Travel to Mars

Although we cannot yet travel to Mars on vacation (or the moon, for that matter) there is a location on Earth that has doubled as the red planet in more than one movie.

Sunset on the Wadi Rum Desert in Jordan. Picture from www.wadirum.jo
Sunset on the Wadi Rum Desert in Jordan. Picture from www.wadirum.jo

The barren red desert in the South of Jordan, near the border of Saudi Arabia, certainly doesn’t look like it belongs on Earth. Several filmmakers have agreed, and shot no less than three movies with the desert as the landscape of Mars, including Red Planet (2000), The Last Days on Mars (2013), and The Martian (2015). It has also been used as an alien planet in Prometheus (2012), and the Egyptian landscape in several other movies, including Lawrence of Arabia (1962).

Aqaba and Petra are nearby (at most a full day trip), and you can camp out under the stars on this desert. There are tours that include all of the above.

If you want to feel as though you are on Mars, Jordan is the place to visit. No spacesuit required.

If you’d like help booking this trip. You can contact Jennifer Desmarais through Orleans Travel. jennifer.desmarais@orleanstravel.ca


References

http://www.wadirum.jo
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/jordan/petra-and-the-south/wadi-rum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wadi_Rum#Filming_location

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