Dahab or Luxor?

Here the gap is as wide as it gets. Dahab lives by the sea: you step off rocks or a jetty onto coral reef along the bay, at Eel Garden and at the Blue Hole, and the Lagoon offers sand and sheltered shallow water. It is a snorkelling coast more than a lounging one, so bring reef shoes.

Luxor has no beach and the Nile is not for swimming, so bathing means a hotel pool. Anyone wanting the sea from Luxor has to plan a separate stay on the Red Sea coast.

Neither is a food destination, and the best meals in both are the same plain Egyptian staples of ful, falafel or taameya, koshary and fresh bread. In Dahab the draw is the setting: fish picked from the ice and grilled at low cushioned tables by the water, with backpacker menus filling the rest and Assala holding the cheap local counters.

Luxor feels more Egyptian at the table, with grilled pigeon, molokhia and sugar cane juice, while visitor dining leans on hotel buffets and rooftops with temple views. Its West Bank guesthouses, cooking at home for their guests, often serve the most satisfying meal of the trip.

Luxor is one of the world's great heritage sites, built over ancient Thebes. The Great Hypostyle Hall at Karnak, Luxor Temple lit at night, the Valley of the Kings, Deir el-Bahari and Medinet Habu need several days, with the Luxor Museum adding fine objects.

Dahab has nothing comparable. Its Bedouin roots show in Assala and the tea stops, but that is atmosphere rather than sightseeing, and its one great monument, St Catherine's Monastery, is a full day inland.

Both towns go to bed early, but Dahab has a little more going on: bars along the promenade with music and a mixed crowd of divers and travellers, shisha on cushions by the water, and the occasional party that runs late. Even so, early dives keep it quiet most nights.

Luxor's evening drink is a hotel bar or a rooftop terrace, and the real local life is tea and shisha in street cafés and families strolling the corniche. Dawn starts at the tombs keep the night short.

Dahab is far stronger here. The Gulf of Aqaba drops into deep water just offshore, making shore diving at the Canyon and the Blue Hole and freediving the heart of the town, and the Lagoon's steady wind brings windsurfers and kitesurfers. Behind it, camel and jeep trips reach the Coloured Canyon and Ras Abu Galum, and Mount Sinai offers a sunrise climb.

Luxor's nature is gentler and comes as a backdrop to the monuments: a felucca at sunset, birds on the river islands, cycling past West Bank fields and a path over the Theban hills to Deir el-Bahari, with balloons over the valley at dawn.

Luxor has the better excursions, even if they are all temples. Dendera's Temple of Hathor, the vivid reliefs at Esna and the near-complete temple at Edfu are each a short drive along the Nile, and Abydos makes a long but rewarding day.

From Dahab there is really one outing worth the journey, St Catherine's Monastery, usually paired with the night climb. Sharm el-Sheikh and Nuweiba add little, so most trips head into the desert or out to sea rather than to another place.

Dahab is the easier choice with children who love the water. The Lagoon's sand and shallows suit younger swimmers, older ones can snorkel from shore, and a camel ride makes a good day. Reef shoes, the summer heat and the distance to serious medical care in Sharm el-Sheikh are the drawbacks.

Luxor works mainly for older children already fascinated by pharaohs, who will remember crawling into painted tombs, the Mummification Museum and a balloon flight. For small children the long, shadeless walks and persistent touts make it hard going, so a hotel with a pool and a winter visit matter.

Dahab is easy only along the water. The promenade curves about 2km round the bay from the Lighthouse to Mashraba and is largely car-free, so many visitors spend days on foot between dive centres, guesthouses and restaurants. Beyond it there is no public transport, and the Lagoon, Assala's back streets, the Blue Hole and the mountains all mean a taxi, a pickup or an arranged trip.

Luxor is the easier of the two to get around, though it is not simple either. On the East Bank you can walk between Luxor Temple, the museum and the corniche, take a short calèche or taxi ride to Karnak, and cross the Nile on the cheap public ferry. The West Bank sites are spread along the desert edge, so most visitors hire a driver for the day, and cycling between them works in the cool months.

Neither is a place to shop, but Luxor offers a bit more to browse. Its tourist souk sells spices, galabiyas, papyrus and scarves, and the West Bank alabaster workshops are worth seeing for the hand carving, though much of the stock is mass-produced and the selling is pushy.

Dahab's promenade stalls cover Bedouin embroidery, jewellery and beachwear. Its one real strength is dive and freediving gear.

Both are very cheap, and the difference lies in where the money goes. In Dahab the larger costs are dive and freediving courses, inexpensive by international standards, which is why many people stay for weeks.

In Luxor, rooms and meals cost little but entry fees at every temple and tomb add up quickly over several days, with guides, drivers and balloon flights on top. Agree prices before setting off.

Neither has a stage worth planning around. Luxor's one regular evening event is the sound-and-light show walking through floodlit Karnak, with belly dance and tanoura whirling staged in hotels and on cruise boats. Dahab offers the odd band or DJ in a promenade bar and Bedouin music around a desert-camp fire.

Dahab is the more restful of the two. Its pace is the point: cushioned seafront cafés, sunset over the Sinai mountains, and a long-stay community built around yoga, breathwork and the calm of freediving, with cheap classes and massage easy to find.

Luxor's rest comes in between the sightseeing, a long afternoon by the pool and sunset on the river. Some riverside hotels have a hammam and massage rooms, and the West Bank's mud-brick guesthouses among the fields are calm, but the traffic and touts of the East Bank are not.