Arusha or Victoria Falls?

You can't have a beach day from either town, and in both most swimming happens in lodge pools. What sets them apart is the one natural swim each offers. From Arusha it is a drive of about an hour and a half to the calm, warm spring water at Chemka among fig trees, and anyone who wants sand flies to Zanzibar afterwards.

At Victoria Falls the swim is a thrill rather than a rest. In the low-water season, guided groups slip into Devil's Pool or Angel's Pool on the very lip of the drop. The Zambezi itself is off limits, because of crocodiles, hippos and strong currents.

Arusha has an everyday local food scene that Victoria Falls lacks. Goat roasted over charcoal, chip omelettes from roadside stalls and evening skewers on street corners are all within reach. The Central Market is full of produce from the slopes of Meru, and a morning on an Arabica coffee farm is a real food experience.

At Victoria Falls you eat in lodges and visitor restaurants. The memorable meals are staged occasions: kudu and crocodile at drumming dinners, tea on the Victoria Falls Hotel terrace above the gorge, or drinks on a sunset cruise. There is nothing to graze on in the streets.

Neither town is a sightseeing destination, but Arusha gives you a little more to do. The Natural History Museum is housed in the old German fort, and another museum is devoted to the Arusha Declaration that Nyerere announced here in 1967. Visits to Maasai and Meru villages bring in living culture as well.

Victoria Falls' heritage comes down mainly to the 1905 railway bridge you can walk across, the Edwardian hotel and a few modest displays. For real museum collections, cross the bridge to Livingstone in Zambia.

Arusha is a real town with its own evening life. Local bars pour Tanzanian lager alongside grilled meat, and at weekends a few clubs fill with Bongo Flava and Afrobeats, mostly with residents, students and volunteers.

Victoria Falls has no clubs at all. The evening revolves around a sundowner on the river, followed by a hotel bar or the backpacker lodges where rafting crews gather. In both places you should take a taxi after dark. In Victoria Falls that is partly because elephants walk the streets.

Both are among Africa's great outdoor bases, but Victoria Falls has the single overwhelming sight. A mile-wide curtain of the Zambezi drops into a basalt gorge, and below it come Batoka Gorge rapids, bungee jumps and flights over the spray. Zambezi National Park starts at the edge of town, and Chobe's elephant herds are about an hour and a half away.

Arusha's strength is range rather than one spectacle. Walking and canoe safaris in Arusha National Park are rare in Tanzania. Meru's crater rim and Kilimanjaro's gates are close, and Tarangire, Manyara and the Serengeti circuits all begin here.

Away from the wildlife, both towns have about the same few outings. From Arusha you can visit Moshi, a relaxed coffee town under Kilimanjaro, the market village of Mto wa Mbu, or Maasai and Meru communities on the mountain.

Victoria Falls has a quick trip into another country. Livingstone, with its colonial main street and its explorers' letters in the museum, is only 10km away across the bridge, and Mukuni village and the riverside stop at Kasane are also within reach.

Both suit school-age children better than toddlers. Both are in malaria areas, and in both, operators set minimum ages for some activities. The difference lies in how the days feel. Around Arusha the excitement comes from long, bumpy game drives, and the town itself, with heavy traffic and a reptile park, offers little.

Victoria Falls packs more variety into a small, easy town: the walk through the spray, hippo cruises and elephants crossing the road. The age limits on rafting, swings and Devil's Pool mean the boldest activities are only for older children.

Victoria Falls is much easier to handle. The falls entrance, the bridge and the main hotels are a short walk apart, operators pick you up from your lodge, and you can cross into Zambia on foot. You only need taxis for the outlying riverside lodges and after dark.

Arusha's compact centre is spoiled by broken pavements and heavy traffic. Its minibuses and motorbike taxis are hard going for a newcomer, so most visitors rely on taxis and on the safari vehicle that comes with their tour.

Arusha is the craft market town for the whole of northern Tanzania, and it shows. You'll find Maasai beadwork, red checked shukas, Makonde ebony and Tinga Tinga paintings, either bargained for in the curio markets or at fixed prices in big galleries. Tanzanite is mined nearby, and the Central Market sells coffee and spices to take home.

Victoria Falls has one large curio market of carvings, baskets and Shona-style stone. Most of the stone pieces repeat the same small designs, and finding serious work takes patience.

In both places the expensive part is what you came for: park fees, guided activities and lodges at safari prices. Arusha softens the bill with a cheap local layer of street food, market produce, minibuses and guesthouses that you can lean on between excursions.

Victoria Falls offers little of that kind of relief. Restaurant food is largely imported, seeing the falls from both sides means paying two entrance fees, and every cruise, rafting run or flight adds up. Backpacker lodges and picking just one or two activities are the main ways to save.

Neither town has a theatre or a concert season. In both, most of what visitors see is dance staged for them: Maasai jumping dances at Arusha's cultural villages, and drummers and marimba bands at Victoria Falls' game dinners and hotels.

The small difference is that a few Arusha bars have live Bongo Flava and taarab bands at weekends, played for local audiences rather than for tourists.

In both, real rest means leaving the noisy centre for a lodge with a spa. Around Arusha that means coffee estates and gardens towards Usa River, with cool evenings and lawns facing Meru, which is useful for recovering before or after a climb.

At Victoria Falls you need to stay upstream in the private concessions. There, treatments with marula oil on decks above the Zambezi fill hot afternoons, away from the town's adrenaline crowd.