Exploring the otherworldly beauty of Jordan’s Wadi Rum
Of the 7 different UNESCO World Heritage sites in Jordan, Wadi Rum is the only one that gained its World Heritage status for its natural elements. A sea of stone and sand, Wadi Rum’s windswept desert landscape looks inhospitable in the extreme.
In reality, this natural wonder has nurtured nomadic cultures for millennia, and today remains some of the most hauntingly beautiful terrain in all of Jordan
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Where is Wadi Rum?
Wadi Rum Protected Area
Prices: International Visitors 5 JOD (around $1.50)/adult
Children under 12 are free
Phone: +962 3 2090600
Email: info@wadirum.jo
Site: wadirum.jo
What is Wadi Rum?
Wadi Rum is a desert basin located in the south of Jordan best known for its beautiful desert vistas and bright red sand dunes. It’s a stunningly beautiful location, boasting wide canyons, cool desert springs, and rock bridges high above the desert floor.
But it’s also a cultural hotspot filled with history.
Neolithic petroglyphs cover stone cliff faces right alongside their newer, but still ancient, writings in Arabic scripts, pointing the way to the lifegiving sources of water. Bedouin camps scatter the desert sands, a reminder of how life was, but with modern flairs welcoming guests into their traditional home.
Simply put, it is an amazing desert getaway whether you’re into learning about the local culture, the wonders of nature, or both!
What is there to do in Wadi Rum?
Despite being a literal desert, there are a surprising number of things to see and do in Wadi Rum, quite apart from admiring the serene desert landscape.
Hike through the Abu Khashaba Canyon
Abu Khashaba Canyon was immediately a hit with our kids, and probably my personal favorite of the sites we visited as well! It is a long, shaded canyon located in the middle of Wadi Rum with plenty of fun rocks to climb.
It’s a fairly easy hike, even with kids, but there are some sections in the middle where it is necessary to scramble up some rocks to get through. It’s also one of the only places in Wadi Rum where you will find trees, making it a unique stop.
The canyon is impassable for vehicles, so if you visit with a guide, they will drop you off at one end and pick you up at the other.
Climb over natural rock bridges
Wadi Rum is home to several natural rock bridges, created by thousands of years of weathering. The tallest of these is the Burdah Rock Bridge. It spans a gap of stone over 100 ft (35 m) in the air, making it not only the tallest in the park but also one of the tallest in the world!
However, that height makes getting there a bit difficult. Hikes to the top can take 4 or 5 hours, so if you plan to tackle it, you might want to add on an extra day to your visit.
If you want the rock bridge experience without the climb, Um Frouth is easily the most accessible in the park. Our guide drove right up to its base without any trouble.
Admire pre-historic artwork etched into Jebel Khazali
Nestled in a narrow canyon in the side of Jebel Khazali is some of the oldest evidence of human occupation in the entire Wadi Rum desert. There, petroglyphs older than written language are carved into the sides of the cliff. They are Neolithic-era artwork showing both the figures of men and the shapes of animals, but they are far from the only carvings in Jebel Khazali.
Alongside the older petroglyphs, writing from across the ages spells out the importance of this place. Inscriptions in 3 different scripts, Thamudic, Nabatean, and Kufic (Islamic script), are all visible on the walls. Each inscription is a small time capsule of the people who wrote it, and together they create a really cool timeline of the peoples who have called Wadi Rum their home!
Visit the desert home of Lawrence of Arabia
T.E. Lawrence was a British soldier who lived in Wadi Rum during World War 1. He is credited as being the one who brought together the disparate nomadic tribes in the area and convinced them to join forces to fight against the Turks.
Today, a few different places in Wadi Rum have become popular attractions because of the connection with Lawrence’s name. During our time there, we visited Lawrence’s Spring, which is still a popular watering spot for camels. However, we didn’t get the chance to visit T.E. Lawrence’s house.
Even so, it’s a fun bit of history to explore!
Take in an other-worldly landscape from the top of Red Sand Dune
Just north of Jebel Khazali, the Red Sand Dune provides an amazing vantage point for viewing Wadi Rum’s desert landscape from on high.
The dune itself is a huge pile of red sand that has blown up against the side of a stone hill in the middle of Wadi Rum. All that sand provides a convenient way to climb the hill without resorting to actual rock climbing, though walking up the dune can be exhausting!
Once you’ve reached the top, you will be greeted with stunning 360-degree views of Wadi Rum. From that vantage point, the desert’s red sands appear both alien and, somehow, familiar.
Fun Fact!
Wadi Rum’s red sands have been a popular backdrop for movies for a long time, starting with the movie Lawrence of Arabia in 1962, which was based on the life of T.E. Lawrence who actually lived in Wadi Rum during the first world war!
In fact, Wadi Rum has been used for a whole host of movies and TV series including The Martian, Disney’s live-action Aladdin, Star Wars – The Rise of Skywalker, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, and Marvel’s Moon Knight!
Interested in Visiting the Movies?
Check out
Connect with the past at the Nabataean Temple
The Nabataeans were one of the richest cultures in this region around 2000 years ago. Best-known for their capital city of Petra, they became rich off trade along the Silk Road. This particular temple was dedicated to the goddess Allat, who was thought to be the local version of the Greek goddess Athena.
The architecture of the temple is fairly similar to other Nabatean structures, but archaeologists say that the temple itself is made from blocks from an even older structure. It’s thought that before the Nabateans built there, a Thamudic temple sat on the same spot.
Camp Out in a Traditional Bedouin Tent
After a long day of exploring Wadi Rum, there’s little better than a delicious local meal and a good night’s sleep. Fortunately, the hospitality of the Bedouins of Wadi Rum is legendary, so you won’t even have to leave the desert to find both!
