Hotels in Wadi Rum are some of the most diverse in the world. From luxury hotels to the simplest of tents, in the Wadi Rum desert you will be able to find all of them – and all that lays in-between.
But beware! Picking a hotel in the desert is not quite the same as elsewhere.
In this article, we will introduce you to the hotel industry of Wadi Rum, what you can expect, how the pricing works and what would be your best pick.
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- Save Money on Your Wadi Rum Hotel.
- An Introduction to Wadi Rum – 5 Things to Know Before You Visit Wadi Rum
- What to Expect from Hotels in Wadi Rum
- Wadi Rum Hotels – Accommodation Types in the Wadi Rum Desert
- Our Recommendation – Where to Stay in Wadi Rum
- Our Experience – Picking the Right Host for Your Visit to Wadi Rum
- Conclusion
- Frequently Asked Questions
An Introduction to Wadi Rum – 5 Things to Know Before You Visit Wadi Rum
Is it your first time visiting Wadi Rum? Be prepared for an experience unlike any other! Wadi Rum in Southern Jordan is a desert that is known for its red sand and eroded sandstone rock formations.
Recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Wadi Rum is considered one of Jordan’s biggest attractions alongside the Rose City of Petra.
Every year, Wadi Rum attracts more and more adventure seekers looking for jeep tours, desert hikes, rock climbing and other adrenaline-high activities. In between activities, Wadi Rum is the perfect place to learn about Bedouin culture, the culture of the nomads inhabiting Wadi Rum.
But behold travellers! Visiting Wadi Rum is not like visiting any place in the world. From transportation to hotels and activities, things work differently in Wadi Rum.
Take these 5 things into account when booking your Wadi Rum hotel:
- Your Hotel Choices: Most hotels in the Wadi Rum Protected Area are so-called desert camps. Unlike hotels, these are far more secluded, giving you a more authentic experience. However, Wadi Rum camps don’t come with the same amenities that you might expect from hotels elsewhere.
- Staying in the Desert: In the Wadi Rum desert, you will often be without internet. Electricity is provided via solar panels. Running water is brought by trucks. Visitors are encouraged not to waste water. Try to use your resources responsibly when visiting Wadi Rum.
- Book All-in-One Tours: I’m usually a fan of doing everything on my own. But in Wadi Rum, booking a tour alongside your hotel stay will save you money and make your trip a lot more hassle-free. Booking a full package also means that your Bedouin guide will take care of all of your transfers.
- Book a Jordan Pass: When you visit Wadi Rum, you’ll be asked to pay an entrance fee to the Wadi Rum Protected Area. This prevent this book the Jordan Pass before travelling to Jordan. The Jordan Pass includes your visa fee and the entry fees to 40+ attractions including Petra and the Wadi Rum Protected Area.
- Check transportation options: Despite its popularity, Wadi Rum is not the easiest place to reach. If you are not arriving by rental car or taxi, we recommend catching a bus to Aqaba first and getting a bus to Wadi Rum from there. Check out our transportation guide for more crucial intel.
What to Expect from Hotels in Wadi Rum
When selecting your Wadi Rum hotel, there is a few things you should know upfront. When scouting the hotel market on Booking.com or TripAdvisor, you will quickly learn that there is plenty of hotels in Wadi Rum with huge price differences. Depending on your choice, your experience will be drastically different.
From the best luxury hotels, to the classic Wadi Rum desert camp, you will have to check carefully what comes with your hotel room and what doesn’t. For example, an air conditioned accommodation is not necessarily the norm in the desert. After all, electricity is won by solar panels and water is brought in by trucks.
But what does that mean in practice? Let’s check it out by looking at what you CAN expect at first.
Common Accommodation Features
When booking your hotel in Wadi Rum, make sure that your accommodation includes the following features:
- Transfer to and from your desert camp: As there is no way to get into the desert without an offload vehicle, jeep transfers are mandatory. Usually, they are included in your overnight stay.
- Private Tent: In any case, even with the cheapest option, you will enjoy some variation of a private tent in the Wadi Rum desert. Shared accommodation is not a thing here.
- Comfy Bed and extra sheets: A comfortable night’s sleep will be the least of your worries. Extra sheets are also provided for cold desert nights. If a tent does not meet your standards, feel free to ask for a change of room.
