Morocco or Jordan — which desert destination wins?

As a desert specialist I get real joy out of this one, because both countries do desert spectacularly and both are wonderfully welcoming. Jordan's superpower is concentration: in a single compact week you can be awestruck at Petra, sleep in a Bedouin camp beneath the Mars-red cliffs of Wadi Rum, float weightless in the Dead Sea, and explore Roman Jerash and the capital, Amman. For sheer density of world-class wonders per mile, Jordan is hard to beat.

Morocco trades that concentration for breadth and immersion. There's no single monument with Petra's wow factor, but you get a whole country's worth of texture — the medinas of Marrakech and Fes, riad living, the High Atlas, the Atlantic coast and, my home turf, the Sahara at Erg Chebbi, where the dunes are taller and the camel-trek-to-camp experience is, I'd argue, even more romantic than Wadi Rum's. It's a longer, slower, more varied story.

Practically, Jordan suits a tight, guided one-week loop and is excellent for first-time Middle East travellers who want certainty and big-ticket sights. Morocco rewards a slightly longer trip and more wandering, flexes from budget to ultra-luxury, and is a shorter, cheaper flight from Europe (Jordan is the easier reach from the Gulf and pairs neatly with the Holy Land). Both are very safe and hospitable; Jordan can run pricier per day, Morocco is generally better value.

Pick Jordan if you want a punchy week of iconic wonders — Petra, Wadi Rum, the Dead Sea — with minimal planning. Pick Morocco if you'd rather a richer, more varied immersion across cities, mountains, coast and a grander Sahara, ideally over nine or ten days. Desert romantics genuinely can't lose either way; I'd just say Jordan is the greatest-hits album and Morocco is the full discography.