Aqaba or Tel Aviv?

Aqaba's draw is the water rather than the sand. The Gulf is clear, calm and warm through the winter, and reefs start a few metres off South Beach, so a mask matters more than a towel. The free town beaches are narrow, coarse and conservative, which means most visitors pay for the resort and beach-club stretches towards Tala Bay.

Tel Aviv has the better beach in the usual sense: fine pale sand along the whole western edge of the city, reachable on foot from central hotels, with breakwaters, lifeguards and stretches that each have their own crowd, from Hilton to Gordon. You give up the reef and the winter swimming, and the sea away from guarded spots can pull.

In Aqaba you eat well enough but simply: sayadieh and fish chosen by weight near the old town, falafel and hummus breakfasts and resort buffets, with little beyond that. The one advantage is that drinks cost less there because of its tax-free status.

Tel Aviv is one of the main reasons to visit the region for food. Yemenite soups, Iraqi kubbeh and sabich stands sit alongside loud, produce-led restaurants, while Carmel and Levinsky markets and the bakeries and fish places of Jaffa give you days of grazing. Just plan around Shabbat closures.

Aqaba's history fits into a morning: the Mamluk fort on the waterfront, the low walls of early Islamic Ayla, the site of a very early church and a small museum. Anyone interested in heritage really goes for Petra.

Tel Aviv has more to fill your days without ever being a great museum city. Walking the Bauhaus buildings of the White City and the stone lanes of old Jaffa and Neve Tzedek is the main pleasure, backed by the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, ANU and Independence Hall.

The gap is about as wide as it gets. An Aqaba evening means a stroll on the corniche, shisha and a late meal, with drinks in resort bars or a divers' pub and the odd DJ night at a beach club in the cooler months.

Tel Aviv treats going out as a way of life. Its cocktail and wine bars spill onto the pavements of Rothschild and Allenby past midnight, house and techno clubs fill basements in the south, and the gay scene is one of the most open in the region. Thursday nights often run until dawn.

Aqaba has the landscapes. Below the surface there are shore dives at the Japanese Garden, coral at snorkelling depth and a sunken tank and cargo ship. Inland lie the red mountains, arches and dark skies of Wadi Rum, with granite hills behind the town for shorter walks.

Tel Aviv's outdoor life is urban and coastal: cycling the seafront path, surfing or kitesurfing off the beaches and rowing in Yarkon Park. For real terrain you need to drive an hour to the Carmel or further to the canyons of Ein Gedi.

From Aqaba, one outing stands above the rest: Petra and Little Petra, two hours inland and worth the early start. After that the choice runs thin, because Eilat and Sinai mean border crossings, and the Dead Sea and Amman belong to a longer route north.

Tel Aviv has far more within reach. Jerusalem is half an hour away by fast train and can fill several days, while Caesarea, Haifa's Baha'i Gardens, Acre and the Zichron Ya'akov wineries are easy from the coast. Masada and the Dead Sea make one long day. On Shabbat you will need a car or a tour.

Children are made welcome everywhere in both places, late dinners included. Aqaba works as a resort vacation, with calm shallow water, glass-bottomed boats and kids' clubs, plus a desert camp that older children remember. Outside the hotels there is little made for children.

Tel Aviv gives families more to do: lifeguarded beaches, Luna Park and boating in Yarkon Park, the drive-through Ramat Gan Safari and the children's museum in Holon. Its flat streets and long promenade also suit a pushchair, which Aqaba's spread-out coast does not.

Aqaba's centre is small, but the resorts, beaches and dive sites stretch south along the coast road, so taxis, hotel shuttles or a hire car do most of the work. Petra and Wadi Rum mean a driver or a tour.

Tel Aviv is much easier without a car. You can walk or take a bike-share from the old port to Jaffa, while the light rail, buses and fast trains reach the rest of the city and the country. The catch is Shabbat, when most public transport stops from Friday afternoon to Saturday night.

Aqaba's shopping is spices, dates, layered sand bottles and Dead Sea mud from the old market streets, along with tax-free perfume and electronics. Good handmade crafts are scarce.

Tel Aviv gives you real browsing: Israeli designers on Sheinkin and northern Dizengoff, ceramics and jewellery in Neve Tzedek, the Nahalat Binyamin crafts fair and the antiques and vintage studios around Jaffa's flea market. It is not cheap, and true luxury is limited.

Aqaba is cheaper, as long as you live as the town does: central hotels, shawarma, fish suppers and taxis cost little. Resort stays, dive courses, desert tours and Petra tickets are what push the bill up, and a full beach-resort trip ends up nearer Mediterranean prices.

Tel Aviv is expensive at every level, from beach hotels to cocktails and groceries. Street food, fairly priced trains and free pleasures like the promenade and the White City soften it, but only somewhat.

In Aqaba, live performance means a singer in a hotel lounge or Bedouin music around a Wadi Rum campfire, and nothing more. Anyone hoping for a concert or a play has to go north to Amman.

Tel Aviv has a full cultural season. The Israel Philharmonic plays at the Charles Bronfman Auditorium, the Israeli Opera at the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center, and Habima is the national theatre, though most of its plays are in Hebrew. Contemporary dance is the real highlight, with the Batsheva company and the Suzanne Dellal Centre in Neve Tzedek, and there is rock, jazz and Mizrahi pop in the southern clubs and on outdoor stages in summer.

Aqaba is the more restful of the two, though neither is a spa destination. It has traditional Turkish baths for steam and scrub, resort spas built around Dead Sea mud and salt, and a slow winter rhythm of warm, dry days.

Tel Aviv runs loud and fast, and its spas are mostly in the seafront hotels. The calm comes from quiet Shabbat streets, yoga classes and slow mornings on the promenade. Its advantage is that the Dead Sea mineral pools are within an hour and a half.