Bacalar or Mexico City?

Bacalar wins easily, though on its own terms. The swimming is in a freshwater lagoon, warm, calm and clear, and you get in from docks and balnearios rather than sand, with Cenote Azul and the gentle current at Los Rápidos for variety. Anyone who needs surf or a long beach walk has to drive on to Mahahual.

Mexico City has no open water at all, only hotel pools and sports centres, because it sits high on its plateau with the Pacific at Acapulco hours away. Visitors who want both usually plan the coast as a separate part of the trip.

On food, Mexico City is far ahead. Eating there is a reason to go in itself: al pastor at late-night taco stands, tamales from breakfast carts, counter lunches in the Medellín, La Merced and Jamaica markets, then cantinas, pulquerías, mezcal bars and highly regarded tasting menus in Roma, Condesa and Polanco.

Bacalar eats well enough on Yucatecan staples such as cochinita pibil, panuchos and sopa de lima, with fish and ceviche by the lagoon. The choice is narrow, though, and after a few days you are going back to the same handful of places.

Bacalar's history takes a morning to see. There is the eighteenth-century Fuerte de San Felipe, built against pirates, with its small museum and its view over the water, and a plain church on the square. For the Maya past you have to go out to the ruins.

Mexico City is one of the great cultural capitals of the Americas. The Zócalo, the Templo Mayor and Rivera's murals in the National Palace stand side by side, the National Museum of Anthropology holds the Sun Stone, and Coyoacán, San Ángel and Xochimilco fill more days. Even a week leaves some of it unseen.

Bacalar goes to bed early. There are a few bars by the square and the lake, drinks at the hostels and now and then a weekend band in the plaza, which suits people getting up for a sunrise paddle.

Mexico City is the opposite. Nights there start late and spread across the cocktail bars and mezcalerías of Roma and Condesa, the old cantinas of the Centro, salsa and cumbia halls, electronic clubs that close at dawn and the LGBTQ scene of the Zona Rosa.

Bacalar has the stronger landscape right on the doorstep. More than 40km of lagoon is edged with mangroves, with stromatolites in the shallows, the Bird Island sanctuary and deep cenotes, all best seen from a kayak at dawn. Away from the water, though, the country is flat forest with few trails.

Mexico City's nature is more varied but harder to reach. In town there is Chapultepec and the Xochimilco wetlands, Ajusco offers hiking at altitude, and the volcanoes at Paso de Cortés and Nevado de Toluca are about two hours out once you are through the traffic. Hikers get more height there, but at the lagoon you are in the landscape from the moment you wake.

Both cities have ancient sites within reach, but on a very different scale. From Bacalar you can see Chacchoben's temples in the jungle, the stucco masks of Kohunlich paired with Dzibanché and the Maya museum in Chetumal. None is a major site, and most need a car.

From Mexico City, Teotihuacan is an hour away and is one of the largest ancient cities in the Americas. Colonial Puebla and Cholula, Taxco's silver streets, Tepoztlán and Cuernavaca widen the choice, and buses and tours reach them all, though you need early starts to beat the traffic.

Mexico City offers children far more variety: the zoo, boating lakes and the Papalote museum in Chapultepec, an aquarium, a theme park, trajinera rides in Xochimilco and lucha libre. The cost is long rides, crowded trains and the altitude, so families do best planning their days by neighbourhood.

Bacalar gives young children one excellent thing: warm, shallow water with no waves to paddle in and jump into from the dock. There is very little else, and the humid heat makes walking tiring. It works for a few days at the lagoon rather than a full week of outings.

Neither city is effortless, but Mexico City is easier. It has a cheap metro, the Metrobús, bike-share and plenty of ride-hailing cars linking walkable districts such as the Centro, Roma, Condesa and Coyoacán, even if distances are long and the trains are packed at rush hour.

Bacalar's centre takes minutes to walk. The lodges, balnearios and Cenote Azul, however, are strung along kilometres of shore road with little room for pedestrians, so you need taxis or bicycles, and a hire car is the practical way to reach the ruins.

Bacalar's shopping is a few stalls of hammocks, embroidery and souvenirs near the square. Mexico City is a serious place to shop, above all for crafts: La Ciudadela gathers pottery, alebrijes, silver and textiles from across the country, the Sunday flea market at La Lagunilla and the Saturday bazaar in San Ángel are good for browsing, and Polanco and Roma add the luxury houses and Mexican designers. Anyone hoping to take Mexican crafts home should save their buying for the capital.

Both reward travellers who live as the locals do, but Mexico City makes a budget go further. Street tacos, market lunches, metro rides and cheap or free museum days keep costs low, and only the hotels and restaurants of Roma, Condesa and Polanco push them up.

In Bacalar, guesthouses, local food, bicycles and shared boat trips are cheap. The lakeside lodges with private docks, which are much of the reason to come, cost about as much as anywhere else on the Caribbean coast.

The two can hardly be compared here. Bacalar's stage is the occasional weekend band on the square. Mexico City has the Ballet Folklórico and the national opera at Bellas Artes, the university orchestra in Sala Nezahualcóyotl, jazz and son clubs, mariachis in Plaza Garibaldi and lucha libre at Arena México, and most of these can be enjoyed without Spanish.

Bacalar is the restful one, and its calm comes from the setting. Lakeside lodges are quiet, days follow the light from dawn to sunset, and yoga classes and temazcal ceremonies are offered on a small scale. There is little pampering, as there are no large spas.

Mexico City has the better spas, in Polanco, Roma and Condesa, and temazcales too, but noise, traffic and crowds work against rest. Its quiet moments are a shaded plaza in Coyoacán or a long morning in a café, and people looking for a proper retreat head south to Tepoztlán.