Agra or Varanasi?

Neither city has anywhere to swim outdoors. The Yamuna at Agra is scenery for the Taj, and the Ganges at Varanasi is sacred and polluted, used by pilgrims for ritual dips rather than by visitors.

The real difference is hotel pools. Many of Agra's better hotels have one, whereas in Varanasi only a few larger hotels away from the old city do. Choosing a guesthouse on the ghats usually means going without a pool.

Varanasi is the better city to eat in, as long as you like vegetarian street food. Dawn kachori in the old city lanes, lassi in clay cups, winter malaiyo whisked overnight and paan rolled to order around Godowlia give a short visit plenty to look for.

Agra's cooking is Mughlai and richer, with kormas, biryani and tandoor kebabs, plus bedai for breakfast in the bazaars and petha everywhere. Away from the old quarter, though, most meals happen in tour-group restaurants near the Taj, and the interest fades after a day or two.

Both rank among India's essential sights, but they are very different experiences. Agra is about monumental architecture: the marble and inlay of the Taj, the red sandstone palaces of Agra Fort, the fine stonework of Itimad-ud-Daulah and Akbar's tomb at Sikandra. You admire them, and two days covers them well.

Varanasi's great sight is the life of the city itself. Pilgrims bathe and pray along more than eighty ghats, cremations burn at Manikarnika, and lanes lead up to Kashi Vishwanath. Neither city is strong on museums, though Varanasi has Bharat Kala Bhavan at the university.

Both cities go to sleep early, since mornings start before dawn. In Agra an evening out means a drink in a hotel bar or on a rooftop facing the Taj dome. In Varanasi alcohol is frowned upon near the ghats, so the evening centres on the aarti, followed by chai and music in the Assi Ghat cafés.

Agra has more for anyone who likes wildlife, though the city itself offers little green beyond its Mughal gardens. Keoladeo at Bharatpur, an hour away, is one of Asia's great bird wetlands in winter. Further south, the Chambal adds gharials and river dolphins, and Sur Sarovar sits on the city's edge.

Varanasi's outdoors is the river: a rowing boat along the ghats at sunrise and a walk on the sandbank opposite. For real scenery you need the two-hour drive to the Vindhya hills and Chandraprabha's waterfalls after the monsoon.

Agra has more good day trips nearby. Fatehpur Sikri, Akbar's abandoned capital about 40km away, is first class and combines easily with Bharatpur or the water palaces of Deeg. Mathura and Vrindavan bring Krishna temples and pilgrims, and Gwalior's hilltop fort is a train ride south.

Varanasi has one essential trip, Sarnath, half an hour away, where the Buddha first preached. Chunar Fort and the mosques of Jaunpur make worthwhile shorter outings, but after those the choices thin out quickly.

Neither is easy with children, but Agra is the more workable of the two. Older children tend to respond to the Taj and the fort walls, the bear rescue centre on the Mathura road is a real treat, and a hotel pool makes the hot afternoons bearable.

Varanasi offers almost nothing for children. Its lanes are narrow and dirty, cremations happen in plain sight and calm spaces are few. Families who do go usually stay briefly and stick to a dawn boat ride and Sarnath.

Agra needs wheels. Its sights are spread along and away from the Yamuna, the roads are congested and the pavements poor, so most visitors hire a car and driver for the day. The final approach to the Taj is on foot, by electric cart or by cycle rickshaw.

In Varanasi the best stretch is the one you walk: the ghats connect from Assi to Raj Ghat, and boats run the same route from the water. Beyond the river it gets harder. The old city lanes are too narrow for cars, and anything further means a cycle rickshaw or an auto through heavy traffic.

Varanasi is the better place to shop, because of Banarasi silk. Brocade saris and fabrics woven with gold and silver thread can be bought straight from the workshops in the weavers' quarters, alongside brassware, wooden toys and musical instruments.

Agra's speciality is pietra dura, the marble inlay used on the Taj, along with leather goods and carpets. In both cities touts on commission steer visitors to particular shops, but in Agra the showroom trade is harder to avoid.

The real gap is what the sights cost. In Agra foreigners pay high entry fees at the Taj Mahal and the other Mughal monuments, and that is most of a visitor's spending. In Varanasi the ghats and the evening aarti are free, so the main temptation is silk.

Apart from that, both are very cheap, with low-cost guesthouses, street food and rickshaw rides. Costs rise only in the luxury hotels facing the Taj or the palace hotels on the Ganges.

This is the clearest gap between the two. Agra has no musical tradition of its own to speak of, whereas Varanasi has bred its own schools of classical singing, tabla and dance. You can hear them in small recitals in music schools, all through the night at the Sankat Mochan festival in spring, and at the Dhrupad Mela on Tulsi Ghat. The nightly aarti and the month-long Ramlila at Ramnagar are performances in their own right.

Agra mostly offers shows staged for visitors about Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal, plus dance evenings in hotels. Its one real event is the spring Taj Mahotsav at Shilpgram.

Varanasi gives more to someone looking for calm, though in the form of contemplation rather than pampering. Yoga and meditation teachers gather around Assi Ghat, and a slow boat at first light can be deeply calming, even if the city around it is exhausting.

In Agra, rest mostly happens inside hotels, with Ayurvedic spas, lawns and pools. Outside them, the walled gardens of Itimad-ud-Daulah and Sikandra are the city's quietest corners in the late afternoon.