THREE EPIC JORDAN HOLIDAYS

SUNNY SIDE UP

Double “rooms” at SunCity Camp (00 962 795 66 6673; suncitycamp. com) in Wadi Rum (right) start at about £139 per night. The site is a key part of Jordan’s Nature Reserves – a 15-day private tour, offered by Audley Travel (01993 662601; audleytravel.com), which focuses on protected spaces. These include Dana Biosphere Reserve, out in the west of the country (a 119 sq mile enclave whose serrated limestone strikes a paler tone than Wadi Rum, but whose plunging cliffs are just as dramatic), and Ajloun Forest Reserve, up in the north-west (whose epic biodiversity stretches from the black iris, the national flower, to the darting movements of the striped hyena). From £5,265 per person with flights

JUST KIDDING

Despite – or perhaps because of – the starkness of the terrain, Jordan’s southern desert can also work for getaways with children. Steppes Travel (01285 880980; steppestravel.com) offers a nine-day

Family Holiday to Jordan, which ticks off all the country’s highlights, and pauses in Wadi Rum for a day of dune clambering and four-wheel-drive safari-ing, cherry-topped by lunch with a Bedouin family.

From £1,900 per person, not including flights

IN THE SADDLE

The relative flatness of Wadi Rum, at least down on the valley floor, means that it can be the setting for a fascinating holiday that explores Jordan’s desert contours via pedal power. Exodus Travels (020 3811 5440; exodus.co.uk) offers a Petra

& Wadi Rum By Bike escorted tour (above), which rolls through much of the country in nine days (Amman, Jerash, the Dead Sea and Aqaba, as well as the usual headline acts of a trip to Jordan).

From £1,849 per person, with flights. Departs Dec 11