Wadi Rum

Currency

Bring cash. Camps take card for the booking and cash for everything else, and the village has one small exchange at best. The Jordan Pass covers the protected area entry fee, which is another reason to buy it before you fly.

ATMs & cards

There is one unreliable machine in Rum village. Draw your cash in Aqaba or Wadi Musa before you come, and bring more than you think — tips for guides and drivers are expected and are given in dinars.

Camps take a card for the booking and cash for everything else, tips included.

Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.

Safety

Crime is essentially nonexistent — the desert is run by a handful of Bedouin families who know exactly who is where. The dangers are environmental and serious: 34°C with no shade in summer, nights below freezing in winter, no phone signal, and scrambles with real exposure. Go with a licensed camp, carry far more water than feels necessary, and do not set off into the dunes alone.

Our own assessment, not a sourced index.

Entry & visa

Health & emergencies

Required to enter

No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.

Worth having

• Routine vaccinations up to date
• Hepatitis A
• Typhoid if you will eat widely outside hotels
• Rabies for long stays or work with animals

Getting treated

Private hospitals in Amman are excellent and are a medical-tourism destination in their own right; visitors pay, and the bills are modest by European standards. Outside Amman and Aqaba the options thin out quickly, and Petra and Wadi Rum are an hour or more from a hospital.

Heat is the real risk: 34°C in Wadi Rum and 40°C at the Dead Sea, with no shade and dry air that hides how much you are losing. Carry more water than feels sensible. Flash floods in the canyons after rain are sudden and have killed people; the sites close when rain is forecast and that closure is not negotiable.

Orientation, not medical advice. Entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history and where you have been — check with a travel clinic or your national health service four to six weeks before you go.

Food tip

Zarb is the meal here: chicken and vegetables buried in a sand oven for hours and dug up in front of you at the camp. Every camp does it and most do it well. Breakfast is flatbread, labneh, olives and very sweet tea, cooked over a fire.

Getting around

• 4x4 with a Bedouin driver — the only way to move inside the protected area, and every camp arranges it
• Camel — slower, older and better for an hour than for a day
• Walking — the scrambles up Jebel Burdah and Um Frouth are the best hours you will spend here, with a guide
• Getting here: an hour from Aqaba, ninety minutes from Petra, four from Amman, and the last stretch is desert track
• Phone signal is patchy to absent once you leave the village, which is part of the point

Internet speed

Broadband here runs at 1.5× the global median of 128 Mbps. Mobile runs at 44% of the global median of 110 Mbps.

Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured May 2026

Must-see

Things to do

• Sleep in a camp and stay up for the stars — this is one of the darkest skies you can easily reach
• Take a 4x4 day into the far side, past the tourist loop
• Scramble up Um Frouth or Burdah rock bridge with a guide
• Watch sunset from a dune with tea
• See the Nabataean and Thamudic inscriptions in Khazali
• Ride the sand on a camel for an hour at dawn

Nearby day trips

Say a few words

Arabic

• Helloمرحبا — MarhabaMAR-ha-ba
• Pleaseمن فضلك — Min fadlakmin FAD-lak
• Thank youشكرا — ShukranSHOOK-ran
• Yes / Noنعم / لا — Na’am / LaNA-am / la
• Excuse meعفوا — AfwanAF-wan
• How much is it?بكم — Bikam?bi-KAM
• The bill, pleaseالحساب — Al-hisabal-hi-SAB
• Welcomeأهلا وسهلا — Ahlan wa sahlanAH-lan wa SAH-lan

Inshallah, meaning God willing, follows nearly any statement about the future and is conversational rather than religious.

Religion

Sunni Muslim

About 95% Muslim, with a Christian minority that is old, visible and unremarkable to Jordanians — churches and mosques share streets in Madaba and Amman. Practice is devout but relaxed with visitors: the call to prayer runs five times a day, Friday midday is quiet, and Ramadan changes opening hours everywhere and makes eating in public in daylight impolite rather than illegal. Cover shoulders and knees away from the resorts and take your shoes off at a mosque door.

Do's and don'ts

Do

• Return the greeting: as-salaam alaykum, and wa alaykum as-salaam back
• Accept the tea. It is offered constantly and refusing it is the one rude thing a visitor reliably does
• Dress with shoulders and knees covered away from the resorts, men included
• Use your right hand for eating, handing over money and greeting
• Ask before photographing people, and expect to be asked to join a meal if you linger

Don't

• Do not haggle over a fixed price in a shop; markets and taxis are where bargaining belongs
• Do not show the sole of your foot to anyone, or point with your feet
• Do not drink alcohol in public — it is legal and sold, and it is drunk indoors
• Do not discuss the politics of the neighbouring countries with people you have just met
• Do not photograph inside a mosque during prayer, or women anywhere without asking