Aswan or Sharm el-Sheikh?

This is the widest gap between the two. Aswan's only swimming is in the Nile, from sandbanks below the west-bank dunes, and you need to take care with the current and the boats. Most visitors use a hotel pool.

Sharm el-Sheikh is built around the sea. Naama Bay has proper sand, and at Sharks Bay, Ras Um Sid and Nabq jetties lead out over the reef to deep water. The beaches are mostly hotel-owned and partly man-made, and you will want reef shoes.

Neither is a place to travel for food, but the best meals differ. In Aswan they are Nubian: clay-pot stews, Nile fish and hibiscus drinks on a riverside terrace or in a village home.

In Sharm most eating happens at the hotel buffet or in the tourist restaurants of Naama Bay. The more local meals are grilled fish and koshari in the Old Market, or a Bedouin dinner in the desert. Alcohol is hard to find outside hotels in both.

Aswan has a few days of serious sightseeing. You take a boat to the Temple of Isis on Philae, then see the Temple of Khnum and the Nilometer on Elephantine, the Nubian Museum and the rock tombs below Qubbet el-Hawa. Most of it involves a boat ride.

Sharm el-Sheikh is a modern resort. Its sights come down to the Al Sahaba Mosque and the painted Heavenly Cathedral in the Old Market, an hour's visit at most.

In Aswan an evening means a walk on the Corniche, shisha in a riverside café or a drink on a hotel terrace at dusk, and there are no clubs. Sharm has more going on. Naama Bay's promenade of bars and big late clubs plus DJ nights on the beaches give you a few nights of dancing. It is a scene aimed at tourists and goes quiet outside the busy seasons.

Aswan's nature is above the water: the granite boulders of the First Cataract, palms, golden dunes running down to the Nile, and herons and kingfishers seen from a felucca. Kitchener's Island adds a shady garden.

Sharm's best scenery is underwater, and it is world class. Ras Mohammed's reef walls, the Thistlegorm wreck and the Tiran Strait reefs draw divers from everywhere. On land, the red mountains of South Sinai are good for jeep and camel trips.

Aswan has the stronger day out. Kom Ombo and Edfu, with stops at Daraw's camel market or Gebel el-Silsila, make a full and rewarding day along the Nile, and Kalabsha is a short boat ride away. Abu Simbel is a bigger expedition that starts before dawn.

From Sharm the options are fewer: an easy day in laid-back Dahab, or the long trip to St Catherine's Monastery, often paired with a night climb of Mount Sinai.

Sharm el-Sheikh is the easier choice with children. Its large resorts have kids' clubs, family pools and water slides, the shallow lagoons suit beginner snorkellers, and glass-bottom boats suit those who stay dry. Picking the right hotel matters more than the town around it.

Aswan has nothing designed for children. Even so, feluccas, a camel ride up the dunes and a Nubian village with pet crocodiles can win over school-age children. Heat, pushy sellers and sights that are mostly ruins make it harder with toddlers.

Aswan's centre is compact, with the Corniche and the souk street side by side, so you can walk it in the cooler hours. Cheap public ferries go to Elephantine and the west bank, and you hire a boat or taxi for the rest.

Sharm stretches about 30km along the coast, and only Naama Bay is pleasant on foot. Getting about means hotel shuttles, negotiated taxis or tours with pick-up.

Both offer souvenir shopping with hard bargaining rather than fashion, but Aswan's has more local character. Its souk street sells hibiscus, dates and henna to residents as well as visitors, and the west-bank villages sell Nubian baskets, beadwork and pottery. Sharm's Old Market and Naama promenade lean on perfume oils, alabaster and galabiyas, and a few malls carry beachwear and familiar brands.

Aswan is the cheaper of the two. Local meals, public ferries and Nubian guesthouses cost very little, and even Nile-view hotels are modest. The costs come from site entry fees and chartered boats.

Sharm is good value mainly inside an all-inclusive resort. Once you step out, taxis, Naama Bay restaurants, diving and excursions are priced for tourists.

Neither has theatre or a concert programme, so the difference is in what you see. Aswan has real Nubian music, with drums, the tambour lyre and call-and-response singing at village evenings or weddings, plus the sound-and-light show at Philae. Sharm offers staged entertainment: belly dancing, tanoura dancers and hotel shows.

Sharm has the edge for an easy switch-off. Almost every large resort has a spa with a hammam-style bath and steam rooms, and the days are built around pool and sea.

Aswan's calm is of an older kind. It has been a winter retreat since the nineteenth century, with long felucca afternoons, quiet west-bank guesthouses and the hot-sand cure of the Nubian villages, though touts on the Corniche can spoil the calm.