Wadi Rum Travel Guide – Another Planet

The final stop of our Jordan trip was Wadi Rum, where we felt as if we were on a completely different planet. Wadi Rum is the place on Earth that most resembles Mars. It has hosted many different cultures and communities since prehistoric times. Wadi Rum proves its long history with traces carved into its walls, temples, and rocks.

Wadi Rum Travel Guide – Transportation

After the Dead Sea and Petra, we reached our final destination, Wadi Rum. Wadi Rum is an hour from Aqaba Airport and two hours from Petra. We parked our rental car at an address provided by our hotel in Wadi Rum. They came to pick us up in a 4×4, and after a 20-30 minute journey through the desert, we arrived at our accommodation.

Wadi Rum Travel Guide – Tour Options

If you don’t want to rent a car and wish to visit places like the Dead Sea, Petra, and Wadi Rum, I suggest arranging a tour. You can customise your tour to start and end at the airport using the platform below. Additionally, you can compare tour options and prices via this link.

Wadi Rum Travel Guide – Accommodation

The most critical aspect of the Wadi Rum trip is accommodation. The region mainly offers traditional tent-style accommodation options. Camps compete with each other to provide the best views for their guests. There are many options with different designs and price ranges, so you can narrow down your choices by considering the quality of other amenities like food, tours, and transportation.

After extensive research and reading reviews, we decided to stay at Desert Magic Camp Resort. Everything was perfect. The rooms were spacious, air-conditioned, and had a fantastic view of the path right in front of them. The staff were lovely, and the food was delicious. I can wholeheartedly recommend this place. Another thing I liked about Desert Magic Camp was the quietness at night, which was entirely my personal preference. Many camps try to create a lively atmosphere with Arabic oriental music or contemporary foreign pop songs, and at one point, the noise from one of these camps reached ours. However, our hotel had a calm atmosphere. After dinner and a session of tea and coffee, everyone went to their rooms. We enjoyed the breathtaking view of the full moon in the dark of the night.

Wadi Rum Travel Guide – Places to See

Wadi Rum spans an area of 720 square kilometres, offering endless horizons. The region has been under UNESCO protection since 2011. With the colours of its sand and rocks and its natural rugged terrain, every spot looks like a film scene. However, Wadi Rum gained its current fame primarily from the 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia. Interest in the area increased significantly after the desert scenes in the film.

Our hotel offered various tour options, including two, four, and six-hour tours. We purchased the four-hour tour package for 10 JD per person. We set off around 2 PM and returned to our hotel after sunset.

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Most of the places to visit in Wadi Rum are related to Lawrence. Known as Lawrence of Arabia, he initiated the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire, helped unite Arab tribes, and blew up railway lines used by Turkish soldiers, causing the deaths of many Turkish soldiers. Lawrence, a British officer, lived in Wadi Rum for a while, and the revolt began here. We toured the valley where Lawrence stayed and the area defined as his home. But I was more impressed by the natural beauty of the places we visited than by the Lawrence connection.

We saw the mushroom-shaped rock and the naturally formed bridge-like structure. Another thing to do here is to test how your voice echoes. In the middle of the desert, we shouted with all our might and listened to our voices echoing multiple times.

At the end of the tour, we arrived at this spot to watch the sunset. It was so crowded that I couldn’t believe it. This is the most popular sunset spot in Wadi Rum. Everyone staying in nearby camps seemed to gather here at sunset, and we enjoyed a truly memorable sunset.

Wadi Rum Travel Guide – Food and Drink

We arranged our accommodation to include breakfast and dinner. After touring all day, we deserved a good meal. Dinner was a fantastic buffet with a variety of salads, hummus, and vegetables cooked on a wood fire. But the highlight of the night was a famous Bedouin dish that had been cooking slowly under the sand since morning. The dish was placed in a special area under the sand and cooked slowly all day, thanks to the heat from the sun and the hot sand, becoming tender and delicious. The meal was taken out from under the sand with a small ceremony. It was a truly delicious dish.

Regarding food and drink during the tour, there were no places to eat at the sites we visited. However, we occasionally came across tents where we could have coffee or tea and take short breaks.

Wadi Rum Travel Guide – Notes & Tips & Conclusion

• Sunscreen and sunglasses are essential. If you plan to take a tour, you will be riding in the back of a 4×4 for a long time in the desert, so a hat would also be useful.
• It’s good to have a power bank with you because while touring and taking lots of photos, your battery can drain quickly, and it’s always good to have a working phone at the end of the day, just in case.
• The internet was very helpful for me throughout the tour and trip. In this regard, Airalo worked wonderfully. (You can get a $3 discount using the code IAMONT3974 through this link.)
• You can find my other travel articles about Jordan here.