The smell of fresh figs, dates and pomegranates is an assault on the senses as I move among the shoppers in the marketplace of Amman. I bite into the nugget of juicy mango offered by the stallholder and accept a handful of saffron-flavoured pistachios and a sliced fig. He smiles a greeting. The smile is genuine, the welcome real, for the Jordanians’ warmth and traditional hospitality have not been corrupted by mass tourism.

Jordan offers the visitor everything from ancient sites to stunning beaches, plus stress-free modern shopping and superb hotels. There are no touts spoiling your walk as you follow in the footsteps of Old Testament prophets or wander the sandy streets of 3,000-year-old cities, and no beggars implore you with outstretched hands for a few cents, for there are no beggars here.

The shopkeepers are busier with their worry beads than with their calculators and no one tries to sell you a kaftan when you finger the beaded silk robes outside a shop. Dead Sea health products – especially the mud, which works wonders on the face and body – finely decorated daggers and swords and the high-quality, hand-blown glass for which Jordan is famous are real bargains in this part of the Middle East.

Amman’s Roman remains are overlooked because of the glory that is Petra but this city that sprawls across seven hills has a rich history of its own. Wander among its centuries-old colannaded streets, its well-preserved Roman theatre and Nymphaeneum. Better still, view them from Citadel Hill in the early morning when the stones of Hercules’ Temple and the Umayyad Palace on the summit are awash with golden sunlight.

Gigantic sandstone blocks litter the ground, part of the Roman Temple jigsaw awaiting completion by archaeologists working on this vast 1200BC complex. The nearby museum houses the third-century Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered by Bedouin in 1947.

A few hours’ drive along the King’s Highway that cuts through the desert and you are in Wadi Rum, familiar to film fans as the setting for Lawrence of Arabia. Massive pillars of red sandstone surge out of the dun-coloured desert that was once a caravan route: many of the rocks and stones still show the graffitti engraved on them 2,000 years ago. To spend a night in the desert as the sunset deepens the shadows and colours the rocks, to sleep under inky black skies filled with stars, and to wake at dawn to see the rocks change from brown to reddish-pink is a life-affirming event you will never forget.

Not far from Wadi Rum, the Red Sea port of Aqaba lies in a spectacular setting of purple-coloured mountains and white sandy beaches ringed with palm trees. A maze of shops clusters together up the wide, hilly streets, many selling the turquoise and lapis lazuli for which the town is famous. Apart from the Mamluk Fort on the corniche and the castle of Saladin on an island in the middle of the Gulf, there are few places demanding attention, making it the perfect little town in which to relax.

Its deep, indigo-coloured waters that never fall below 20 degrees teem with rainbow-hued marine life and make it a mecca for international divers. If you prefer not to get wet, take a glass-bottomed boat from the beach.

Journey from the golden sands of Aqaba to the rose-red city of Petra and you enter a sixth-century BC world of temples, Roman theatres and rock-cut chambers. Petra, a legacy from the Nabataens who settled in southern Jordan more than 2,000 years ago, was lost to the west until 1812, when Swiss explorer Louis Burckhardt penetrated the walls of this hidden city and returned to Europe to tell the world of its wonders. A Unesco World Heritage Site, 85% of the city is still to be excavated.

The cliff walls on either side of the Siq, the 1,200m chasm that winds through the canyon and is the only approach to the hidden city, soar for upwards of 80m into an impossibly blue sky until, suddenly, the narrow defile opens on to a square and you are face to face with the grandeur of the Treasury façade, carved out of the pink sandstone rock. This was used to spectacular effect in the final scenes of the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Walk a little further and you are in the centre of the ancient city, passing intricately decorated housefronts cut into the sandstone cliffs, impressive royal tombs, rock drawings and reliefs, the colonnaded street at the heart of Petra and a theatre dating from 25AD.

By the pleasant terraced restaurant, a flight of 800 steps leads to the Sacrificial Place, with stunning views over the countryside. Those who are daunted by the steps can make the journey on a donkey or horse – well worth it if the day is very hot.

Jordan tourism is still in its early stages but it has some magnificent hotels. The pomegranates, the figs and the cup of sweet tea will be waiting, for a warm welcome and the hand of friendship will always be extended to the visitor from the people of this most peace-loving nation.

Factfile

The best time to photograph the Treasury façade in Petra is around 11am when the sun has begun to intensify the rock’s colour.

Amman is relatively small, taxis are cheap and drivers knowledgeable. Women should sit in the back of the taxi, but men should always sit in the front. Taxis are reasonable even over long distances, but several bus companies offer regular tours.

For Petra tel: (06) 562 1217/6

For Wadi Rum tel: (06) 562 6135

Car rental is a good way of seeing the country and available with a valid UK driving licence.

