Wadi Rum Desert Eyes — Local services in Wadi Rum Village

Reviewed activities: • 1 Night Accommodation - Desert Camp 15 Oct 2022 • Essence of Wadi Rum Trek 16-20 Oct 2022 • Rakhabat Canyon & Burrah Canyon Day Hike 21 Oct 2022

We can highly recommend Desert Eyes. The preparation with Khaled (owner) went very smoothly by email. Desert Eyes is very flexible and open for customizing their standard offerings to fit your wishes and requirements regarding time window, level of difficulty, distance, food and other personal interests. All agreements made in advance were fulfilled. Every evening Khaled visited us to find out if everything went according to plan. If necessary, adjustments could be made every day, but that was not necessary for us. Everything went perfectly.

With the "Desert Camp" package (1 night) you get a pleasant evening and overnight stay in the desert with all basic amenities (shower, toilet, beds, internet). I would recommend combining the overnight stay with at least one day activity (day hike, jeep tour, camel ride). With this combination you will get a good picture of Wadi Rum.

However, if you like hiking and are into outdoor life and activities, you should definitely book the Essence of Wadi Rum (+ Rakhabat and Burrah Canyon) with Desert Eyes. It is a particularly varied and immersive experience where you hike across immense plains and through wadi’s, chorums and siqs (canyons). Also on the program are Jordan's highest mountain and two beautiful "bridges." You will spend several days hiking through more remote areas of Wadi Rum where there are far fewer tourists and jeeps. For us, this was a definite plus.

Our guide Yosf (aka King of the Desert) is a young and proud Bedouin who loves hiking, Wadi Rum and ancient traditions. He is an excellent guide who showed us the very best of Wadi Rum and gave us many insights. Beware though: when Yosf replaces his sandals with sneakers, you know it will soon become a tad more difficult 😉

Our cook Abdullah spoiled us for 6 days with all kinds of typical Jordanian dishes. We were surprised each time how Abdullah could prepare a delicious lunch or dinner using only 1 gas pit and a wood fire in the middle of the desert. Even after our trekking in Wadi Rum, we hardly had anything better in any restaurant throughout Jordan than with Abdullah in the desert.

We also shared many pleasant moments with Abdullah, Yosf and Khaled in the evenings after hiking and diner. We enjoyed many interesting and inspiring conversations over a wood fire. But also just chit chatting and laughing. We even learned a little Arabic and of course enjoyed stargazing before falling asleep under the awesome open sky.

Khaled, Abdullah & Yosf all went for the extra mile. They made it an unforgettable experience for us....

While the desert is beautiful and the camp is decent myself and 2 other guests in my party were underwhelmed and disappointed with the level of service from Khalid the tour operator. On our first night we did the sunset tour which was nice but there was no towels available for us to use after showering. The website does not state to bring our own, and we were told that the towels would be arriving soon but they never did. This wasn’t a huge deal but the second day of our full tour was more of a problem for the following reasons:

The tour guide did not seem knowledgeable about the sights and history of the sites we visited…he was more of a driver than a guide. While we did enjoy the Bedouin lunch experience the meal itself was not substantial. Also, our guide wanted us to stay at this “camp” for 2 hours as a way to kill time to which we politely turned down. There was no real hiking on the tour except a walk in the desert under the hot sun with no shade. It seemed as if the tour was not sufficient for a full day unless you wanted to keep stopping in the shade to “rest”. Not much to see after a few rocks and mountains which all look the same. When we returned to camp we were not offered anything to eat nor did we have the option of returning to the village to purchase food. Our rental car was with the tour operator so we were essentially stuck and abandoned at the desert camp with nothing but water to drink. I attempted to contact Khalid several times with no such luck and was told by the support staff that they were busy and could not bring us to the village. This was around 5PM and we knew dinner would not be served until almost 9pm. The three of us definitely felt mislead as to the quality of the experience we would be offered. Although the reviews are mostly great for this operator, our experience could have been better if the guide was more knowledgeable and we had more food/meal options. We ate breakfast at 8AM and lunch around 12:30 PM…after walking in the sun and burning calories it’s not unreasonable to assume we would eat again before dinner 8 hours later. We are not spoiled tourists…but if you have us in the middle of the desert with no car and nothing to buy and no options to feed ourselves what are we supposed to do? The desert is amazing but I would not choose this operator again as we feel that the value and attention were severely lacking. Also, I doubt the blankets were washed as they smelled bad. Jordan has suffered from the lack of tourism since the war, and I think they are cutting cost which has decreased the quality of the experience. If you’re considering Wadi Rum make sure you camp in a more luxurious experience or...

Nel deserto 🐫 di Wadi Rum Giordania 🇯🇴

Il deserto di Wadi Rum è un vero e proprio tesoro di bellezze naturali. Con le sue affascinanti formazioni rocciose, i colori che variano dal rosso al dorato e le immense distese di sabbia, è un luogo che incanta ogni visitatore. Durante il viaggio, si possono ammirare scenari mozzafiato, come le maestose dune di sabbia, i monoliti di arenaria e le spettacolari montagne.

Un'esperienza tipica e imperdibile è il viaggio sui cammelli, che permette di esplorare il deserto nel modo più tradizionale e autentico. I visitatori possono cavalcare questi maestosi animali attraverso le affascinanti distese di sabbia e godersi panorami indimenticabili.

Altro momento clou del viaggio è l'autentico pranzo nel cuore del deserto, preparato dal proprio guida beduino. Immersi in un'atmosfera surreale, si potranno assaporare i piatti tradizionali della cucina locale, come il mansaf o il zarb, serviti in the middle of nowhere, rendendo l'esperienza ancora più memorabile.

Per quanto riguarda i pagamenti, è importante sapere che nei campi beduini e per le escursioni nel deserto, solitamente si accettano soltanto contanti, sia in dollari statunitensi (USD) che in dinari giordani (JOD).

Per accedere al deserto di Wadi Rum (5-6 ore di viaggio in macchina da Amman), è consigliato munirsi del Jordan Pass, che include l'ingresso al sito e altri vantaggi per i visitatori. In alternativa, è possibile effettuare il pagamento direttamente sul posto. In ogni caso, è fondamentale informarsi in anticipo sulle modalità d'ingresso e sulle tariffe, per organizzare al meglio la propria avventura nel cuore del deserto.

Un'esperienza da non perdere durante il viaggio nel deserto di Wadi Rum è il pernottamento in un campo beduino. Questa opportunità di immergersi nella vita quotidiana dei beduini non è adatta a tutti, poiché richiede un certo spirito di adattamento. Si dorme in tende tradizionali, con il minimo indispensabile in termini di comfort, ma è proprio questo che rende l'esperienza autentica e indimenticabile.

La maggior parte dei campi beduini offre servizi di base come docce (anche calde) e bagni in comune. Tuttavia, è importante tenere presente che in queste zone remote, la connessione telefonica può essere inesistente e ogni tanto si può rimanere al buio a causa di blackout temporanei.

Nonostante queste sfide, il pernottamento nel deserto di Wadi Rum regala momenti indimenticabili sotto un cielo stellato, accompagnati dal calore dell'ospitalità beduina e dal fascino delle antiche tradizioni. Un'avventura da vivere almeno una volta nella vita, soprattutto per chi è alla ricerca di un'esperienza autentica e...