"Wadi Rum is beautiful!" a Wadi Rum Travel Page by TheWanderingCamel

A new Visitors' Centre has just been opened in Wadi Rum. It is about 6 kilometers from Rum Village and is now the normal terminus for tourist transport, and it is here that you should pay your entrance fee.
This entrance fee is fixed at 2JD at the moment. It has been announced that the price will stay the same at least during 2005.

The normal procedure is that you choose the tour that you would like to do and you go off with the next guide waiting nearby. If you have the name of a particular guide he is only allowed to take you if he can show a written reservation dated 48 hours before your arrival. In that case there is no problem. This is an attempt to stop the ripping off that used to go on. No reservations are currently accepted from any hotel.

You can also go alone to Wadi Rum, sleep at the Resthouse there and wander around by yourself. There is no official transport from the Resthouse, and as I said it is 6kms from the village.

The official programmes are posted. The longer the tour, the more expensive. These prices are those of the vehicle which will normally take up to 6 people. The price is split between the number of passengers. If several people can get together to take one together it therefore works out cheaper for you.

Warning : first of all no meals are included in the prices, and secondly by no means all the drivers speak English. They are DRIVERS and not guides. A night spent in the desert costs another 25JD/person, including supper and breakfast.

These prices are officially fixed and no bargaining is allowed. You can of course try to find a guide to take you "unofficially" for a lower price, but there are a good many controls out in the desert, and if somebody is found without the written confirmation from the Centre, then he is in trouble.

Posted by Lulu

Tourists wanting to visit Wadi Rum must descend from the buses at the new Visitors' Centre and pay their entrance fee. The buses don't usually wait for anybody doing this so if you decide against taking one of the tours on offer you have to make your own way to Rum Village which is 6kms away (no official transport is available)

There is no regular service taxi run to or from Wadi Rum. If you are sufficient in number to fill one up (or if collectively you pay for any empty place) you can get a taxi to bring you from Aqaba or from Amman, but you absolutely cannot count on any service taxi departure from Rum.

Rashidiya on the Desert Highway is 30kms from Rum; if you are asked to pay to get there, then between 3 and 5JD is a reasonably fair price, a taxi would charge 5JD for that distance. A number of minibuses regularly go past in both directions. It is usually possible to hitch here as well

You can always ask the Wadi Rum Resthouse to call you a taxi, which will probably come from Aqaba, so you would have to wait for a while. It is, of course, possible to order a taxi in advance. The usual price of a taxi from Rum to Aqaba (or vice versa) is around 12-15JD.

Your guide is usually willing to arrange a taxi for you, or even take you to the Highway. He might or might not charge you for this latter service

Posted by Lulu

-------------------------------------

A note from Megypt: Rough Guide to Jordan

In addition to the advice you get from VT, I recommend purchasing the Rough Guide to Jordan by Matthew Teller It is full of informative advice and extremely helpful.

Megypt