Antigua Guatemala or Leon, Nicaragua?

From Antigua the beach is a separate trip. The nearest coast is the black volcanic sand of Monterrico, about two hours away, with heavy surf, so in town swimming means a hotel pool.

León has Poneloya and Las Peñitas about 20km away, close enough to split your stay between the city and a beach guesthouse. This is still surf coast with strong rips. Swimmers keep to the shallows or the calmer water at the end of Las Peñitas, opposite the mangrove island, while surfers do very well.

Antigua eats better, mostly because of its coffee. It is grown on the volcano slopes, poured in courtyard cafés and explained on farm tours. Add slow-cooked pepián and jocón, chocolate tastings and comedor lunches in the central market, and there is enough for several good days, even if fine dining is thin.

León's food is cheaper and simpler. Fritanga grills on the pavement, quesillo and weekend nacatamales are satisfying, but the range is narrow. Cane-field rum, not coffee, is what the region is known for.

Antigua's appeal is the whole townscape. A 16th-century grid of painted houses is broken every other block by roofless churches and convents such as Capuchinas and Santa Clara, where trees grow through the fallen vaults, and the Santa Catalina arch frames the street. Walking it is the attraction in itself.

León has the single grandest monument of the two, the vast whitewashed cathedral, whose roof you can walk among the domes. It also has the stronger small museums, with the Ortiz-Gurdián art collection and Rubén Darío's family home, plus revolutionary murals on the streets. As a place, though, the city is plainer between its sights.

Neither town has a big night out, but León goes out a little harder. Students and backpackers fill the hostel bars, plastic-table rum joints and reggaeton and salsa clubs near the cathedral from Thursday to Saturday, though midweek is quiet and you should take a taxi home late.

Antigua is more about a drink than a dance. You get rooftop bars facing the volcanoes and candlelit mezcal rooms behind colonial doors, and nearly everything closes well before the small hours.

Both towns are about volcanoes, and Antigua's are slightly the bigger draw. The overnight climb of Acatenango to camp near 3,500m, watching Fuego throw lava into the dark, is the outstanding experience, and Pacaya, the coffee farms and the cloud forest fill in around it in cooler air.

León's Maribios range offers something different: sandboarding down Cerro Negro and looking into Telica's glowing crater at night. It also adds the coast, with boat trips through the Juan Venado mangroves and nesting turtles in season. The heat means every outing starts at dawn.

Antigua has far more within reach. Weaving villages such as San Antonio Aguas Calientes are a tuk-tuk ride away, the Maya ruins of Iximché and the museums of Guatemala City make easy days, and Lake Atitlán and Chichicastenango market are worth a long day or a night away.

León has one excellent outing, the buried first city at León Viejo, plus a rum distillery tour at Chichigalpa and the basilica at El Viejo. Beyond those the choice thins out, and Granada and Masaya work better as a separate stop.

Neither is built for children, but Antigua is the easier of the two. Its mild climate helps, and children can join chocolate workshops, visit coffee farms, ride horses and walk up Pacaya at school age, though cobbles make pushchairs hard work.

León's heat wears small children out, and its beaches have strong surf. Adventurous teenagers will love volcano boarding and the mangrove boats, but younger ones tend to spend the days by a hotel pool.

Both are compact colonial grids where the main sights lie within about fifteen minutes' walk, and neither needs a car. The difference is underfoot and overhead. Antigua's big uneven cobbles tire the legs, while León's problem is the midday heat on broken pavements.

For short hops, Antigua has tuk-tuks and chicken buses to the valley villages, and León has shared taxis, tricycle taxis and old school buses to the coast.

For shopping, Antigua is in a different league. Handwoven huipiles from the highland villages, jade, ceramics and embroidered bags fill the craft market and the streets near the arch, and courtyard boutiques sell more refined versions for anyone who would rather not bargain.

León's markets sell everyday produce and clothes. They are interesting to walk through, but souvenirs come down to a few shops near the cathedral with hammocks, leather, coffee and rum, and the country's main craft market is far off at Masaya.

León is one of the cheapest stops in the Americas. Guesthouses, market lunches, local rum and coast buses cost next to nothing, and even its restored boutique hotels stay modest.

Antigua is Guatemala's most expensive town. Its colonial boutique hotels and restaurants on the central park approach Western rates, but guesthouses, comedor lunches and chicken buses keep a careful budget workable.

Neither has a concert or theatre season to plan around, and both put on their best show at Holy Week, with sawdust carpets in the streets. Antigua's music is marimba in the central park and the occasional concert in a ruined cloister.

León has the neoclassical Teatro Municipal for occasional folk dance and concerts, and a livelier street calendar. The Gigantona dances to drums, and the Purísima and Gritería fill early December with altars, singing and fireworks.

Antigua is much the more restful place. It has quiet garden courtyards with fountains and volcano views, real hotel spas that use local coffee and cacao, plenty of yoga and the odd temazcal sweat bath. The only interruptions are church bells and saints'-day fireworks at dawn.

León is hot, full of traffic and students, and its wellness is a few cheap massage rooms. Rest there means a hammock in a shaded courtyard or a few days in the beach villages.