Bacalar or Tulum?

In Bacalar you swim in a freshwater lagoon of seven colours that is warm, shallow and still. You get in from docks and balnearios, and the channel at Los Rápidos gives you a lazy float. What it cannot offer is a beach to lie on, because there is little sand and no surf.

Tulum has the real Caribbean shore: a long strip of pale sand running south from the cliff-top ruins towards Sian Ka'an, plus the turtle-filled shallows at Akumal. Its drawback is sargassum seaweed, which can foul the sand in the warmer months. That is a problem Bacalar's lagoon never has.

Neither town is a food destination, but Tulum gives you more choice. The beach road and jungle strip are lined with candlelit restaurants that cook Caribbean fish over open fire and pour plenty of mezcal. The town centre adds taco stands, fondas and evening street stalls.

Bacalar keeps to taquerías, cocinas económicas and a few restaurants on the lakeshore. The regional cooking, panuchos, salbutes and sopa de lima, is honest and good, but after a few days you will be going back to the same handful of tables.

Each town has one sight. Bacalar's is the Fuerte de San Felipe, an eighteenth-century fort built against pirates, with a small museum and ramparts that look over the lagoon. Tulum's walled Maya port on the cliff, with El Castillo standing above the sea, is the more striking of the two and one of the best-known views in the Maya world. Either can be seen in a morning, and anyone seriously interested in Maya history heads inland from both.

Bacalar has a few bars around the square and on the shore, drinks at the hostels, and nothing that runs late. Tulum is a party destination known well beyond Mexico, with DJ sets in jungle clearings, beach clubs that go from late afternoon into the night, and full-moon events. All of this peaks in winter and around New Year.

Away from those big nights, Tulum's strip of mezcal bars on the main avenue is modest. Even so, it offers far more of an evening than Bacalar's quiet plaza.

Both towns sit in flat, hot limestone forest, and in both the interest is in the water. In Bacalar that means the lagoon itself, over 40km of blue water best paddled at sunrise, with ancient stromatolites in the shallows and boat trips to Bird Island and the Pirates' Channel.

Tulum has more variety. Nearby cenotes such as Gran Cenote and Dos Ojos are among the best places for cavern snorkelling and diving, the Sian Ka'an reserve has dolphins and turtles among its mangroves, and there is a reef offshore. Neither place has hills or proper hiking.

Both towns are bases for Maya ruins, but the sites near Tulum are greater. Coba is under an hour away, and Chichen Itza with Valladolid makes a full day out at about two hours each way. Playa del Carmen and the ferry to Cozumel add a trip along the coast.

From Bacalar the sites are smaller. Chacchoben is close, Kohunlich and Dzibanché pair up for a longer day, and Chetumal has a good museum of Maya culture. From either town you will need a car or a tour for most of these.

For young children, Bacalar's lagoon is about as gentle as water gets: warm, shallow and without waves. Out of the water, though, there is nothing laid on for them. Tulum holds children's interest over a longer stay, with turtles at Akumal, cenotes with wooden steps, and the eco-parks at Xel-Ha and Xcaret with their lazy rivers and shows.

Tulum's beach strip leans towards couples and parties, so families there do best in a place with a pool and with a hire car. In Bacalar, the thing to look for is a lakeside lodge with its own dock.

Bacalar's centre is a few blocks around the main square and the fort, easy to cover on foot, and that makes it the simpler of the two to get about. The harder part is the lagoon shore, which runs for kilometres. Many lodges and balnearios, and Cenote Azul, lie well out of town along a road with little room for walking, so you need a taxi or a bicycle for those. Long-distance buses run to Chetumal, Tulum and Cancun.

Tulum is spread out in three parts along the highway: the town grid, the beach a few kilometres east and the hotel strip running far to the south. The flat roads make cycling the usual way between them, though they can be narrow and unlit after dark. Taxis are expensive for the distance, public transport is limited to colectivo vans along the highway, and the Tren Maya station is outside the centre. In both towns, a hire car makes it much easier to reach the ruins and cenotes.

Shopping is not a reason to visit either town, but Tulum at least gives you something to browse. Boutiques on its beach road sell linen dresses, macramé and woven bags to a well-off crowd, and the main avenue has silver and embroidered huipiles at kinder prices. Bacalar has a few stalls near the square selling hammocks and souvenirs, and for anything practical you go to Chetumal.

Bacalar is the cheaper of the two by some way. Guesthouses and hostels in town, local food, bicycles and shared lagoon boats all cost little. Only the waterfront lodges with private docks reach Caribbean coast prices.

Tulum is among the most expensive places to stay in Mexico, and beach-road hotels, beach clubs, taxis and cenote entry fees all add up. A budget stay there means sleeping in the town centre and cycling to the sea.

Neither town has a performance scene worth planning around. Tulum has a little more: bands and acoustic sets in bars on the main avenue, sax and drums at DJ nights, and staged ceremonial dance at the eco-parks up the coast. In Bacalar it comes down to the odd weekend musician on the square.

Tulum is built around wellness. Yoga shalas, retreat hotels, open-air spas, sound baths and temazcal sessions run daily along the beach road and in the jungle behind it. Bacalar offers yoga, massage and the temazcal on a much smaller scale, through its lodges and a few studios.

What Bacalar has instead is real quiet: lakeside lodges with no road noise and days that follow the light. In Tulum, party nights and highway traffic can intrude, so for a calm stay you need to choose your spot carefully.