Wadi Rum

My two days in Jordan in November 2019 gave me two of the most amazing places I have ever been to. Incomparable Petra was one. And the following day, Wadi Rum. Although it is inscribed both as a natural and cultural property, Wadi Rum's awe-inspiring natural beauty bowled me over all by itself. I left practically all of the cultural aspect of it aside.

A visit to the protected area starts at the visitor center on its northern edge. If you show up without any prior accommodations for seeing the desert, you can hire a local guide on the spot. Each of them has an SUV on hand to drive you around. It should be noted that if you come in a 4×4, you can pay for a self-driving permit, but I do not expect many people to take that option. In my case, four people including me were picked up by a professional guide directly from our overnight lodgings near Petra in a closed, air-conditioned SUV, and driven to Wadi Rum and around the entire day. At first, I was disappointed with the closed aspect of our car but very quickly came to appreciate that – the sand kicked up by the wind and the vehicles would surely become a nuisance; I don’t think I would be able to enjoy the place if I was in an open-air vehicle, which is what many tourists opt for.

The standard itinerary around Wadi Rum starts at Wadi Rum village, …

WHS#57

Deserts have always been a bit of a mystery for me. I'm from a wet tropical place, and I hate the heat, but desert landscapes have been quite enchanting to me lately. Ever since the experience of dune-buggying and sandboarding in Huacachina in Peru, the dunes have been calling me. But as cool as dunes are, by far the most enchanting desert landscape for me was Wadi Rum. Yes, more so than the canyons of Arizona, oases of the Atacama, or makhteshim of the Negev, the various formations of Wadi Rum have been the most memorable for me. The sandstone mountains just glow gold with a certain magic, drawing you to look closer and explore deeper into the desert. i visited in April 2018, taking a detour from Petra to Amman to enjoy a half-day jeep tour of Wadi Rum. Obviously, half a day is too short to explore this huge protected area, but it was a decent taste test, if you will. And from that taste test, I can easily conclude that this is one delicious dish of a site. From the visitor center, I could already see the huge sandstone mountains in the distance, but even their scale from there isn't enough to let you imagine what it's like to be among them. Wadi Rum is a labyrinth of the valleys formed between these mountains, and it's exploring these valleys that truly sets it apart from any other desert. Yes, the nearby Negev and Sinai, and …

Night fell on the desert. The campfire sank low. Banking up the hard-packed sand behind my head, I lay down on the slope of a dune and gazed up into the infinite. More stars than I had ever seen before speckled the expanse above me, strata of pinpricks overlaying each other. The night sky here above Wadi Rum was no blank, black two-dimensional backdrop. It was crowded and alive, like the stalls of a theatre seen from back stage as the house lights are dimmed. And on cue the show started. From right to left a bolt of fire streaked the heavens before guttering and dying. A second followed, then two at once, flaming trails hanging in space after their heads combusted in the atmosphere. It was August and there was no better place to watch the Perseid meteor shower than in the stillness of the Jordanian desert.

I visited as part of a tour, leaving Aqaba in the morning, overnighting in Wadi Rum, and then setting off for Petra the following day. And I would encourage everyone to spend the night beneath the stars here – Perseids or not. But the day itself was superb too: my diary records it as ‘A genuinely excellent day.’ The scenery is breath-taking, real Criteria vii stuff. A thick carpet of sand, here red, here white, here black, blankets the landscape, each hue clearly delineated against its neighbours. Great sheer reefs of rock thrust up hundreds of metres, their surfaces eroded and …

My cousins highly recommended an overnight visit to Wadi Rum, so when I visited in March 2015, I doubled down and spent two nights in the Jordanian desert. I was greeted by the film set for "The Martian" at the park entrance, but inside the park I was soon transported to the historical setting of Lawrence of Arabia's travels. The Bedouin tour company I traveled with provided a fantastic overview of Wadi Rum on the first day, with visits to petroglyphs and Lawrence's spring, desert canyon hikes, rock bridge climbs, and sandboarding down a giant sand dune. I signed up for a camel ride on the second day, but while I enjoy camel riding for short distances, I was a bit sore after five hours. Nevertheless, the landscape I traveled through was awe-inspiring. I stayed in a Bedouin camp both nights, and the food and opportunities to learn about Bedouin life were amazing. I love stargazing, and Wadi Rum offers some of the best night skies I've seen in my travels. Even more impressive were the sunrises and sunsets, which painted the rock formations in brilliant shades of red and orange. Wadi Rum is a must-see World Heritage Site in Jordan.

