Wadi Rum

The standard full circuit takes in Lawrence's Spring, the red dune, Khazali canyon and the Um Fruth and Burdah rock bridges. Around 60-80 JD a head, less in a bigger group.

Dinner is zarb, cooked underground in a sand oven, then the fire. Camps run on solar, phone signal is patchy to absent, and none of them sell alcohol.

One of the big natural arches, and the one that needs an exposed scramble to reach. Not for anyone unhappy with heights, and not without a Bedouin guide.

Balloons lift at first light over the valley floor from operators near the village. Book through your camp the night before, and expect cancellation if the wind is wrong.

Jordan's highest mountain, out at the Saudi border and climbed as a long day from the village with a guide. Start early; there is no shade on the route.

About an hour north. JETT leaves around 8am for roughly 15 JD, and a taxi is 25-35 JD for a car of three or four.

The Rum bus leaves Wadi Musa around 6am for about 10 JD, JETT at 11.30am for around 15 JD, or a taxi for roughly 45 JD.

Everyone pays the protected area fee here, 5 JD at the last check and waived on a Jordan Pass. There are no ATMs past this point, so bring cash.

March-May and September-November: hot days, cold nights and the only comfortable months for walking or climbing.

December-February. Emptiest and cheapest, but nights fall to freezing and camps are heated by blanket count.

Easter and any long weekend, when the better camps sell out weeks ahead.

Out of the tent before sunrise. The light on the east faces lasts about twenty minutes and is the reason to be here.

Jeep out to Khazali canyon for the rock inscriptions, then the red dune while it is still climbable.

Bedouin lunch cooked in the shade of an overhang: salad, flatbread, tinned tuna and tea with far too much sugar.

Um Fruth rock bridge, then a slow drive out to a sunset spot with a kettle already on the fire.

Zarb out of the sand oven, then the fire, then the sky. No bar, no signal, and nobody minds.

An hour south to the Red Sea, and the obvious place to wash the sand off before flying out of AQJ.

Two hours north. Most people run the two together, and Wadi Rum second is the better order: desert quiet after a hard walking day.