From Petra we drove about 2 hours south to Wadi Rum, an amazing desert area in the South of Jordan. This is where they filmed a lot of movies including the Martian. In fact, we stayed in something called a “Martian Dome”! We chose to stay overnight at Sun City Camp. Last December, we stayed at a camp in the Sahara Desert of Morocco so this would give us an opportunity to compare the two desert camp experiences.
As we arrived at the camp we checked in and were shown to our Martian Dome. TIP: Request a dome at the front with no other dome in front of you. That way, you will have an unobstructed view. We stayed in Dome #5.
As you will see from the pic below, if you stay in a dome at the back, there will be other domes in front of you. Its still fine, but you won’t be waking up to the vast desert!
Here is another room tour from a different perspective.
The dome itself was better than the accommodation we had in Morocco. For one, there was AC in this dome and it worked well to cool the room down. The bathroom was also much nicer:
Note that Sun City does not provide lotion in the domes. It does have soap, shampoo and conditioner. Shortly after we settled in, we signed up for a sunset desert tour. Our guide showed up in a pick up and we road in the back.
He then took us on an incredible journey through the desert. It was SO beautiful.
After the tour, it was time to get washed up for dinner. The camp cooked a special meal in the ground. We got to see them pull it out.
The dinner was held in a HUGE Martian Dome, buffet stlyle.
Note that drinks are extra. Also, while the experience and hospitality were good, the food was just ok. There is a lot to chose from though. After dinner, there was some live music outside.
We watched for a bit and then headed back to our dome to enjoy the stars on the provided bean bags.
The next morning, we ate breakfast in the large dome again, before heading back to Amman and catching a flight to Cairo, Egypt. Country #58!
Overall, this was an amazing experience, and an incredibly beautiful desert. Jordan was an amazing country to visit with so much to do. The people were extremely friendly saying “welcome” each time they asked where we were from. I would put this on a list of Top 10 must visit countries.
maybe one of my favourite blog posts. so cool! I find that most of these places which draw tourists for a specific attraction, tend to do poorly on the food, but no one said the food on Mars would be good anyway except crazy Musk