Almaty or Bukhara?

Neither city is a beach destination. Almaty comes out slightly ahead only because the Kapchagay reservoir, about an hour and a half north, has sandy shores and warm summer water, though it is a weekend escape for locals rather than a reason to travel. In Bukhara a hotel pool is the only place to swim. The old pools such as Lyabi-Hauz are for sitting beside.

Almaty has much the wider range. Uyghur lagman and manty, Kazakh beshbarmak and kazy, Uzbek plov and Korean salads are all on offer. The Green Bazaar is a tasting tour in itself, and the central grid adds good coffee and modern restaurants.

Bukhara cooks one cuisine, Uzbek, and cooks it well, with lunchtime plov from iron pots and samsa from the tandoor. Its strength is the setting: teahouse platforms and tables under mulberry trees by the old pools. Menus repeat from place to place, though, and vegetarians will find little.

Culture is Bukhara's great advantage. Its old centre is a near-complete Islamic city: the Kalon Minaret, the Ark, the tenth-century Samanid Mausoleum, Chor Minor and lanes where people still live. Walking through it is the point of the trip.

Almaty was shaped by earthquakes and Soviet planning and has only a few good sights instead. These are the painted wooden Zenkov Cathedral, the Central State Museum with its Scythian gold, and the Kasteyev collection of Kazakh art. Its museums beat Bukhara's modest displays, and its Soviet modernist façades are a quieter interest, but two or three days covers the city.

Almaty is where Central Asia goes out. Cocktail bars, craft beer pubs and a few clubs around Panfilov Park and Abylai Khan stay open until morning at weekends, though weeknights are quiet. In Bukhara the evening is tea and dinner by the floodlit Lyabi-Hauz, maybe a drink in a hotel bar, and then an early night.

The gap is huge. Almaty sits beneath 4,000m peaks, with the Medeu rink half an hour away and gondolas up to Shymbulak for skiing or high hiking. Spruce gorges and Big Almaty Lake are close by, and Charyn Canyon and the Kolsai lakes are further out.

Bukhara lies in a flat oasis of cotton fields and canals at the edge of the Kyzylkum desert. Camel rides and yurt camps can be arranged, but they mean a long drive and a night away. In town, green space is a few parks and shaded courtyards.

Bukhara has the better excursions. Above all there is Samarkand, a little under two hours away by high-speed train, as well as the ceramics workshops of Gijduvon, the Vabkent minaret and the Chor Bakr necropolis. Day trips from Almaty mostly head into the mountains. Its heritage outings are the Golden Man burial mounds at Esik and the Tamgaly petroglyphs, while Bishkek means a border crossing and a night away.

Almaty gives children more to do. There is the cable car up Kok-Tobe to small rides and a petting zoo, Central Park with its boats and the zoo next door, skating at Medeu and gentle slopes at Shymbulak. The catch is fast traffic and long distances on foot.

Bukhara is easier with a pushchair, since the old town is flat and mostly pedestrian, and people there are very welcoming to small children. Little is made for them beyond a puppet show, though, and summer heat above 40°C rules out the hottest months.

Bukhara is simpler, because nearly everything you come to see is in a flat, largely car-free old town about 20 minutes' walk across. You only need a cheap taxi for the summer palace, the shrines outside town and the distant railway station.

Almaty is a big city. Its shady central grid is pleasant to walk, but anywhere further means ride-hailing, buses or the single short metro line, and rush-hour traffic is heavy. One advantage is that buses and gondolas reach Medeu and Shymbulak without a car.

Bukhara is the place to buy things to take home. Its sixteenth-century trading domes are full of suzani embroidery, ikat, carpets, knives and stork-shaped scissors, often made in the next room. Quality varies, so take your time and bargain gently.

Almaty is mostly bazaars and malls. There are dried fruit and honey at the Green Bazaar, felt work and silver for souvenirs, the sprawling Barakholka market and international brands. It has more modern retail than Bukhara but far fewer crafts.

Both are cheap places to travel. Bukhara comes out ahead because its courtyard guesthouses in old merchant houses are good value, while Almaty's central hotels are priced closer to international norms and its smart bars add up. Day to day, noodles, taxis and entry tickets cost little in either city.

Almaty has a proper performance season. The Abai State Opera and Ballet Theatre stages classic opera and ballet in the Russian tradition, and the Philharmonic plays orchestral and dombra concerts, all at modest prices, though drama is rarely in English. Bukhara's shows are mostly folk dance and costume performances for visitors in a madrasa courtyard by Lyabi-Hauz. You'll only hear Shashmaqam singing now and then, at weddings and festivals.

Both cities have a bathing tradition, in different forms. Almaty's Arasan is a vast Soviet-era complex with a banya, Finnish saunas and a hammam under one roof, and there are hot springs in the Alma-Arasan gorge. Traffic and winter smog spoil the calm, though.

Bukhara's baths are small, centuries-old rooms under brick domes, offering a steam, a scrub and a herbal massage. The town itself, with its courtyard mornings and slow afternoons over tea by the pools, is the easier place to slow down.