Bacalar or Cancun?

Cancun has the beaches people picture: about 22km of fine, pale coral sand along the Hotel Zone, with calm, shallow bay water on the northern arm and open Caribbean surf from Punta Cancun southwards. Isla Mujeres adds the gentle shelf of Playa Norte a short ferry ride away, and the bay side is the fallback when sargassum arrives on the eastern shore.

Bacalar swims differently. You enter its freshwater lagoon from docks and balnearios, the water is still, clear and shallow over white limestone, and Cenote Azul and Los Rápidos add depth and a gentle current to float on. It is wonderful for nervous swimmers, but there is no sand to lie on and no surf.

Neither is a destination for food, and both serve the same Yucatecan dishes: cochinita pibil, sopa de lima, panuchos and salbutes. Cancun has more range because it has a real downtown, with night-time taco stands, the stalls by Parque de las Palapas and the market halls of Mercado 28 and Mercado 23, although the Hotel Zone itself mostly means buffets.

Bacalar has a handful of taquerías, cocinas económicas and lakeside restaurants serving fish and ceviche. After a few days you will be going back to the same places.

Both are thin on sights and about level. What they offer differs in kind. Bacalar has real colonial history in the eighteenth-century Fuerte de San Felipe, built against pirates, which has a small museum and ramparts over the lagoon. Cancun is a resort planned in the 1970s, and its one sight is the Maya Museum, with finds from across the peninsula and the San Miguelito ruins in its grounds. Anyone serious about history will spend their days travelling out from either town.

This is where the two differ most. Cancun's Party Center at the bend of the Hotel Zone has huge clubs with acrobatic shows, open-bar wristbands and crowds that stay until four or five in the morning, and downtown around Avenida Tulum has cheaper bars where residents drink.

Bacalar has a few bars on the square and the lakeshore and some backpacker drinks at the hostels, and nothing runs late. People here go to bed early so they can paddle at sunrise.

Cancun has more variety outdoors. The Mesoamerican Reef offers snorkelling and diving off Puerto Morelos and Isla Mujeres, along with the sculptures of MUSA. Inland are the cenotes of the Ruta de los Cenotes, and whale sharks visit between June and September. Isla Contoy, the Nichupte mangroves and kitesurfing on the windier shore add more.

Bacalar has one great landscape: more than 40km of lagoon fringed by mangroves, with ancient stromatolites in the shallows and the Bird Island sanctuary reached by sailing boat. It is lovely from a kayak, but there is no reef and the forest around it is flat.

From Cancun you can reach the famous names: Chichen Itza with Valladolid and a cenote on a long day, Coba and Ek Balam as a pair, the cliff-top ruins of Tulum, and Isla Mujeres and Playa del Carmen close at hand.

Bacalar's outings are quieter and smaller. Chacchoben's temples rise from the jungle about 45 minutes away, Kohunlich's stucco masks and Dzibanché make one day out, and Chetumal has a good museum of Maya culture. They are rewarding but not first-rank, and you will need a car or a tour for most of them.

Cancun is far better set up for children. All-inclusive hotels have kids' clubs and shallow pools, the bay beaches by Playa Langosta and Playa Tortugas are gentle, and the aquarium and eco-parks along the coast fill rainy or restless days.

Bacalar has one great thing for children, which is a warm, waveless lagoon to float and jump off docks into. Away from the water there is nothing made for them, and it works best with older children who can paddle a kayak and a lodge with its own dock.

Bacalar is a little easier. Its centre around the square and the fort is a few walkable blocks, and bicycles and taxis cover the long lakeshore road, though Cenote Azul and many lodges are too far out to reach on foot.

Cancun is built along one long boulevard. Frequent buses run along it and on to downtown, but walking is pleasant only near your hotel. Both towns are on the ADO coach network, but a hire car is the real key to the ruins from either.

Cancun has more shopping, if mostly generic: air-conditioned malls along the Hotel Zone with international and luxury labels, and Mercado 28 downtown for hammocks, silver, huipiles and tequila, where bargaining is expected. Bacalar has only a few craft stalls near the square, and Chetumal is the place for anything practical.

Bacalar is the cheaper of the two. Simple guesthouses, local food, bicycle hire and shared boat trips on the lagoon cost little, although the lakeside eco-lodges with private docks charge Caribbean-coast rates.

Cancun's Hotel Zone is priced for international visitors, and resort meals, Party Center drinks and tours to the ruins add up fast. Downtown hotels, taco stands and local buses make it manageable, but you give up being on the beach.

Neither has a real arts scene, but Cancun at least puts on entertainment: folkloric dinner shows with mariachi, nightly resort acts and big evening spectacles of Mexican music and dance at the eco-parks. In Bacalar, all you will find is occasional weekend music on the main square or in a bar.

The two are about level for rest but offer different kinds of it. Bacalar's comes from its pace and silence: lakeside lodges without road noise, small yoga studios and short retreats, and treatments that depend on your lodging.

Cancun has proper resort spas with hydrotherapy circuits and massages on the sand, but traffic on the boulevard and noise from the Party Center mean that quiet is found at the southern end of the strip. Both offer the temazcal steam ceremony.