Logistics: Private transportation is the best way to reach Wadi Rum. I highly recommend taking a Bedouin tour of the site, and, time-permitting, staying overnight at least one night in the desert.

I visited Wadi Rum on the last day of my trip around Jordan. I had chosen to do a full-day tour with Rum Stars, one of the more reputable local companies. The reviews on this website and trip reports elsewhere on the internet prepare you for the worst, for a tourist trap with touts all over the place. My experience was totally different, and Wadi Rum became one of the highlights of my stay Jordan.

I arrived at the visitor center at 9.30 a.m., driving down from Petra (1.5 hours). It is as if entering a National Park in the American Southwest. I paid the 5 JD entrance fee at the ticket office, and after inquiring with whom I had booked a tour, they sent me on to Rum village. I accidentally had arrived at the same moment as a South African woman, with whom I would share the tour.

After being welcomed in the “office” with sweet Bedouin tea, we got going with our guide Salem. He drove a 4WD pick-up with seats built in the rear, and a covering across against the sun. This is the most pleasant way to tour the desert I think, feeling the cool air, and getting close to the sand.

We drove a circuit connecting about 12 sights, varying from red sand dunes to rock art (lots of camel petroglyphs!), viewpoints, canyons and natural bridges. There were quite a number of other tour jeeps on the tracks, although they all …

I visited this WHS by 4x4 and stopped at various natural bridges, canyons and rock formations. There are also several old rock drawings scattered throughout the valley. The highlights are the Seven Pillars of Wisdom used as a set in the film Lawrence of Arabia amongst others and the reddish sand hills. Beautiful!

We visited Wadi-Rum on the way between Aqaba and Petra. We planned a short visit and were not about to go a 4x4 tour. The visitors’ center and the village were full of Beduins trying to sell us one of these tours. It would probably have been worth going on one of them, but time was lacking, and we ressented been preyed upon.

The road from the visitors’ center to the village can be done by regular car, but is rather uninteresting. The village is ugly.

We left the place quickly. As we were to leave very disappointed by that visit, we decided to climb a small hill visible near the road (about 1 km before entering the visitor’s center, on the east side of the road). I was easy to climb and gave splendid views of the Pillars of Wisdom and the Wadi Rum valley. (And it is within the WHS limit, just to be able to tick one more site).

It really saved the day. By the way, for those on budget trip, this walk is before the visitors’ center and therefore free of charge. (Otherwise 10 JOD, about 13 $ pp)

Unfortunately I can’t say our visit to Wadi Rum in 1999 has left us with particularly good memories. We went there with high hopes and the images from the Lean movie “Lawrence of Arabia” in our minds. I can fully accept that we didn’t give it enough time – around half a day. Perhaps you need the overnight desert experience well away from the base area to fully appreciate the site. We were self driving but without 4x4 and as soon as you arrive you are faced with the “problem” of how to get away from the ugly (at least when we were there) “village” where the car park is situated. It is unfortunately a very “hassley” place full of Bedouin touts offering 4x4 or camel trips, drinks of arab tea etc etc etc! There are posted prices but, at least when we were there, these didn’t seem to be “realistic” and a long negotiation was necessary with numerous operators and their agents to reach an agreement. To some extent you are operating blind since it is difficult to know what sights are best and how far they are. We took a 4x 4 for a couple of hours and seemed to get a fair way into the park. We saw rock art, eroded sandstone bridges, Bedouin camps etc – ok, but not “earth shattering”. Perhaps we are too blasé? I felt we had seen as good or better, certainly in better circumstances, elsewhere in Sinai and Saudi, .

But, …