Private Wadi Rum Jeep Tour from Aqaba

The road from Aqaba to Wadi Rum

How to get to Wadi Rum from Aqaba? The desert lies about 60 kilometres north-east of the city, roughly an hour by road. The drive follows the Desert Highway up from the Red Sea coast, then turns east onto the road through the village of Rashidiyah to the Wadi Rum Visitor Centre, as granite mountains give way to the warm red sandstone of the desert.

With your own car and driver, the timing is entirely yours. Choose an early pickup for cooler air and soft light, or a pickup at 14:30 or 15:00 to be in the desert in the late afternoon, when the colours deepen. On the way your driver can stop for photos of the first views over the valley of Wadi Rum.

Wadi Rum Protected Area, the Valley of the Moon

Wadi Rum is a protected landscape of sandstone and granite mountains rising from wide sandy valleys, often called the Valley of the Moon. UNESCO listed it in 2011 as a mixed natural and cultural World Heritage Site for its scenery and for the rock art and inscriptions left by people who have crossed it for thousands of years. Bedouin families still live here and guide visitors through the desert.

Is Wadi Rum worth visiting from Aqaba? Even two hours in a jeep shows you a landscape found nowhere else in the region: silent valleys, cliffs that glow orange and red, and huge views from every dune. The jeep is the way to explore it, since the tracks are deep sand and the distances between sights are long.

Khazali Canyon and Lawrence's Spring

Khazali Canyon is a narrow, shaded cleft in a sandstone mountain whose walls are covered with Thamudic and Nabataean inscriptions, carved figures of people and animals, and the outlines of feet. You step into the mouth of the canyon for a few minutes to see the carvings, which were left by travellers and herders who sheltered here over many centuries.

Lawrence's Spring is a small spring on the slopes of Jebel Rum near Wadi Rum Village, marked by a patch of green against the bare rock. It has long supplied water to Bedouin herders and caravans, and the view of the cliffs above is a classic photo stop. On a two-hour route the stops are short, so the jeep driver keeps a steady pace between sights.

Red dunes and rock bridges

The red sand dunes of Wadi Rum are piled against the cliffs and coloured by iron oxide, and climbing one is part of every visit. From the top you look out over the valleys and the surrounding mountains. The jeep route usually also stops at a natural rock bridge, such as the small arch of Um Fruth, where you can climb up for photos.

The best time to visit Wadi Rum is from October to April, when days are pleasant and nights are cool; in summer, an early pickup avoids the strongest heat. After your jeep tour, your driver takes you back to your hotel in Aqaba, giving you the rest of the day for the beach, the sea or your ship.