- Running Water and Electricity: During your stay in Wadi Rum, you will be in the middle of the desert. While this is a great time to disconnect from the outside world, you will not miss electricity and running water. The tap water is even drinkable (speaking from experience here). Internet connectivity continues to be an issue however.
- Great hospitality: The hotels in Wadi Rum are run by the sam Bedouins that have lived in Wadi Rum for centuries. As Muslims, they take pride in offering hospitality to anyone who comes their way. This includes lengthy conversations and lots of sweet Bedouin tea at the fireplace.
- Delicious food: Upon booking your room, make sure that breakfast and dinner are included in your stay. As there will be no alternativ for you to get it elsewhere, it is usually included in your stay. Meals are served in form of a buffet breakfast and a traditional Bedouin dinner.
- Free Private Parking: Many luxury camps and hotels in Wadi Rum offer free private parking, ensuring convenience and security for guests with vehicles.
- Optional: Family Camp: Check for family camps in Wadi Rum as some operators cater specifically to families with young kids. There, you will find spacious private suites with private bathrooms and child-friendly food along with special activities catered towards children.
Why are Wadi Rum camps so cheap?
Even a superficial scout of the hotels in Wadi Rum will likely have shown you one thing: there is some really cheap hotels in Wadi Rum. And I’m talking dirt cheap.
It is not a rare sight to find hotels in Wadi Rum going for 8€ a night including transfers, breakfast and dinner. Even stay for 6€ a night are not unheard of. How in the world is that possible? The secret of Wadi Rum’s cheap hotels is the entrepreneurship of Wadi Rum’s Bedouins.
The sights of the Wadi Rum are dotted all throughout the desert and not reachable by foot. The Bedouins are aware of this, too. Because of this, they will wait for you to book a Jeep tour, hike, rock climbing trip, camel ride or hot air balloon ride with them during your stay in the desert.
While dumping the prices for hotels and desert camps, hosts hope for you to pay for one of these tours along with your stay in the desert. And that’s where their profits are. In fact, this behaviour has even become a sort of honor code. Stay for (almost) free and book a tour in return. Tit for tat, essentially.
For the best rates, book your hotel & tours in advance. Among rising competition in Wadi Rum, we recommend opting for traditional desert camps to experience local culture and the natural beauty of Wadi Rum.
Wadi Tribe aims at funnelling tourism towards local Bedouin families with a true commitment to sharing Wadi Rum’s history, culture and natural beauty.
Wadi Rum Hotels – Accommodation Types in the Wadi Rum Desert
In Wadi Rum, you will have the chance to stay in a normal hotel, a luxury camp, a bubble tent and a traditional Bedouin desert camp.
Let’s take a more detailed look at what makes these different types of accommodation special.
Wadi Rum Hotels and Apartments – The Classic Choice
While Wadi Rum might not be known for classic hotels and holiday apartments, it does not mean that you won’t find any in Wadi Rum.
There are few conventional hotels and apartments in Wadi Rum, owing to the remote location of the desert. If you value comfort and luxury on the level of luxury resorts, we recommend a stay in a high-end hotel in Aqaba City and coming to Wadi Rum as part of a Full Day Tour.
When looking for a conventional hotel in Wadi Rum itself, only a handful or so results will pop up. All of these, including a bed and breakfast as well as a full holiday apartment, are located in Wadi Rum Village. This can be and advantage as well as a disadvantage depending on your itinerary.
Staying in Wadi Rum Village means that you are close to all grocery and convenience stores as well as laundry salons.A stay in the village can therefore be a great pitstop, before embarking on your desert experience.
However, for your stay in the desert itself, staying in Wadi Rum Village is not a wise choice. The village itself is far from the sights of Wadi Rum and not really worth spending a lot of time in. Once in Wadi Rum, discover the desert by staying in a real Bedouin desert camp outside pf Wadi Rum Village.
Wadi Rum Luxury Camp – The Luxurious Choice
Luxury hotels in Wadi Rum have become plentiful in the last years. They present a thrilling combination of traditional Bedouin lifestyle features such as the characteristic black tent optic, while offering all the amenities of a luxurious getaway.
