Alexandria or Tunis?

Neither city makes a beach vacation, but Tunis gives you the easier swim. In Alexandria the Corniche beaches are narrow and crowded, the better sand at Montaza and Mamoura sits behind the gates of paid clubs, and outside those clubs most women swim covered.

From Tunis the suburban train takes you to the long sandy beaches of La Marsa and Gammarth, and Hammamet and Cap Bon are about an hour away for wider, calmer water. Alexandria's sea stays warm a little later into autumn, but its clearer North Coast beaches are too far for a day out.

Both cities eat best cheaply and both are good for fish, but the flavours are different. Alexandria is all about the catch: you pick it from the ice in Anfushi, it is weighed and then grilled or baked in clay. Add liver sandwiches and fiteer from late-night counters and the old Greek patisseries downtown.

Tunis cooks hotter, with harissa in everything from brik to the lablabi eaten at breakfast and the Friday couscous, and its Marché Central is the better market to wander. A drink is easier to find in Tunis too, where licensed restaurants serve local wine. In Alexandria alcohol is mostly limited to hotels and a few old bars.

Tunis gives you more to walk through. Its UNESCO-listed medina around the Zitouna Mosque is still a lived-in old city, set beside the French boulevards of the Ville Nouvelle. The Bardo's Roman mosaics are among the finest anywhere, and Carthage and Sidi Bou Said are a short train ride away.

Alexandria's past is greater on paper, but most of it lies underground or underwater, so you visit pieces of it: the catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa, the Roman theatre at Kom el-Dikka, Qaitbay on the Pharos site and the Bibliotheca. The real pleasure is its faded belle époque mood, which rewards a slower pace.

Neither city is for a big night out, and in both the evening means tea and shisha. Alexandria's version is the summer Corniche, where seafront coffee houses stay busy past midnight and a drink means a hotel lounge or one of the few Greek-era bars. Tunis has a little more choice in summer, when the lounges and beach clubs of La Marsa and Gammarth stay open late at weekends with a younger, mixed crowd, though the downtown bars are rough and mostly male.

Alexandria's natural scenery is the sea and the sunsets over the Eastern Harbour. Beyond the Corniche lie flat farmland, the reed beds of Lake Mariout and desert, with no hills to walk, and its one outdoor speciality is diving on the sunken Pharos.

Tunis has far more within reach: flamingos on the Lake of Tunis, short climbs on Bou Kornine above the bay and clifftop walks at Sidi Bou Said. Further out are the wetlands of Ichkeul and mountain walking on Djebel Zaghouan, best done in spring or autumn.

This is where Tunis is far ahead. Dougga, one of Africa's best-preserved Roman towns, and Kairouan with its Great Mosque are each about two hours away. Hammamet, the potteries of Nabeul, Kerkouane and Sousse fill more days, ideally with a driver or a louage.

Alexandria's list is shorter: the Ottoman houses of Rosetta, the war cemeteries at El Alamein and the ancient monasteries of Wadi Natrun. Cairo and the pyramids are possible by express train but make a very long day, and most people give them a stay of their own.

Both cities are warm towards children and difficult with them in the same ways: heavy traffic, broken pavements and little built for young ones. Alexandria's draw is the summer seafront, with paddling, ice cream and carriage rides, plus Montaza's gardens. Tunis has Belvedere Park and its small zoo, the open ruins of Carthage and the cleaner beaches of La Marsa. Many families there stay on the coast and visit the city for the day.

Tunis is the easier city to get around. The medina and downtown are close enough to walk between, and the TGM railway crosses the lagoon to Carthage, Sidi Bou Said and La Marsa on one simple line.

Alexandria spreads its sights along about 20km of coast, so you rely on taxis and ride-hailing that often get stuck in traffic, and the old tram is more charming than useful. Crossing the multi-lane Corniche on foot is the hazard visitors remember.

Tunis gives you more to bring home. Its medina souks are still partly arranged by trade, with chechia makers, perfumers by the Zitouna Mosque, kilims and brass, and Nabeul ceramics and Sidi Bou Said birdcages are the classic buys.

Alexandria's shops serve the people who live there rather than visitors. The exception is the Attarin quarter, whose dusty antique dealers sell relics of the cosmopolitan era and are worth a browse if you like old furniture and curios.

Both are very cheap by Mediterranean standards, but your money goes a little further in Alexandria. Taxis, street food and a grilled fish dinner at the harbour cost little, and seafront hotels are modest, with only the busy summer weeks pushing room prices up.

Tunis is nearly as cheap if you eat where locals eat. The smart hotels and seafood restaurants of Gammarth and La Marsa, and imported alcohol, charge closer to European rates.

Neither city has a stage busy every night, but the two work to different rhythms. In Alexandria a performance is something you happen upon. The Sayed Darwish Theatre, its early twentieth-century opera house, puts on opera, ballet, Arabic music and orchestral concerts, and the Bibliotheca's arts centre adds concerts and film, but the programme is irregular and mostly in Arabic.

Tunis follows a calendar. In summer the Carthage International Festival fills the restored Roman theatre with concerts, and in the cooler months the Carthage theatre and film festivals take over, so the timing of your trip matters. The rest of the year, the Art Nouveau Municipal Theatre stages plays and concerts in Arabic or French. In Sidi Bou Said the palace of Ennejma Ezzahra holds recitals of malouf, Tunisia's classical music with Andalusian roots, though an ordinary weeknight may offer very little.

Tunis is the better place to unwind. The resort hotels of Gammarth have full thalassotherapy spas, the medina still has plain neighbourhood hammams, and the hot springs of Korbous on Cap Bon are about an hour away.

Alexandria has no bathing tradition, so relaxing means a hotel spa or the slow rhythm of old cafés and harbour walks, best enjoyed outside the busy summer.