Arabic cuisine plays an important part in the culture. A typical meal will include a mouth-watering array of aromatic breads, salads, savouries and mansaf, Jordan’s traditional dish of lamb, yoghurt and pine nuts served on a bed of rice. Alcohol is available in most major hotels and restaurants.

Recommended restaurant in Amman:  Reem Albawadi (Gazelle of the Desert), tel:  (06) 551 5419

Royal Diving Club: PADI 5* IDC Dive Centre, Aqaba Southern Coastal Road, fresh-water pools, beachfront bar and cafeteria, sun deck, all facilities are wheelchair accessible.

Tel: +926 3 203 2709, email:  rdc@jptd.com.jo. www.rdc.jo

Jordan Tourism Board in Amman, tel:  (06) 567 8294, opens daily 8am-4pm except Fridays

Best Guidebook:  1^st Edition Jordan Handbook  (Footprint)

Yes, it’s still nippy out. But don’t despair — here are Europe’s finest expanses of sand, where the sun shines and sea shimmers ;

20. Holland: Terschelling dunes, Frisian Islands

The Frisians are little more than a string of sand bars along the northern coast of Holland. On Terschelling, 20 miles of hourglass-fine sand and marram grass dunes offer a surprising sense of wilderness for such a densely populated country. Huge skies, low-tide mudflats and biblical sunsets will all return you to your senses, while a network of mountain-bike tracks makes getting to the remotest beaches easy, even at the height of summer, when all-night beach parties and wild camping make this island popular with Holland’s hippie youngsters.

Best for: cyclists, nudists, party freaks.

19. Germany: Sylt

Like the Swiss navy, the German Riviera sounds a bit of a joke, yet here it is, and it’s great. Sylt, a sandbar in the North Sea, is remote — so far north it’s almost more Danish than Deutsch — but the cloud-dappled skies, rearing cliffs, floury sands and Michelin-starred cooking have seduced the likes of Claudia Schiffer and Boris Becker. The supermodel-good-looking stretch is below the giant Uwe Dune, at Sturmhaube/Rotes Kliff — here, Sylt’s signature basket chairs (Strandkörber) come with holders for champagne glasses. Swim, stroll in the surf, collect shells, and end up just north at La Grande Plage (grande-plage.de) around sunset for foaming pils and fries.

Best for: nature-lovers, gourmands.

18. Lithuania: Palanga

This is a cracking little resort town with a white, sandy beach, pine forests, sand dunes and fizzing nightlife. There are dozens of bars and restaurants along pedestrianised Basanaviciaus Street, everyone speaks English, and it’s as cheap as you’ll find in Europe. Behind the beach are the dune-side Botanical Gardens and a terrific amber museum, while the big day out is a drive down the Curonian Spit, a fragile frond of sand dunes, forests and villages. Head here between mid-June and mid-September, when temperatures are in the high twenties.

Best for: a beach party with a difference.

17. Madeira: Porto Santo

It’s simple. The southern shore of this tiny island is five miles of pure gold. You walk, slowly, with sand between your toes, getting tanned by the strong southern sun and cooled by the gentle breeze from the Atlantic. About 400 miles to the east, beyond blue waters warmed by the Gulf Stream, is Casablanca. A few miles to the southwest, and more accessible, is Madeira. There’s a museum dedicated to Christopher Columbus; if you think that sounds interesting, think again. The beach is the island’s only selling point — but that’s more than enough.

Best for: two hand-in-hand romantics.

16.Cyprus: Polis

If you want to kick back, chill out and detox without paying a fortune, this is the perfect spot. Fringed with eucalyptus trees that come down to the (pebbled) shore, it is about a mile from Polis town and has a ramshackle taverna serving decent food and beer, a spotless ablutions block and, er, that’s it. Most people camp: Swiss Family Robinsons let the kids run among the trees (mercifully free of climbing frames and swings); stranded hippies potter among the rocks. Avoid high season (it becomes a local teenage party spot) and visit in September and October, when you’ll be able to enjoy it at its sparsely populated, charmingly alternative best.

Best for: detoxing on a shoestring.

15. Greece: Papafragas Cove, Milos

Milos is one of the least known Cyclades islands, yet it has some of the chain’s most stunning beaches and snorkelling locations. It’s a working island, geologically diverse, with weird rock formations and hot springs galore, and the coastline is indented with secret lagoons, grottoes and crystal-clear fjords. At Papafragas, a narrow strip of sand leads down to an aquatic chasm beneath high white cliffs. Swim through the calcite-encrusted sea caves or, if you’re feeling daring, climb up and practise jumps and dives from the giant rock archway above. Smooth, white rock ledges are perfect for sunbathing afterwards.

Best for: wild swimmers, wilder jumpers.

