Wadi Rum Jeep Tour with Hotel Transfer from Petra

From Petra to Wadi Rum: the transfer

How do you get to Wadi Rum from Petra? The Wadi Rum Visitor Centre is about two hours by road from Wadi Musa, south along the mountain road and then the Desert Highway, with the drop from the Ras al-Naqab escarpment opening the first wide desert views. We pick you up at your hotel in Wadi Musa at 07:30 or 11:30 in an air-conditioned vehicle, so there is no need to work out buses or taxis.

The morning departure puts you in the desert before the midday heat and brings you back to Petra by late afternoon; the later departure runs the jeep tour into the softer light of the afternoon. Either way the transfer, tolls and taxes are all included, and the same vehicle brings you back to the same hotel. Pickups from outside Wadi Musa or from the airport are not included.

Wadi Rum Protected Area, the Valley of the Moon

Wadi Rum is a protected desert of sandstone and granite mountains rising from red and orange sand, listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site for both its landscape and its thousands of years of human traces. Bedouin tribes still live here, and the jeeps that take visitors into the valleys are driven by local Bedouin who know every track. The entry fee to the protected area is paid at the Visitor Centre or covered by the Jordan Pass; it is not included in this tour.

Is Wadi Rum worth visiting on a day trip from Petra? Yes: four hours by jeep is enough to reach the classic sights while leaving time for the silence between them. The best time to visit Wadi Rum is spring and autumn, when days are warm and skies clear; summer middays are very hot, so choose the early departure, and winter days are pleasant with cold evenings.

Lawrence's Spring and Khazali Canyon

The first stop on most Wadi Rum jeep tours is Lawrence's Spring, a trickle of water on the flank of Jebel Rum where fig trees grow against the rock and Nabataean inscriptions mark the old caravan route. A short scramble up the boulders gives a view over the valley and the village. From there the jeep crosses the sand to Khazali Canyon, a narrow slot in the mountain that stays cool even at noon.

Inside the canyon the walls carry Thamudic and Nabataean petroglyphs of people, camels and ibex, left by travellers who sheltered here long before any road existed. Your guide points out the clearest carvings and explains what is known about them. Allow around an hour for the two stops together, including the drive between them.

The red sand dunes and sandboarding

Wadi Rum's dunes are not the endless seas of sand of other deserts; they are tall banks of deep red sand blown up against the mountains, and the most famous of them leans against Jebel Umm Ulaydiyya. The jeep drops you at the foot, you climb the soft ridge for the view, and then the fun part: fifteen minutes of sandboarding down the slope is included in this tour.

The climb is harder than it looks, so go slowly and let the colour of the sand against the dark rock do the work for your photos. This is also where the scale of the desert becomes clear, with the valley floors stretching away in every direction. Families with children usually name the dune as their favourite stop of the day.

Rock bridges and the heart of the desert

The jeep then heads deeper into the protected area to one of Wadi Rum's natural rock bridges. The Um Fruth bridge is the one most four-hour tours reach: a sandstone arch high enough to make a dramatic photo and easy enough to climb for most visitors with a little help. On the way you pass mushroom-shaped rocks and the long, striped faces of mountains such as Jebel Burdah, whose own, much higher bridge needs a longer trek.

Between stops the guide lets the jeep roll through wide valleys where the only sound is the wind, and he stops wherever the light or a camel herd asks for a photo. This is the part of the Wadi Rum 4-hour jeep tour that visitors remember most, and the reason the four-hour version is worth choosing over the three-hour one if you have the time.

Bedouin lunch and tea in the desert

Bedouin hospitality is as much a part of Wadi Rum as the rock. Partway through the tour your guide stops in the shade of a cliff or at a Bedouin camp, brews sweet tea over embers and serves the included lunch with a soft drink. It is a simple, generous meal eaten on cushions with the desert in front of you, and a good moment to ask about life in the valley and the tribes who live here.

Unlimited bottled water is provided throughout the tour, which matters in this dry air. After lunch the jeep continues to the last stops before returning to the Visitor Centre, where our driver is waiting with the air-conditioned vehicle for the drive back to your hotel in Wadi Musa. If you would rather continue south, the one-way option drops you in Aqaba city instead.