Pass The Passport
Completed: Walk In The Wadi Rum

Bucket List / Travel Goals

Walk In The Wadi Rum

Ticked off

Red sand, towering sandstone cliffs and a night in a Bedouin camp under a sky blazing with stars.

Walk In The Wadi Rum

The adventure

The jeep leaves the village, the tarmac ends, and within minutes there's nothing but sand the colour of rust and huge sandstone cliffs rising from the valley floor, eroded into domes, arches and melting shapes. It's easy to see why film-makers keep casting it as Mars.

Days are spent bouncing between sights: scrambling up the Burdah rock bridge or Um Fruth arch, sliding down red dunes, finding ancient carvings of camels and hunters on canyon walls, and drinking sweet sage tea with the Bedouin in the shade. Then, as the sun drops, the rock walls burn orange and the silence is total. Dinner is often zarb, lamb and vegetables slow-cooked under the sand, and after that the sky fills with more stars than you knew existed.

Why it’s epic

  • T. E. Lawrence passed through during the Arab Revolt, and Lawrence of Arabia was filmed here in the 1960s.
  • It has stood in for alien worlds in The Martian, Dune and Rogue One.
  • Jordan's highest peak, Jabal Umm ad Dami, at around 1,850 metres, rises at the southern edge of the area.
  • Wadi Rum has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2011, for both its landscape and its rock art.

What it is

Wadi Rum is a desert valley of red sand and sandstone mountains, used as a film location for Mars.

How to do it

Book a Bedouin camp and a 4x4 or camel tour. It's an hour from Petra.

Top tip

Spend a night; the stars are spectacular.

Need to know

  • The Jordan Pass covers your visa fee and entry to Wadi Rum and Petra, as long as you stay at least three nights in Jordan.
  • Book camps and jeep tours with licensed local Bedouin operators, and agree what's included first.
  • Desert nights are cold outside summer, so bring warm layers.

Plan this trip

Rough cost
£750 to £2,000 per person, including flights from the UK
Time needed
1 to 2 days
Best time to go
March to May, September to November
Fly into
AQJ airport

Flights to Jordan are the main cost; camps range from simple tents to pricier bubble domes.

Sample itinerary

  1. Day 1Drive from Aqaba or Petra; afternoon jeep tour of the canyons, arches and dunes
  2. NightSunset over the desert and a night in a Bedouin camp
  3. Day 2Sunrise camel ride, then on to Aqaba or the Dead Sea

Do it yourself

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My experience

Ticked off, but the full story is still to be written up.

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