Arequipa or Cuenca, Ecuador?

Neither city is a place for swimming. Arequipa does have the Pacific within reach: the wide sands of Mollendo and Mejia are about two hours away, though the Humboldt Current keeps the water cold and the surf is rough. From Cuenca the coast is across the Andes and too far for a day out, so the nearest thing to bathing is the warm water at the Baños springs on the edge of town.

Arequipa is clearly the better city to eat in. Its picanterias serve one of Peru's great regional cuisines over long, noisy lunches: rocoto relleno, river-shrimp chowder and the Sunday adobo, with chicha de guinapo on the table. The San Camilo market is also good to wander.

Cuenca's highland cooking is honest and filling: hornado carved to order in the Mercado 10 de Agosto, mote pillo, locro, and cuy at weekends in Ricaurte. The range is narrower, though, and a few days cover most of it. Neither city has much fine dining. The difference is in how deep the local cooking goes.

Both historic centres are UNESCO sites and each fills two or three days, but they reward different kinds of sightseeing. Arequipa is built around a few great sights: churches of white sillar with carved mestizo portals, the walled lanes of Santa Catalina and Juanita, the Inca girl found frozen on a volcano.

Cuenca's pleasure is in the streets as a whole: whitewashed walls, wooden balconies, the blue domes of the New Cathedral and the walk along El Barranco. Pumapungo, with the excavated terraces of Inca Tomebamba, is its one museum of real weight.

Neither is a city to choose for its nights, and in both the bars fill with students from Thursday to Saturday. Arequipa has a little more going on, with pisco bars, craft beer pubs and a few clubs around Calle San Francisco that stay open late at weekends. Cuenca's Calle Larga is smaller, with expats as well as students, and the cold highland evenings send most people home early.

Both have superb wild country, but it differs in scale and distance. Arequipa's is grander and further away: three volcanoes over the city, guided climbs on El Misti and Chachani, and Colca Canyon with its condors three or four hours away, which works best overnight or as a multi-day trek.

Cuenca's highlight, the páramo of Cajas with its hundreds of glacial lakes, starts less than an hour from town, so a full day's hiking fits easily into an ordinary stay. Arequipa suits big expeditions, Cuenca regular walking without long drives.

Cuenca has the better day trips. Ingapirca, Ecuador's largest Inca site, is about two hours north, and a loop through Gualaceo, Chordeleg and Sígsig takes in a market, silver filigree and hat weaving in a single day.

From Arequipa the easy outings are gentle countryside: the old mill at Sabandia, the Mansion del Fundador and Sunday lunch in Characato. Its bigger sights, the Colca villages and the Toro Muerto petroglyphs, are too far for a comfortable day and are usually done on overnight tours.

Cuenca is the easier choice with children, though neither has much built for them. It has Bioparque Amaru with spectacled bears and condors, the thermal pools at Baños, and riverside parks full of local families at weekends.

Arequipa is slightly lower, and older children enjoy the lanes of Santa Catalina and the frozen mummy. Beyond those there is little for them, and the trips to Colca mean pre-dawn starts and passes above 4,800m.

You can see both compact centres on foot, but Cuenca is simpler to get around. A tram runs through the centre from the airport side, taxis are easy to hail, and buses from the terminal reach Cajas and the valley towns.

In Arequipa the plaza, Santa Catalina and most hotels are a few flat blocks apart. But traffic is heavy near the centre, the buses and colectivos are hard for a visitor to work out, and Colca needs a tour, a driver or a long bus ride.

Arequipa sends visitors home in alpaca, Cuenca in a straw hat. Arequipa is the centre of Peru's alpaca wool trade, and the mill outlets sell baby alpaca and vicuña knitwear of reliable quality. There are also craft and design shops in colonial courtyards, and local artisans gathered at Fundo El Fierro.

Cuenca's so-called Panama hat is woven from toquilla straw in the region and blocked in workshops around the city, in every grade up to superfine. Ceramics, embroidery and the silver filigree of Chordeleg add to it. Beyond these crafts, both cities have only malls on the outskirts.

Both cities are very cheap, and a comfortable stay costs little in either. In Arequipa most of the money goes on Colca tours and volcano climbs. In Cuenca it goes on imported wine, foreign spirits and international restaurants, and it saves a little more because many museums and churches are free.

In Arequipa most live music is in the peñas, where Andean folk bands and dancers perform over dinner at weekends. Cuenca has the Cuenca Symphony Orchestra, which gives regular concerts in the churches and old theatres of the centre, many of them free. That gives Cuenca a little more to attend, though both scenes are small and local.

Each city also has one big festival in the streets. In Arequipa it is the founding anniversary in mid-August, with parades, folk dance and concerts. In Cuenca it is the Pase del Niño Viajero on Christmas Eve, a long procession of costumed children and decorated horses.

Cuenca is the better place to unwind. The hot springs at Baños, a short ride from the centre, have spa complexes with steam rooms, mineral pools and mud treatments. The riverside walks and cool, quiet nights also make for an easy pace.

Arequipa offers a sunnier, drier kind of calm, with long lunches and quiet cloister courtyards. But for proper bathing you have to leave the city, either for the simple pools at Yura or the springs near Chivay on a Colca trip.