Wadi Rum Transportation

There is a great tourguide in Wadi RUm, called Saleh Musa Sweilheen.
He organises great tours, very different then any other tour guide in Wadi Rum. He has a website too: www.wadirumtours.com. You can find al the info here for having a great time. On the about us you'll find Saleh mobile number as you need to prebook him.....

You better ask for taxi to pick you up from Wadi Rum to the other destination because I met guys who waited for taxi at the visit center ... he said he waited for a long time so he wanted to share our taxi ... that's no problem ... but if you have no one to share? just in case.

This is part of the excerpts of my complaint letter to Jordan Direct Tour.

"...we had an extremely terrible experience while we took a tour (arranged by your company) to Wadi Rum on Dec 19, 2007. I completely understand that your company wants to cut costs by dealing with certain supplier. Furthermore, I appraise your effort on supporting the ecotourism project by giving The Jordanian Hashemite Fund For Human Development your business. But, you should also check the quality of the vehicle and the guide/driver. On the tour day, our jeep broke down completely. We were in the middle of the desert, no map, no cellular signal, and no assurance from Omar on where we were. Every time we asked him how long it takes to go the headquarter or the nearest camp, he always replied 1 km. But he had been replying that answer for more than 45 minutes. Every time we wanted to go back on where we were, he said 'no' and move forward. I was afraid that it would get dark soon. So my wife made a decision to trust Omar's word blindly. What could we do at that time? With the information that the nearest camp was around 1 km, my wife decided to walk. The feeling of not knowing where I was in the middle of nowhere was not scary. So we walked for a about 2 km in the desert until we saw some camps and few people from the distance. I was very surprised that after Omar put us through, he dared to ask for a tip. To sum up, we didn't not see the beauty of Wadi Rum as most tourists see. I was extremely disapointed at your choice of your supplier in Wadi Rum. This incident could've gone wrong easily if the choices that we made turned out to be wrong. You are jeopardizing our safety here and can ruin your company reputation..." (END)

The same bus returns to Petra afterwards at about 8.30am, usually arriving in Petra around 10.30 or 11.00. The fare is the same or about 3JD. You might be charged more if you have a large backpack.

If you have visited Wadi Rum with a Bedouin guide, he will almost always call the driver to make sure that he is coming, before bringing you to the village to put you on the bus. If you have wandered around alone, then ask at the Village Rest House about this.

If there is no bus, you will have to get yourself to the Desert Highway and wait for a bus from Aqaba to Petra - there are several during the morning. Most people would drive you there - but would charge 6JD which is the standard taxi fare for this distance

There is a daily bus from Petra leaving at about 6.30am. The procedure there is that you ask your hotel to reserve you a place and the bus comes to pick you up. The fare is usually about 3JD but this is a tourist bus, and does not have the right to pick up fares along the way, so if there are fewer than 3 passengers the bus will not run.

Unfortunately there is no way to check ahead of time that this bus to Rum will run on any particular day. This depends, not only on the number of passengers coming from Petra, but on the number of people in Wadi Rum waiting to take the bus on its return trip. Often the driver only decides in the morning when he sees how many passengers he has in total. Sometimes he will go anyway, but will charge a bit extra.

If he decides not to go, you should take the early bus to Aqaba, leaving Petra at 6.20am or there is another one at 7.45am, get down at the Rum Intersection (tell the driver what you want) and try to hitch from there. If you have pre-reserved with a guide, ask one of the drivers to call him and he will probably come to pick you up. He may or may not charge you for this (it is 30 kilometers, or 20 miles. A taxi would charge about 6JD for this distance).

The new Visitors' Centre is 6 kilometers from Rum Village in the desert . This entrance fee is fixed at 2JD at the moment.

You choose the tour that you would like to do and you go off with the guide waiting nearby. If you have the name of a particular guide you must send him a written reservation (email or fax) dated 48 hours before your arrival. This is because many hotels or operators in various parts of Jordan arrange "tours" with certain of the Bedouin, and take a large commission. This is ripping off.

There is no direct transport from Wadi Rum to Amman. It is best to take the morning bus to Aqaba (except on Fridays) and from there you can easily find onward transport to Amman. The best solution is probably the long distance buses, either Trust or JETT, but there are also service taxis from the Aqaba bus station.

If you want to go to somewhere like Madaba, it is probably simplest to take the bus/service taxi to Amman and a normal taxi from there to Madaba. The taxi would cost around 8JD, but if you have luggage it helps a lot! The bus station at Madaba is a way out of town, so you would need a taxi there as well.

Many people are disappointed to hear that there is no reliable public transport from Aqaba to Wadi Rum early in the morning. If you need to get there early, the only possibility is a taxi (fare is 15JD). You can also take a bus going north (any bus) and get down at the Rum Intersection and hitch from there. Most local drivers will ask for 5JD, which is the standard taxi charge for the distance of 30 kilometers.

The first possible bus is at 11am - and this is only when there is a second early bus from Rum to Aqaba. Otherwise most days the first bus is at 1pm, and the second at 3pm.

The bus at 1pm is usually crowded, so get there early! There is usually room on the 3pm one.

The fare is 1JD.