14. Greece: Panormos, Mykonos

Of course, everybody comes to Mykonos for the action — the sunset hour at Little Venice, when swollen crowds lift G&Ts in unison, and the mad nightly carousing. Trouble is, when you need to recuperate next day, the most popular (southern) beaches can be an awful squeeze. Bohemian Panormos, on the northern coast, is relatively overlooked (possibly because it’s a £9 cab ride from town), but it’s a winner: a breezy sweep the colour of Wall’s vanilla ice cream, its dunes discreetly dotted with nudes. Add a hippie-chic shack, the Panormos Beach Bar (www.panormosbeach.gr), and a few Frisbees, and you could be here all summer.

Best for: club casualties, claustrophobes.

13. Croatia: Bonj ‘Les Bains’, Hvar

This supercool beach club (sunbeds £24pp, cabanas from £31pp) on Croatia’s trendiest island is about scene, rather than sand — you step straight from its graceful bathing deck into the turquoise waters of Amfora Bay. The pure-white 1930s colonnade, shaded by scented pine stands, was built so the jet set had somewhere to strut while soaking up the stunning views of the surrounding Adriatic isles. These days, Kevin Spacey and Giorgio Armani help ensure that the vibe remains ultra-glam. Sunbathe, swim, book a seafront massage or nibble sushi on the muslin-draped teak terrace. It’s like a tiny slice of St Tropez without the sleaze.

Best for: stars, star-spotters.

12. Sardinia: Cala Luna

There’s an argument that you should hike to Cala Luna. True, it’s nearly four miles, in baking sun, and you might lose focus and fall off a 300ft cliff, especially if you go gaga over the died-and-gone-to-heaven views. But what’s the point of hearing about discovering a roadless cove like this, then hopping on a tourist boat to get there? The beach is in sleepy eastern Sardinia, and it’s a half-mile crescent of spotless sand strung with pink oleander and pitted with romantic grottoes. Cars conk out at Cala Fuili, four miles north — hence that panoramic (if mildly precarious) hike. The boat? Oh, all right, then: it glides down daily in summer from Cala Gonone, the nearest resort (from £12 return).

Best for: climbers, cavemen, castaways.

11. Capri: Blue Grotto

The coastline of Capri is backed by high cliffs and studded with pebbly coves, rocky ledges and sea caves, as befits the legendary home of the Sirens. The most famous cove is the Blue Grotto, which provides a route into a deep cave and lagoon where sunlight reflected through the crystal water casts an ethereal, mesmerising glow. You can join a boat trip from Anacapri or rent your own rowboat, but the adventurous swim in, late in the day, after everyone else has left. Magical.

Best for: sirens and romantics.

10. Balearics: Platja Illetes, Formentera

A test of resolve, this one: the further you can carry your coolbox, the greater the rewards, because Illetes spit just gets quieter and quieter. To be fair, no beach on Formentera is busy — the Balearic island makes Shetland look congested — but Illetes’s northerly coves are particularly peaceful, as there are no facilities beyond the final cafe and clothing becomes optional. That doesn’t mean it’s only the sandals-and-sandwiches brigade here. There’s a good mix of young families, bikinied beauties and cossieless locals. Clothed or not, they all come for the sandy nooks, lagoon-still sea and unpretentious atmosphere.

Best for: grown-up sun worshippers, little splashers. Details: you can’t stay on Illetes.

9. Balearics: Las Salinas, Ibiza

All sand dunes and surf, located in a nature reserve, this mile-long, bow-shaped stretch of beach has long been a favourite with the island’s hipper crowd. From the yachty-totty mooring up for lunch at the Jockey Club to the club dancers who descend in the afternoons to top up their tans, this is the place for people-watching. On arrival, turn left and keep walking until you reach Sa Trinxa. Owned by an Ibiza stalwart, Jon Sa Trinxa, — who is often to be found providing the hazy soundtrack, too — it’s the perfect place for a jug of sangria and a dance in the sand, while a smattering of “fashion nudists” (it’s all about the piercings) makes for an adults-only atmosphere.

Best for: fashionistas, hippies, hedonists.

8. Costa Verde: La Concha, San Sebastian

Boisterous but beautiful, Victorian La Concha is the Basque country’s (rather more sophisticated) answer to Eastbourne. Elderly Spaniards walk back and forth in the surf while young kids play football on the sand, then eat ice cream with the hunger of POWs. There’s plenty of room for everybody: the caramel-coloured strip of sand is as wide as a runway and nearly half a mile long, or you can walk the paseo alongside mahogany-skinned joggers and inline skaters. It’s a buzzing beachside scene, but with a classic terraced backdrop — like Dickens in the sun. All this in a small town that also happens to have the best food in Spain (15 Michelin stars shared between eight restaurants).

