We were only in Aqaba for one night and a day as a stop over before heading northwards to Amman then (as was the plan) on to Damascus in Syria.
Aqaba is a tax-free resort city that has a bit of a worn air to it. Its right at the tip of the Gulf of Aqaba and there is a lot of boat traffic in the area due to the nearby borders with Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The beaches around the city are pretty awful and strewn with rubbish and glass but that didn’t seem to stop the kids splashing round having a ball. There is definitely a huge divide between the public and private beaches and the entrance fee to the latter was double our accommodation cost. Needless to say we didn’t go in there but hung out drinking tea with the locals in the tents beside the public beach (avoiding the glass!). We should have taken a photo of the public beach for comparison but only took one of the Movenpick resort beach that clearly had sand trucked in from somewhere.
We used the day in Aqaba to do admin, a load of very grimy washing (wearing the same clothes for three days isn’t that unpleasant but they do get very dirty :-)) and basically look around. There isn’t a lot to do there apart from lax out on the beaches out of the city and diving. Watched the sun set from the Royal Yacht Club terrace (no-one was around and we snuck up there unseen).
Headed out on a huge double-decker bus to Amman the next morning – we had front seats so a desert panorama the whole way.
Aqaba is a tax-free resort city that has a bit of a worn air to it. Its right at the tip of the Gulf of Aqaba and there is a lot of boat traffic in the area due to the nearby borders with Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The beaches around the city are pretty awful and strewn with rubbish and glass but that didn’t seem to stop the kids splashing round having a ball. There is definitely a huge divide between the public and private beaches and the entrance fee to the latter was double our accommodation cost. Needless to say we didn’t go in there but hung out drinking tea with the locals in the tents beside the public beach (avoiding the glass!). We should have taken a photo of the public beach for comparison but only took one of the Movenpick resort beach that clearly had sand trucked in from somewhere.
We used the day in Aqaba to do admin, a load of very grimy washing (wearing the same clothes for three days isn’t that unpleasant but they do get very dirty :-)) and basically look around. There isn’t a lot to do there apart from lax out on the beaches out of the city and diving. Watched the sun set from the Royal Yacht Club terrace (no-one was around and we snuck up there unseen).
Headed out on a huge double-decker bus to Amman the next morning – we had front seats so a desert panorama the whole way.
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