged mountains, and beautiful camels. An epic landscape and the scenario of many movies.
The experience of exploring and sleeping inside Wadi Rum is breathtaking and it is worth every second of the trip. If you want to feel like you are on another planet, this is definitely the place.
How to get to Wadi Rum Desert
Most of the visitors go south from Petra or Amman. You can drive up to the Visitor’s Center with a big parking lot, and leave your car there. It’s very important that you enter the desert with a guided 4×4 jeep because there is no road to follow and very easy to get lost or get stuck in the sand.
You can hire the driver in the parking lot at the entrance, but we recommend hiring them with the company Wadi Rum Bedouin Guide in advance to get better prices. You can choose only the drive service to your camp, or hire different tour options.
Admission tickets
The ticket is included in the Jordan Pass. We bought the pass before our trip to Jordan which includes the entrance to Wadi Rum protected area, other attractions in Jordan (Petra and more), and the tourist visa fee. You can buy the pass here
What to visit inside the desert
You cannot miss these spots:
- Mushroom Rock
- Ship rock
- The arch or Rock Bridge (It appears in Star Wars: Rogue One)
- The cave where Lawrence of Arabia was filmed
- Lawrence house
- The spot where ‘The Martian’ Movie was filmed (the view of the desert here was our favorite)
- Khazali Canyon
- Sand dunes
The experience with the Beduins
We wanted to have the best inside look at a Bedouin’s life and we visit some of the houses in Wadi Rum Village and some of the tents where they live in the desert. They normally moved every three months when the food for the sheeps is finished. They live outside the protected area which we didn’t have any problem with.
Wadi Rum by Night
The desert by night is breathtaking. Light pollution is so reduced because the camps are very far from each other, so you can see the dark sky and the stars very clearly. In our camp, they turn off the lights so you can enjoy this experience.
Where to stay?
There are a few camps inside the desert and you can choose between many prices. You can stay in simple camps with Bedouin tents for a very cheap price or you can choose more luxury camps. We stayed in the spectacular Memories Aixa Luxury Camp in domes under the stars and luxury tents with private bathrooms inside.
In most of the camps the phone signal is very reduced, so keep this in mind when you travel to Wadi Ram (normally the staff has satellite phones for emergencies).
Where to eat?
There are no restaurants inside the desert so you have to eat in your camps. Most of them include food (normally breakfast and dinner). We hire a tour in the day with a Bedouin that made lunch in the middle of the desert for us.
Memories Aixa Luxury Camp has a big dome beautifully decorated where they serve the meals and you can see the making of the typical Bedouin dishes. It also has a carved bar (drinks without alcohol) with light and music.
To live the real food experience you have to try the typical dish called `Zarb´, which involves meat, and a variety of vegetables including potatoes, carrots, and zucchini. It’s like a barbecue but they located it underground in a large pit for around four hours. The meats and vegetables are placed on a rack that is lowered below ground overtop hot coals. The pit is covered with sand until the Zarb is finished.
How many days?
We recommend two to three days. You can visit most of the spots in two days (at least 8-hour tour) or divide the tour to have more time in each place. We stayed three days.
How to dress?
The desert is very sunny so make sure you can cover your head even if you don’t feel the heat. Comfortable and wide clothes are recommended and in some of the places you’ll need a little hike in the rocks, so make sure you have suitable shoes.
At night is usually a little cold, depending on the season. And remember to shake your shoes in the morning before putting them on because Scorpios are common in deserts.
Wadi Rum desert was one of our favorite places on our trip to Jordan. It’s a very safe and very quiet place and we recommend you to live this incredible experience. You can find the complete guide to Jordan here
How to get extra breathtaking photos and videos inside Wadi Rum?
We wanted to have amazing visual memories of the desert and we hire a company to take drone photos and videos. You cannot enter Jordan with your own drone (don’t even try to do it because they have special controls at airports and hotels for this), but you can hire a Jordan company that comes with all the licenses and clearances to take the footage. We highly recommend Dragon Fly Media Production Company.
Wadi Rum desert was one of our favorite places on our trip to Jordan. It’s a very safe and incredibly quiet place. We recommend you live this incredible experience at least once. You can find the complete Jordan guide here.
