No difference as far as younger crowd in each place, IMHO, although AE is closer to the action in the Village. There were very few guests in either place in early December, for some reason. We did meet a nice couple from Miami at AE but we 4 were the only guests. We didn't run into other guests at Jardin although 2 couples arrived the day before we left and stayed in the farthest unit from us. They had their own hot tub and sort of hung in that area, no surprise. Our suite was kind of remote from the others. On the one night we all were there we never overlapped at the pool either but I could see that area would be nice for socializing if more folks were there.

AE is definitely closer to Orient Beach and could even be walkable as noted by a commenter to my blog post. It would be a hot walk though and if you drive each day, there's a difference of just a few minutes between the 2 places, i.e. once you are in the car, who cares? While staying in AE we almost felt a part of the action in the Village but still a bit apart for peace and quiet.