Arequipa or La Paz?

Neither city is a place to swim, but the gap differs in kind. From Arequipa the Pacific is a two-hour drive to wide sandy beaches at Mollendo and Mejía, though the Humboldt Current keeps the water cold and the surf rough.

La Paz is landlocked, and its nearest big water, Lake Titicaca, is around 12°C and suited to boat trips rather than bathing. In both cities a swim means the hotel pool.

Arequipa eats noticeably better. Its picanterías, loud family dining rooms with clay stoves, serve one of Peru's great regional cuisines: rocoto relleno, river-shrimp chowder and Sunday adobo, washed down with dark chicha. San Camilo market and the modern Peruvian kitchens around the plaza add depth.

La Paz's strength is the street and the market: mid-morning salteñas, anticucho grills after dark, and set lunches at shared tables in Mercado Rodríguez. A few Sopocachi restaurants cook ambitiously with quinoa and llama, but the everyday range is narrow and heavy, and altitude blunts many visitors' appetites at first.

Arequipa has the richer set of sights. Its whole centre of pale sillar stone is a UNESCO site, and Santa Catalina's walled town of ochre and indigo lanes alone fills half a day, with Juanita at the Museo Santuarios Andinos and La Compañía's carved portal close by.

La Paz has a smaller colonial core around San Francisco, Plaza Murillo and Calle Jaén, plus good national art and ethnography museums. Its pull is living culture rather than monuments: the Witches' Market, cholitas in bowler hats, El Alto's cholet mansions and the view from the cable cars.

Arequipa's nights out happen on one street. Pisco bars, terraces and a few dance clubs on Calle San Francisco and its side streets fill with students from Thursday to Saturday and can run late to salsa and reggaeton. On weeknights the centre goes quiet early, which suits anyone leaving for Colca before dawn.

La Paz spreads its evenings across several districts: small cocktail and craft beer bars in Sopocachi, traveller bars around Sagárnaga full of climbers and bikers comparing stories, and bigger weekend clubs in the southern zone. The cold and the way alcohol hits at altitude cut most nights short, and a taxi is the way home.

Both sit under great volcanic or glaciated peaks, but La Paz has more on its doorstep. Illimani rises over the suburbs, the Cordillera Real glaciers are a day out, Huayna Potosí is a two or three day climb, and the Death Road ride, Valle de la Luna and Chacaltaya are all easy to arrange.

Arequipa answers with El Misti and Chachani for guided climbs and the terraced campiña for gentle walks and cycling. Its showpiece, Colca Canyon with its condors, lies three to four hours away, so it takes more travelling to reach.

La Paz has the stronger single day out. Tiwanaku, about an hour and a half across the Altiplano, is one of South America's major pre-Inca sites, and El Alto's market makes an easy half-day. Copacabana and Isla del Sol are better done with an overnight stay.

From Arequipa the short outings are pleasant but small: Sabandía's mill, colonial country estates and Sunday lunches in Characato or Tingo. Colca's villages and the Toro Muerto petroglyphs are too far for a day trip.

Arequipa is far kinder to children. Its moderate altitude, flat centre and relaxed plazas make city days manageable, and Santa Catalina's maze of lanes appeals to older children, though there are no zoos or theme parks and Colca's high roads are tough on little ones.

In La Paz, landing at around 4,000m is a genuine risk for small children, and the steep streets and fierce traffic wear everyone down. The cable cars and the Mallasa zoo are the only real treats, so it suits families with teenagers who handle altitude well.

Arequipa is simpler on foot. The plaza, Santa Catalina, the museums and most hotels lie a few flat blocks apart, and taxis cover the campiña and Yanahuara.

La Paz is harder to walk, because its streets climb steeply at a height where any slope leaves you breathless, and traffic jams are daily. Its saving grace is Mi Teleférico, the cable-car network that links the centre, the southern zone and El Alto with mountain views, backed by cheap taxis.

Both are about alpaca and crafts rather than fashion, and neither has luxury streets. Arequipa is the home of Peru's alpaca industry, so the mill outlets selling baby alpaca and vicuña are where quality is most reliable. La Paz is the livelier hunt: the stalls of Sagárnaga and Linares, silver and musical instruments, the Witches' Market and El Alto's vast 16 de Julio fair, but quality varies and you need to look closely.

Both are inexpensive, and La Paz is cheaper still. Market lunches, salteñas, cable-car rides and central hotels cost very little, and the main outlay is a reputable operator for the Death Road or Huayna Potosí.

Arequipa gives a little more comfort for slightly more spending, with colonial guesthouses and picantería meals. Its big costs are Colca tours and volcano climbs.

La Paz offers more to watch. Its peñas stage morenada, caporales and diablada dancers to charangos and panpipes, the National Symphony plays at the historic Teatro Municipal, and the Gran Poder festival fills the streets with tens of thousands of costumed dancers each year.

Arequipa's scene is thinner: weekend folk dinners in the peñas, a regional orchestra and university theatre. The mid-August anniversary parades are its main moment.

Arequipa is much the better place to slow down. Dry sunshine, cloister courtyards and long lunches set an easy pace, the volcanic thermal pools at Yura are under an hour away, and the open-air springs near Chivay end a day at Colca well.

La Paz works against rest. The centre is loud and smoky, sleep suffers at altitude for the first nights, and the nearest hot springs at Urmiri are two hours out, leaving coca tea and the leafy streets of Sopocachi as the main comforts.