There are a huge number of Wadi Rum campsites in the area ranging from fairly basic setups to luxury glamping sites, but all of them share in the Bedouin spirit of hospitality. The camp where we stayed featured tents with a glass wall facing the sunrise so we could wake with the sun, and a delicious chicken zarb dinner cooked under the desert sands!
They also provided us with our desert guide for the day, which helped to make our whole trip super convenient.
With such a large number of campsites to choose from, you’re sure to find one that checks all the boxes. Here are some suggestions to get you started.
The Camp We Chose – Desert Dreams
This was the camp that we chose to use for our visit to Wadi Rum, so I can vouch for their excellence!
The tents were spacious with a large window facing the east so you can wake to the warmth of the rising sun. Dinner was a delicious selection of chicken and vegetables, and the bathroom facilities were clean and included showers to wash off all the sand after a day on the dunes. Do note that the tents did not have heaters so they were a bit chilly at night, but with extra blankets we were comfortable.
Definitely a great option at a decent price!
Luxury Desert Glamping – Memories Aicha Luxury Camp
Camping in the desert sounds like it could be an uncomfortable experience, but this highly-rated campsite takes care to make you feel like you’re in an oasis of luxury instead of out in the wilderness.
Memories Aicha does cost quite a bit more than some of the other camps in Wadi Rum, but for that extra cash you get an experience luxurious enough to make you feel like royalty!
The domed rooms have windows open to the night sky, allowing stargazing from the comfort of your bed, and each site has its own private bathrooms and shower. The food is very highly rated, and the staff regularly show their guests the meaning of Bedouin hospitality.
If we had had a little more flexibility in our budget, this is hands-down the place we would have chosen!
Best Budget Stay – Stardust Camp
Especially if you’re planning on staying for a longer period of time, the camp you choose often comes down to how much it costs to visit. Luckily, choosing a low-priced option doesn’t mean having to let go of the luxuries that make Wadi Rum a great place to visit!
Stardust Camp in Wadi Rum offers many of the same benefits as the other camps, including beautiful night skies, adventurous desert tours, and hospitable Bedouin hosts. It just also happens to be way cheaper than its more luxurious cousins.
They are especially well-liked by families with kids, and offer spacious tents with room for the whole family to spread out.
Visiting Wadi Rum with Kids
Visiting a desert with kids can seem intimidating at first, especially if it isn’t something that you’ve done before, but Wadi Rum was a fabulous experience for our kids from beginning to end, and I would definitely recommend it for anyone!
Here’s a bit of our experience so you’ll know what to expect.
Desert Camp with Kids
Since we drove to Wadi Rum from Amman, we arrived too late in the day to start our tour right away, so our first afternoon and evening were spent exploring the area around the camp. Most of the camps sit right up against the giant rock walls that are the most visible features of Wadi Rum, and our kids loved exploring the sand under our cliff.
Some of our finds included small desert plants and grasses, bird and animal tracks in the sand, and small dunes that our kids loved running down as fast as they could. After that, we watched our food getting buried in an underground oven, and joined our camp hosts and the other guests for some traditional Bedouin tea. The kids also loved checking out the stars, which were brilliant that far out in the desert.
Definitely a win.
Wadi Rum Tour with Kids
The next morning, our host took us out for our desert tour in the back of beat-up truck with benches in the back. We did our trip in March, so our host provided blankets against the morning chill.
We started with Abu Khashaba Canyon, which was both one of the most beautiful and most challenging spots that we visited with the kids. Starting there was a great decision since they were still full of energy. They managed the short hike beautifully, especially enjoying getting to scramble over the boulders in the path about halfway through.
After that, we visited the Um Frouth Rock Bridge, which is the most accessible rock bridge in the area. While the others can take some hours to properly view, we managed Um Frouth in less than 20 minutes, and afterward, our guide got out some sandboards for the kids.
By the time we got to the Khazali inscriptions, our youngest (5) was feeling a bit tired. She revived a bit as we looked at the petroglyphs, but other tour groups were making their rounds by that point, and the crevice where the inscriptions hid felt a bit crowded. I took pictures of the informational signs, spent a few minutes gazing at the glyphs, and then we moved out.
At our next stop, the Red Dune, our youngest refused to climb, so she and my wife grabbed some tea in the tent at its base and got some henna art done. My son and I made the trek uphill while they waited. If your kids like to climb, the Red Dune is a perfect place for that! Plus, the views from the top were stunning.
By our last stop, Lawrence’s Spring, all of us were ready for a break, so we didn’t explore the area as thoroughly as we could. We did watch a bit of the soccer game that was in progress when we arrived, though.
In all, our tour lasted only around 4 hours, and while there was still plenty that I would have liked to see, the half-day tour ended up being perfect for our kids.
Do I need a guide for Wadi Rum?
Wadi Rum can technically be visited without a guide, but practically speaking, the trip ends up being far better if you hire one of the locals to show you around.
Part of that is simply that they know the area well and can take you straight to each location without having to consult a map or stop to figure out where they are. But it’s also really nice to have someone else do the driving, especially with all that sand!
Our guide mostly just acted as a driver, not a tour guide, but really that’s all we were looking for, anyways.
If you’re already staying overnight in the desert, it’s easiest to book your guide through your host there. However, even if you’re not the desert camping type, there are plenty of great choices, like this one on TripAdvisor.
Of all the deserts I’ve visited with my kids, Jordan’s Wadi Rum is one of the most approachable and easy to visit. It’s an excellent choice for families wanting to get out in nature and can be really educational as well, if you’re willing to do the research.
Mostly though, it’s a beautiful and relaxing destination sure to be a hit with most families.
