Ninety seconds on Wadi Rum Protected Area
Book your camp before you land in Jordan, because the camp runs the whole stay: it collects you in Rum village, arranges the jeep and cooks dinner.
Jeep tours are sold by length, two, three or four hours or a full day, and all follow a fairly fixed route, so choose by length. Even a short tour reaches the Red Sand Dune, Khazali Canyon and its rock carvings, Lawrence's Spring and the small rock bridge. A full day adds Um Fruth rock bridge, a famous photo stop that draws big crowds.
The one hard outing is Burdah Rock Bridge, a strenuous climb of four to five hours with scrambling and one short section of rock climbing. Skip it if heights bother you.
Book well ahead for a bubble tent in spring or autumn. Camps range from goatskin tents with a thin mattress to transparent domes with private bathrooms.
Camps multiplied after 2010, many of them without a licence, and that sprawl is now the main threat to the desert. Choose a licensed camp, and book the jeep through it: licensed operators are managed and trained by the reserve's own staff.
Wadi Rum, and further afield
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