Hot Air Balloon Flights

HOT AIR BALLOON FLIGHTS IN WADI RUM

I have a lot of people who write to me asking about the possibility of taking a Hot Air Balloon trip while staying with Bedouin Directions in Wadi Rum.

In short "yes you can" but we recommend you book with them directly. The Hot Air Balloon company charges 130JD p.p. for the flights. Children under 14 years are 1/2 price (65JD p.child).

There is only one company that runs the Hot Air Balloon trips. To book with them you can call them on one of the numbers listed on their website: Royal Aero Sports Club of Jordan. The pilots name is Khalid. You can contact them for reservations on:

Khalid Shishani
kahashishani@yahoo.com

Facebook: Rum Balloon

Mobile and What's up
00962797300298

Once you have booked your flight, the procedure for meeting up with them after a stay at our camp works out as follows:

• The flights are always very early morning. Meeting time with them is usually at 6am (this varies according to the time of year). The general rule is meeting up takes place about 30 minutes before sunrise. When you are here we confirm the meeting time with them the night before just in case the time differs.

• You either need to do the trip before meeting us on your first day (you would finish by 8.30am and can then meet us by 9am).

• OR after staying overnight with us. If you stay overnight with us first then you should be doing the flight on your departure day (i.e if you stay two nights, not on the day between the two nights you are staying with us, but the day you leave).

• If you stay overnight with us before the flight, when you book with them, you need to inform them on booking that you will stay overnight at a camp inside the protected area. They will then agree to meet you at the Visitor Center. The other meeting point is the Diseh Petrol station, which is further away (they have maps you can consult on their website). They will NOT collect you from my camp, they only collect people from the Diseh camps which are close to the launch pad.

• You need to be ready to leave my camp at 5am (1 hour before the meeting time). We give you sandwiches to take with you rather than a sit down breakfast.

• If you have a rental car we take you to the village and you can drive the 5/7KM to the Visitor Center to meet them. We charge 20JD for the early morning transfer from the camp to the village or Visitor Center (if you don’t have a rental car). I need to pay the guide extra to bring you early from the Camp, and this is what I pay him.

• Flights can be cancelled last minute due to winds etc, so usually we will call the Balloon company the night before the flight to check everything is on schedule and the flight will go ahead. If the flight does not go ahead we would bring you back to the village at the normal time after breakfast, and there is no charge to do that.

I hope this helps to provide some more information for people wanting to book a Hot Air Balloon flight.