Antigua Guatemala or Oaxaca?

Neither city is a beach destination. Both sit in highland valleys at around 1,500m, and in town a swim means a hotel pool. What differs is the coast beyond.

Antigua's nearest shore, around Monterrico, is about two hours away. The sand is black and volcanic and the surf is heavy, so it is better for a night away than for swimming. Oaxaca's Pacific coast at Puerto Escondido, Mazunte and Huatulco takes several hours by road or a short flight. Travellers often go there to end the trip with a few days on the sand.

Antigua eats well for a small town, but its strengths are narrow. They are the coffee grown on the volcano slopes, the chocolate tastings, and stews such as pepián at the market comedores. After a few days the choices start to repeat.

Oaxaca is one of the great food cities of Mexico. You could eat for a week without repeating yourself, between the many moles, the charcoal tlayudas, the smoky grill aisle of the 20 de Noviembre and the sprawling Abastos market. Mezcal from the valley distilleries and a group of serious tasting-menu chefs add a depth that Antigua cannot match.

Both are low colonial grids that you see on foot over two or three days, but they offer different things. Antigua's draw is atmosphere. After the 1773 earthquakes the old capital was left in ruins, and roofless convents such as Capuchinas and Santa Clara stand on almost every other block. Its museums are small ones inside the former Santo Domingo monastery.

Oaxaca gives the walk more substance. Its Santo Domingo is intact and gilded, and the museum beside it holds the gold from Tomb 7. The city also has art and textile museums and printmaking workshops, and the Zapotec mountaintop city of Monte Albán is twenty minutes away.

Neither city has a real club scene, and in both an evening out means drinks with a view. In Antigua, the few blocks by the Santa Catalina arch have rooftop bars facing the volcanoes and salsa nights full of language students, but most places close early. Oaxaca runs a little later, with mezcal bars in the centre and Jalatlaco, the pedestrian Alcalá busy into the evening, and some DJ and salsa nights that go past midnight at weekends.

Antigua's outdoors is dramatic and starts at the edge of town. Agua's cone fills the view down the streets, and Pacaya is a half-day walk over lava fields. The overnight Acatenango climb puts you within sight of Fuego erupting in the dark.

Oaxaca's landscape is gentler and takes more effort to reach. The best of it is the Sierra Norte, an hour and a half away, where trails run by Zapotec villages cross pine and cloud forest. Hierve el Agua's mineral cliffs, which look like frozen waterfalls, make a good half-day. The walking is good, but nothing here has the spectacle of Antigua's volcanoes.

The easy outings from Antigua are the weaving and colonial villages of its own valley and the museums in Guatemala City. The bigger names, Lake Atitlán and the Chichicastenango market, are long days that many travellers turn into an overnight stay.

Oaxaca has more within an hour. The Tule cypress, Teotitlán's rugs, Yagul, the Matatlán distilleries and Mitla's fretwork palace all lie along one road east. Cuilapan and Zaachila are to the south. With colectivos or a driver, two or three stops in a day is easy.

Both are slow towns with little made for children, and in both the cobbles defeat pushchairs. Antigua's best outings for families are hands-on: chocolate workshops, horse rides and the Pacaya walk for school-age children. Oaxaca has a warmer welcome on the street and alebrije painting in the craft villages, but its main sights are ruins with little shade.

Both centres are easy grids to walk. Antigua's is slightly tighter, at about fifteen minutes end to end, with volcanoes as landmarks, though its large cobbles are hard on the ankles. Beyond the centre it is the simpler of the two, with tuk-tuks for short hops, chicken buses to the villages and shuttles to the lake and the airport.

Oaxaca's centre is just as easy to walk along the pedestrian Alcalá. Outside it, the city buses confuse visitors, so taxis, colectivos and hired drivers do most of the work.

Both cities sell crafts rather than fashion. In Antigua, huipiles, jade and ceramics are concentrated in the craft market and the streets near the arch, and quality varies, so it pays to check and bargain.

Oaxaca has far more to choose from. Galleries and cooperatives line the Alcalá, and you can also buy in the villages where things are made: rugs in Teotitlán, barro negro in Coyotepec and carvings in Arrazola. The weekly markets at Tlacolula and Ocotlán add to the choice, and mole paste and mezcal join chocolate as things to carry home.

Antigua is the most expensive place in Guatemala, and its boutique hotels and restaurants around the central park charge close to Western rates. Hostels, comedor lunches and chicken buses still keep a careful budget workable.

Oaxaca makes money go further day to day, since market food, fonda lunches, taxis and colectivos all cost little. Its boutique hotels and tasting menus are priced with foreign visitors in mind, and rooms cost much more during the Guelaguetza and the Day of the Dead.

Antigua has no theatre or concert season. Marimba in the central park and the occasional concert in a ruined cloister are most of what is on offer. Its great spectacle is Holy Week, with processions over sawdust carpets, and that belongs to faith more than to the stage.

Oaxaca has more to plan a trip around. Each July the Guelaguetza brings regional dances to a hillside auditorium, and the Day of the Dead fills the streets with comparsas. The rest of the year there is the state band in the zócalo and concerts at the ornate Teatro Macedonio Alcalá.

Both are unhurried towns with quiet garden courtyards, and both offer temazcal sweat baths. In Antigua they turn up only here and there, so the calm comes mostly from the hotels, a few of which have spas using coffee and cacao in their treatments. In Oaxaca the temazcal is a living Zapotec and Mixtec tradition, and ceremonies led by traditional healers in the city and the valley villages give a relaxing stay more substance.