Best for: foodies, traditionalists.

7. Costa Brava: Cala d’Aiguafreda

Few find this jewel, buried at the bottom of a steep single-track lane just north of Begur. The name comes from the sparkling freshwater stream that flows into the sea here, and the tactic is to ignore the tiny armpit of grit that passes for a beach and find a spot on the flat, sun-warmed rocks that embrace the north side of the inlet. From here, after placing your bottle of rosé to cool in a shaded rock pool, you can dive into deep blue waters as still and clear as a glass paperweight before drying off in the resin-scented shade where pine forest meets sea.

Best for: sand-hating lovers.

6. Corsica: Palombaggia

The TV advert for this beach might say: “There’s clear, then there’s Palombaggia clear.” The water here puts the Seychelles to shame. What a backdrop, too: pine forests right up to the sand, craggy rocks like natural piers into the sea, sandy cafes serving moules and vin blanc for lunch. As with any French paradise, consider August off limits — better to go in late summer, as Corsica stays warmer for longer — but limited parking among the pine trees means that some parts of the beach are quiet even in high season. Take your camera: if you cut out the French cafes, people will think you went to the Maldives on your holidays.

Best for: those still saving to get to the Indian Ocean.

5. Provence: Notre Dame, Ile de Porquerolles

“The French Riviera is concreted over. It’s spoilt.” Such is sophisticated wisdom. You can ponder these words at Notre Dame as you twiddle your toes in water so clear, you can see every twiddle. Before you, a yacht or two bobs about. The beach makes a pretty much perfect arc of perhaps a mile. Pine trees come down the rocks to stop at the edge of the fine sand. There is neither beach bar nor building — if you want a beer or people, they are two miles by foot, back along the track in the port/village. Concrete France lies in another dimension, 20 minutes away by ferry. Twiddle some more, and reach the inescapable conclusion: the only thing that’s spoilt around here is you.

Best for: Barefoot dreamers, recovering cynics.

4. Provence: Piemanson beach, Camargue

The road to Piemanson snakes through marshland, around lagoons and saltpans, to what seems the isolated edge of the known world, and in summer, a strange and motley crew follows it: travellers and fringe artists, French working families, naturists and others with needs not answered by hotel half-board. Before the dunes, the sands teem with camping cars, caravans and fast-built shacks. It’s a cross between a rock festival and the Final Frontier holiday camp, all dwarfed by the vastness of the elements. The breeze of freedom round bathers and barbecues blows away concerns about facilities (none) and legality. Or it did. Now distant authorities are threatening to clear out any wild campers from 2011, in the interests of eco-neatness. The beach will remain savagely grandiose, but this could be its last year for Europe’s freest seaside holidays.

Best for: the unkempt, convivial and mildly lawless.

3. Languedoc: Collioure

So seductive is tiny, cobbled Collioure and its small, rocky bay, history claims it cured Matisse of artist’s block — after he visited in 1905, his colour schemes rocked up a notch and his work was never the same again. Now you can’t move for chic art galleries selling his prints and rickety postcard racks rammed with his renditions of the seaside town. Avoid August, when Collioure is mobbed by the French; June and September are quieter, and it’s still hot. Classy, too, with seafood restaurants on the hills overlooking the bay, and small waterfront hotels with ladders to take guests right into the clear water.

Best for: highbrow holidaymakers.

2. Pyrenees: Lac de Mondély

Have you noticed how salty the sea is? Makes you sticky. It’s foul to swallow, too, which you can’t help doing because of the waves. And don’t get me started on wetbikes. Now swap the sea for a lake, and watch the picture change. Clear, fresh water, nothing but your own lazy backstroke to disturb the mirror-calm surface, stirringly wild surroundings and a seaside-standard sandy beach. That’s superb, secluded Lac de Mondély.

You can walk right round it in an hour or two on an enchanting path, creaking with crickets, a-flutter with butterflies; swim across the narrow middle in 10 minutes, feeling the warm and cool currents swirling silkily around your knees; or lie back with the smattering of sunbathers on the 150yd strip of soft sand and wonder why everyone else rushes off to that big ocean thing. It’s a mystery.

Best for: nature-lovers, crowd-haters, toddlers (lovely warm shallows to splash in).

1. Brittany: Plage Conguel

At the southern tip of the Quiberon peninsula, far from Brittany’s crowds, lies Plage Conguel, a necklace of blonde sand surrounding a rocky point that, one day, like Quiberon itself, will succumb to the waves and become an island. With one side facing the Atlantic swells and the other overlooking sheltered Quiberon Bay, you can choose belle or sauvage, and at high tide the beach becomes a series of family-sized rocky coves, with views across to Belle-Ile.

Best for: beachcombers, castle builders.