Aqaba or Petra?

Aqaba has a real sea for swimming: clear, calm water and coral just off South Beach, with the resort and beach-club strips to the south giving loungers and a more relaxed dress code. The town beaches are narrow and coarse, so the draw is the snorkelling rather than the sand.

Petra is in the mountains and has no swimming apart from the pools at some Wadi Musa hotels. For the Red Sea you have to drive about two hours south to Aqaba.

Neither place is a reason to travel for food, but Aqaba gives you more to choose from. Its own dish is sayadieh, fish over spiced rice, and the old-town fish restaurants let you choose your catch. The resorts add some more polished dining, and alcohol is cheaper because of the tax-free status.

Wadi Musa feeds hungry hikers with mansaf, maqluba and zarb from the Bedouin pit oven, mostly at hotel buffets and roadside restaurants. Its most memorable flavours are the simple ones: sage tea at stalls inside the site, or a meal in a Bedouin camp.

This is where Petra is in a different class. The rock-cut city fills two or three days, from the Siq and the Treasury to the Monastery, the High Place of Sacrifice and the Byzantine mosaics, and Little Petra and the site museum add to it.

Aqaba's heritage takes a morning: the Mamluk fort, the low ruins of early Islamic Ayla and the remains of a very early church. Visitors staying on the coast who care about history spend their time on the trip to Petra.

Both are quiet after dark, but Aqaba has a little more going on. There are resort bars, pubs for divers and expats, and beach clubs that sometimes hold DJ nights in the cooler months, along with families walking the corniche late. Wadi Musa has dinner, a shisha on a terrace and the odd hotel bar, and everyone goes to bed early before the next day on the trails.

Both are excellent for the outdoors, but in different ways. In Aqaba the best of it is underwater: shore dives at the Japanese Garden, corals shallow enough for snorkellers and wrecks sunk as artificial reefs, with Wadi Rum about an hour inland.

Petra is a hiking destination. Trails run through Wadi Muthlim and up Jebel Haroun, the back route from Little Petra to the Monastery is a superb walk, and the Jordan Trail passes through. The ibex and juniper slopes of the Dana reserve are about an hour north.

Aqaba is the better base for outings, mainly because Petra and Little Petra together make a full and rewarding day from the coast. Wadi Rum is also close for a desert night, although Eilat and Sinai are made awkward by the border crossings.

From Petra the choices are fewer: the lonely Crusader castle at Shobak combined with the stone village of Dana, Wadi Rum to the south, or Kerak if you are heading up the King's Highway anyway.

Aqaba works as a simple resort vacation, with calm, shallow water, glass-bottomed boats that show children the reef, and hotel pools and kids' clubs. The summer heat is the main drawback.

Petra is better suited to older children who can walk all day. Scrambling into tombs feels like an adventure, but there is little shade, the Monastery climb is tough, pushchairs are no use beyond the main path, and Wadi Musa has nothing made for children.

Aqaba's compact centre around the corniche, fort and markets can be walked when it is not too hot. The beaches and dive sites lie along the coast road, which means taxis, hotel shuttles or a hire car.

At Petra the walking is the trip itself: long distances on foot inside the park, with carts and animals covering only part of the main route. Wadi Musa climbs a steep hill, so higher hotels need a taxi to the gate, and anything beyond town needs a driver or a car.

Aqaba's tax-free status is its one real advantage for shoppers: perfume, electronics and alcohol cost less than anywhere else in Jordan. The old market streets add spices, dates and Dead Sea mud and salts, although much of the craftwork on the stalls is mass-produced.

Petra has less to offer, mostly souvenirs on the trails and in Wadi Musa: Bedouin silver and bead jewellery, coins of doubtful age and bottles of coloured sand. The cooperative shops selling embroidery made by local women are where the purchases worth making are found.

Aqaba is the more affordable of the two, especially if you live partly like a local. Fish meals and shawarma in town, taxis and simple central hotels all cost little, and drinks are cheaper than anywhere else in Jordan. A south-coast resort with dive courses and beach-club passes narrows the gap but doesn't close it.

Petra costs more for the same number of days. Foreign visitors pay one of the steepest heritage entry fees in the world. Wadi Musa also has no public transport worth using, so every outing beyond town means paying a driver or hiring a car. Its guesthouses and falafel counters are cheap, but they rarely make up for those two costs.

Neither has a stage or concert scene, so you go to Amman for that. What differs is the one performance each offers. Petra has Petra by Night, with candles lighting the Siq and the Treasury square while rababa and flute play under the cliffs. In Aqaba it is hotel lounge bands, and the best moment is often Bedouin music around a fire on a trip out to Wadi Rum.

Aqaba is the place to slow down. It has traditional Turkish baths in town, full resort spas using Dead Sea mud and salt, and warm, dry winter days for doing very little.

Petra's bathhouses are built for tourists and are good for tired legs after the trails, and a few hotels have small spas. The days themselves are hard physical work, though, so a stay there is rarely restful.