Luxury camps offer amenities such as air-conditioned rooms, private bathrooms, and luxury tents with mountain views.
During your stay in a Luxury hotel in Wadi Rum, you will get to enjoy air conditioned rooms (also featuring family rooms), a private bathroom with hot water, private balconies or terraces along with wonderful food and high-end facilities such as a swimming pool or a hot tub.
Luxury hotels in Wadi Rum generally costs between 50€ to 200€ a night depending on the specific experience you are looking for. In return they offer spacious rooms, more accommodation features, included meals and room service.
Most luxury hotels enjoy great reviews concerning the service, the food and the ambience. Cleanliness (more so the lack of it) can be a reoccurring issue, so make sure to check your room first, before agreeing to stay in it.
Wadi Rum Bubbles – The Instagramable Place
Among the luxury hotels in Wadi Rum, the bubble tents are the cherry on top. Owing to numerous Hollywood blockbusters being filmed in Wadi Rum, the so-called Wadi Rum Bubble Luxotel has taken the Wadi Rum desert by storm. But what’s so special about them?
Wadi Rum Bubble tents are essentially transparent half-bubbles propped up in the desert and equipped with a strong air conditioning unit. They offer panoramic views of the night sky and an almost outerwordly atmosphere.
Set in the red sand of the Wadi Rum desert, these bubble tents almost make it seem that you are taking a vacation on Mars instead of Wadi Rum, a great snapshot for your Instagram feed.
And indeed, the aesthetic doesn’t disappoint. Major movie sets such as the set of ‘The Martian’ have taken advantage of Wadi Rum’s Martian features and these bubbles allow you to imagine what life on Mars could really be like.
All the rest of the amenities are the same as in a conventional luxury camp. In many cases, the bubble tents are even built within the confines of camps that also offer standard tents.
Side Note: We took a closer look at Wadi Rum’s bubble tents. Read our Wadi Rum Bubble Luxotel review, if you are considering staying in one of Instagram’s newest favourites.
Wadi Rum Desert Camp – The Budget Option
This last style of accomodation is one for sure adventure seekers and the perfect blend of an amazing experience, deep cultural insights and wonderful hosts.
The classic Wadi Rum desert camp is a simple, traditional-style campsite in the middle of the Wadi Rum Desert. A Wadi Rum desert camp offers simple, small, traditional-sytle Bedouin tents made out of goat hair. Inside you will find a comfortable bed – all you need at night in Wadi Rum.
Traditional Wadi Rum desert camps are heavily inspired by actual Bedouin desert camps, borrowing their aesthetic and adding some elements of modernity. Moreover, they are often run by more traditional Bedouins offering valuable insights into Bedouin life and beyond.
Bathrooms are communal and located in a separate bathhouse that is cleaned daily. Meals are consumed in the communal tents and around the fireplace, where you can connect with travelers and Bedouins alike.
In your simple Wadi Rum camp you can, however, still expect a high level of hospitality. Most options include two in-camp meals per day and another one during your tour, just like in a luxury camp. Often times luxury tents and basic tents are located in one camp anyways.
Moreover, from your Wadi Rum camp, you will be able to secure great deals for jeep tours, hikes and rock climbing adventures as well as camel rides, making them the perfect destination for backpackers on a budget.
Wadi Tribe fosters responsible tourism by promoting a traditional Bedouin camp in the heart of Wadi Rum (see above). This small camp is surrounded by stunning landscapes and inhabited by welcoming people, three members of the Al-Zalabiah family.
From delicious food and comfy beds to invaluable cultural insights and thrilling jeep tours, staying in a traditional desert camps like this is well worth the money.
Our Recommendation – Where to Stay in Wadi Rum
In 2023, we stayed in Wadi Rum for three full weeks. During our stay, we had the chance to see multiple types of accommodation and heard feedback from numerous fellow travellers.
This informed our opinion on different hotels in Wadi Rum. Moreover, it revealed to us, which type of hotel in Wadi Rum allows you to make the most of your time in the desert.
With futuristic bubble tents, the Wadi Rum desert has gained popularity on social media in recent years. Luxurious camps with lots of amenities have since surged in popularity.
The Wadi Rum Bubble Luxotel and other high-end hotels are now popping up everywhere in the Wadi Rum desert, offering anything from pools to even hot tubs.
