Aqaba
You can be here in December for about €640, 3 days, 1 stop.
Why now
Prime time in December: 23°C days, dry, sea 24°C.
Spring and autumn give warm water without the summer heat that keeps people indoors by noon. Winter is the reason the town exists for Ammanis, so weekends fill; Ramadan slows restaurants during the day.
Best months here: January, February, November. December is not one of them — the label above measures the month against a fixed bar, not against the rest of the year here. Daytime highs, sea temperature and rainy days from three years of Open-Meteo reanalysis; a rainy day is one with at least 1 mm of rain, which is the WMO threshold and not the same as "it drizzled".
The place
Aqaba is Jordan's only stretch of coast, a port town squeezed between Eilat's lights and the Saudi border, with better diving than its concrete waterfront suggests. It works best as the sea end of a Wadi Rum and Petra circuit rather than a beach holiday in itself.
What you can do
- 01Dive or snorkel the Cedar Pride wreck and the Japanese Garden reef on the South Beach road.
- 02Walk the Aqaba Fort and the Islamic-era ruins of Ayla by the marina before the heat builds.
- 03Eat sayadieh, spiced rice with fried fish, at a harbourside restaurant on the old town side.
- 04Spend a night in Wadi Rum in a Bedouin camp, two hours east, and see the sky without light pollution.
- 05Take the morning boat from the marina to snorkel from the deck rather than the crowded town beaches.
Where to stay · neighbourhoods
Stay on the South Beach road if diving is the point, in town if eating and the fort are; Tala Bay and Ayla suit people who want a pool and do not mind isolation.
Unusual things
- ◦The Aqaba Marine Reserve's sunken military museum, tanks and helicopters deliberately placed for divers off the south coast.
- ◦Tell el-Kheleifeh, the Iron Age mound by the Israeli border sometimes identified with Ezion-Geber, visible but rarely visited.
- ◦The Arab Revolt flagpole on the waterfront, one of the tallest anywhere, marking the 1917 capture of the town.
Day trips
Flight options
Routes come from OpenFlights (historical) and a 2026 route reference compiled from public timetables. Durations are the published schedule where we have it, otherwise a block-time model fitted on measured nonstop flights. Verify schedules with the airline before booking.
Entry requirements · IT passport
Source: passport-index-data, March 2026 (coarse indicator), covering 258 of our 268 destinations for each of 199 passports. Always confirm with the destination's official site.
Airports
Distances are centre to airport derived · nonstop counts are our route reference for 2026, not every flight that exists.
Local transport
- Airport to city
- Taxi, 15 min, ~€12
- Car needed?
- Recommended for most of what is worth seeing
- Getting around
- Taxis are the way around; agree the fare first. King Hussein airport is 20 minutes north, and the Aqaba Special Economic Zone means a cheaper visa on arrival for many nationalities.
- Clock
- 2 hours ahead of Stockholm (Asia/Amman) derived
- Daylight
- 10.3 hours of daylight in December · sunrise 07:27, sunset 17:43 derived
- Currency
- JOD
Good to know
Jordan is generally calm but the region is not; check advisories, and note that ferries to Egypt and the Eilat crossing can suspend without much notice.
Alternatives at a similar price
Whole trip per person for 3 days from Stockholm in December, then the flight time; estimates, like the total above.
Cairo
Tenerife
Delhi, Agra
Jeddah
Hanoi
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