Arusha or Nairobi?

Neither city is near the sea, so beaches give you no reason to pick one over the other. Arusha at least has the spring-fed pool at Chemka, a warm, clear swim among fig trees about an hour and a half away. In Nairobi, swimming means a hotel or club pool. Travellers who want sand go on from both: to Zanzibar after a Tanzanian safari, or to the Kenyan coast before or after Nairobi.

Both cities eat nyama choma with ugali and kachumbari, but Nairobi gives it far more company. Its long-settled South Asian community has made Indian food a real strength. Ethiopian places are easy to find, Swahili dishes come up from the coast, and Westlands, Kilimani and Karen have a large café scene.

Arusha's choice is narrower: chipsi mayai at roadside stalls, mishkaki skewers in the evening, and the produce of Meru's slopes at the Central Market. Its best food outing is a tour of an Arabica coffee farm, and most visitors eat buffet dinners at their lodge.

Neither is a sightseeing city, but Nairobi has more to see. Its National Museum, with Kenyan history galleries and famous early human fossils, beats anything in Arusha. The Karen Blixen farmhouse and the Railway Museum fill a day or two.

Arusha's sights take half a day: the Natural History Museum in the old German boma, the Arusha Declaration Museum and the craft galleries. Its real cultural interest lies outside town, in visits to Maasai and Meru villages.

Nairobi is far ahead here. From Thursday onwards, the rooftop bars and clubs of Westlands play Afrobeats and amapiano until dawn. Kilimani has quieter cocktail and wine bars, and the local pubs fill up with football crowds around the grill. You get between them by ride-hailing car.

Arusha has a few local bars and some weekend clubs, mostly full of residents and volunteers. Safaris leave at dawn, though, and most visitors are in bed soon after dinner.

Both are excellent bases for wildlife, and the difference is in kind. Nairobi National Park sets lions and rhinos against office towers on the edge of the city. Within two hours you can cycle among zebras in Hell's Gate gorge or take a boat among the hippos on Lake Naivasha.

Arusha is the starting point for longer journeys. You can take walking and canoe safaris in Arusha National Park, reach Tarangire's elephants and Lake Manyara in about two hours, and set out on multi-day circuits to Ngorongoro and the Serengeti. Meru and Kilimanjaro are close by to climb.

Beyond the parks, Arusha's main outings are Moshi, a quiet town under Kilimanjaro with coffee co-operatives, and Mto wa Mbu, a market village near Lake Manyara with walks through the banana farms. Community programmes also run visits to Maasai and Meru villages. Olduvai Gorge is usually seen on the road to the Serengeti, not as a day trip from town.

Nairobi has a little more variety. You can spend half a day in the Limuru tea highlands and have lunch overlooking the plantations. At Olorgesailie, an hour and a half south, stone hand axes still lie where early humans left them. Kenya's real heritage towns, Lamu and old Mombasa, are on the coast and too far for a day out.

Nairobi is much easier with children. At the Giraffe Centre they can feed giraffes, at the Sheldrick Trust they can watch orphaned elephants, and a short morning game drive gives them real wildlife without a long journey. Staying in Karen or Langata keeps all of this close.

Arusha works better with school-age children. Safari operators set minimum ages, the days in the vehicle are long and bumpy, and the town has little for children beyond a reptile park. You also need to plan for malaria prevention.

Both cities are hard to get around without a car, but for different reasons. In Arusha the centre around the clock tower is compact, and once you leave town your safari vehicle and driver-guide take care of everything.

Nairobi's problem is distance. The Giraffe Centre, the elephant orphanage and Westlands are spread across suburbs joined by badly congested roads, so you need ride-hailing cars and patience. Nairobi's matatus and Arusha's dala-dalas are both cheap but hard for a newcomer to use.

Both are places for crafts rather than fashion, and neither has boutique streets. Arusha's specialities are Makonde carving, Tinga Tinga paintings, red Maasai shukas, and tanzanite, which is mined only in the hills near Kilimanjaro airport.

In Nairobi, the Maasai Market moves between sites through the week. The workshops in Karen let you watch glass-blowing and weaving, and the malls in Westlands cover everyday needs. Coffee makes a good gift from either city.

Almost every reason to go to Arusha comes with safari costs: park entry fees, a vehicle with a driver-guide, the lodges outside town and, for climbers, the price of Meru or Kilimanjaro. The town's street grills, dala-dalas and simple guesthouses cost very little, but few visitors spend much time there.

In Nairobi you can see lions without leaving the city, so one game drive in its own park can replace a longer and more expensive trip. Ride-hailing, coffee and roadside nyama choma are cheap. Non-resident park fees and the secure hotels in Westlands and Karen still keep it from being a budget city.

Nairobi has a real scene. Bands play benga, rumba and jazz in clubs and garden venues at weekends, Bomas of Kenya stages the traditional dances of the country's many communities, and the Kenya National Theatre puts on plays in English and Swahili. Arusha has Maasai dances at cultural villages and lodges and a few bars with weekend bands playing Bongo Flava and taarab, with no season to plan around.

Arusha's quiet is just outside town, in lodges among coffee bushes and gardens towards Usa River and on the lower slopes of Meru. They have spas, massage rooms and lawns that look up at the mountain, which makes them a good place to recover from a climb or a dusty week of game drives.

Nairobi's calmer spots are in the suburbs. Karen and Langata have garden hotels and colonial-style cottages with birdsong and breakfast on the veranda, and the bigger hotels have spas. The traffic is never far away, though, so people who want real rest usually wait until they reach a lodge in the bush or the Kenyan coast.