And yes, I get the appeal of these types of accommodation. After all they seem to be the perfect blend of luxury and simplicity. But honestly, I don’t believe they are actually worth it. And I’ll tell you why.
While it is certainly amazing to stay in a futuristic bubble tent and get THAT Instagram snapshot, you will actually not spend a lot of time in there. From our experience, most days are spent outside of camp on tours or hikes.
Meals are consumed in communal tents and watching the stars works best outside. Therefore, you will only really stay in your tent when you go to sleep. Is that really worth a $100 plus price tag?
Additionally, by staying in a luxury hotel in Wadi Rum, you might be contributing to an unsustainable type of tourism. Air conditioning & Co. use a lot of energy and water, both of which have to be supplied from somewhere.
While electricity is won by solar panels, water has to be brought in by trucks, an energy-intense and inefficient process. Therefore, you travelers should rather save water in the desert than jump into swimming pools.
Our Experience – Picking the Right Host for Your Visit to Wadi Rum
In the chapter above we discussed, how you might not want to book the priciest accommodation in Wadi Rum as you are gonna be spending most of your time outside exploring anyways.
Additionally, there is a few other factors of your accommodation that influence your activities in Wadi Rum.
Not all hotels in Wadi Rum are actually located in Wadi Rum, the Protected Area that is. Quite a number of them are located on the Northern edge of the Wadi Rum Reserve.
While this is not a problem in itself, it can additionally influence your experience of Wadi Rum in some ways.
Firstly, staying on the edge of Wadi Rum, you might have longer transfer times to and from sights, depending on which spots you are planning to visit.
Also, camps outside of Wadi Rum tend to be a little busier and have more light pollution. If you are planning to watch the stars in Wadi Rum, it is better to opt for a small desert camp deep within Wadi Rum rather than a camp on the edge of the reserve.
Conclusion
There is plenty of hotels in Wadi Rum and even after close examination there is not right or wrong choice of hotel in Wadi Rum. However, the different types of accommodations cater to vastly different audiences and provide drastically different experiences.
The best luxury hotels in Wadi Rum combine high-end hospitality with desert views, while making sure that all of your wishes will be fulfilled. Staying in luxury hotels is a comfort choice and a fitting destination for a romantic getaway.
Besides luxury hotels, there is some more modest hotels in Wadi Rum you can opt for. The traditional Bedouin desert camps of Wadi Rum are you pick, if you are looking to save on your stay and have an authentic experience of the Bedouin and the Wadi Rum desert.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it worth staying in Wadi Rum?
Yes, it is absolutely worth staying in Wad Rum, even if you are just coming for one night. Wadi Rum has loads to offers from amazing landscapes and an extensive history, to a rich culture and thrilling activities. Additionally, the hotels in Wadi Rum display amazing hospitality.
How much does it cost to stay in Wadi Rum?
Staying in Wadi Rum can have different costs depending on your budget. If you are looking to stay in Wadi Rum on a budget, you can stay in a desert camp, have dinner and breakfast there, as well as a half day jeep tour of the desert for as little as $50. With a bit more money to spare, you will be looking at roughly $100 per day and person.
How many days should I stay in Wadi Rum?
Local hosts recommend guests to stay in the desert for two nights. This will give you the chance to be part of a jeep tour and another activity of your choice, while not quite growing sick of the admittedly harsh desert climate. However, having stayed in Wadi Rum for three weeks, we can assure you that longer stays offer even more excitement and discovery.
Is 1 day in Wadi Rum enough?
Coming to Wadi Rum for a short time is definitely possible. If you do not have a lot of time to spare, we recommend you to come and take a Half Day Jeep Tour to see the desert’s most popular sights. However we strongly advise you to stay in a desert camp in Wadi Rum for at least one night, so you can witness the clear night skies of the desert and the blanket of a million stars over it.
What is so special about Wadi Rum?
Wadi Rum is considered a special place for a number of reason. Mostly, the desert in the South of Jordan is thought to be special for its unique natural features. Parts of the desert are covered in red sand, others are dominated by semi-eroded sandstone rock formations. These have earned Wadi Rum the nickname ‘Mars on Earth’.
Wadi Tribe 