What you need to know to visit Wadi Rum Desert
Wadi Rum is one of the world's most beautiful deserts. It has drastic landscapes, different colors of sand and dunes, rugged mountains, and beautiful camels. An epic landscape and the scenario of many movies.
The experience of exploring and sleeping inside Wadi Rum is breathtaking and it is worth every second of the trip. If you want to feel like you are on another planet, this is definitely the place.
How to get to Wadi Rum Desert
Most of the visitors go south from Petra or Amman. You can drive up to the Visitor’s Center with a big parking lot, and leave your car there. It’s very important that you enter the desert with a guided 4×4 jeep because there is no road to follow and very easy to get lost or get stuck in the sand.
You can hire the driver in the parking lot at the entrance, but we recommend hiring them with the company Wadi Rum Bedouin Guide in advance to get better prices. You can choose only the drive service to your camp, or hire different tour options.
Admission tickets
The ticket is included in the Jordan Pass. We bought the pass before our trip to Jordan which includes the entrance to Wadi Rum protected area, other attractions in Jordan (Petra and more), and the tourist visa fee. You can buy the pass here
What to visit inside the desert
You cannot miss these spots:
- Mushroom Rock
- Ship rock
- The arch or Rock Bridge (It appears in Star Wars: Rogue One)
- The cave where Lawrence of Arabia was filmed
- Lawrence house
- The spot where ‘The Martian’ Movie was filmed (the view of the desert here was our favorite)
- Khazali Canyon
- Sand dunes
The experience with the Beduins
We wanted to have the best inside look at a Bedouin’s life and we visit some of the houses in Wadi Rum Village and some of the tents where they live in the desert. They normally moved every three months when the food for the sheeps is finished. They live outside the protected area which we didn’t have any problem with.
Wadi Rum by Night
The desert by night is breathtaking. Light pollution is so reduced because the camps are very far from each other, so you can see the dark sky and the stars very clearly. In our camp, they turn off the lights so you can enjoy this experience.
Where to stay?
There are a few camps inside the desert and you can choose between many prices. You can stay in simple camps with Bedouin tents for a very cheap price or you can choose more luxury camps. We stayed in the spectacular Memories Aixa Luxury Camp in domes under the stars and luxury tents with private bathrooms inside.
In most of the camps the phone signal is very reduced, so keep this in mind when you travel to Wadi Ram (normally the staff has satellite phones for emergencies).
Where to eat?
There are no restaurants inside the desert so you have to eat in your camps. Most of them include food (normally breakfast and dinner). We hire a tour in the day with a Bedouin that made lunch in the middle of the desert for us.
Memories Aixa Luxury Camp has a big dome beautifully decorated where they serve the meals and you can see the making of the typical Bedouin dishes. It also has a carved bar (drinks without alcohol) with light and music.
To live the real food experience you have to try the typical dish called `Zarb´, which involves meat, and a variety of vegetables including potatoes, carrots, and zucchini. It’s like a barbecue but they located it underground in a large pit for around four hours. The meats and vegetables are placed on a rack that is lowered below ground overtop hot coals. The pit is covered with sand until the Zarb is finished.
How many days?
We recommend two to three days. You can visit most of the spots in two days (at least 8-hour tour) or divide the tour to have more time in each place. We stayed three days.
How to dress?
The desert is very sunny so make sure you can cover your head even if you don’t feel the heat. Comfortable and wide clothes are recommended and in some of the places you’ll need a little hike in the rocks, so make sure you have suitable shoes.
At night is usually a little cold, depending on the season. And remember to shake your shoes in the morning before putting them on because Scorpios are common in deserts.
Wadi Rum desert was one of our favorite places on our trip to Jordan. It’s a very safe and very quiet place and we recommend you to live this incredible experience. You can find the complete guide to Jordan here
How to get extra breathtaking photos and videos inside Wadi Rum?
We wanted to have amazing visual memories of the desert and we hire a company to take drone photos and videos. You cannot enter Jordan with your own drone (don’t even try to do it because they have special controls at airports and hotels for this), but you can hire a Jordan company that comes with all the licenses and clearances to take the footage. We highly recommend Dragon Fly Media Production Company.
Wadi Rum desert was one of our favorite places on our trip to Jordan. It’s a very safe and incredibly quiet place. We recommend you live this incredible experience at least once. You can find the complete Jordan guide here.
