Baku or Samarkand?

Baku at least offers swimming. The sandy north shore of the Absheron peninsula, at Bilgah, Mardakan or Novkhani, is under an hour away by taxi, and the Caspian is warm in July and August. The beaches are plain and the water is often cloudy, so it makes a half-day out rather than a beach vacation.

Samarkand has nothing comparable, deep inside a doubly landlocked country. A hotel pool is the only realistic swim.

The two kitchens are related: both are built on plov, kebabs grilled over coals and long sessions over tea. Baku has the wider range, with saffron plov in many regional versions, sturgeon as well as lamb, qutab and dushbara, tables piled with herbs, the produce of Taza Bazaar, and Shamakhi reds with brandy afterwards.

Samarkand's cooking is narrower but has its own specialities: the layered plov served at lunchtime and the glazed Samarkand non stacked high at Siab Bazaar. Menus soon start to repeat, and wine is something to try rather than part of every meal.

Samarkand has the stronger sights. The three tiled madrasas of the Registan, the hillside avenue of mausoleums at Shah-i-Zinda and the gilded interior of Gur-e-Amir are among the finest Islamic buildings anywhere, and Ulugh Beg's observatory and the Afrasiyab murals add more history.

Baku's Icherisheher, with the Maiden Tower and the Palace of the Shirvanshahs, is smaller and less spectacular. In return, Baku has what Samarkand lacks: streets of oil-boom sandstone mansions, the Carpet Museum and the white curves of the Heydar Aliyev Center. Baku needs two or three days, Samarkand three or four.

Baku has a real night out. Summer evenings on the Boulevard and around Fountain Square stay busy late, with pubs, wine bars, hotel rooftops and a few weekend clubs to follow. It is smart rather than adventurous.

In Samarkand the evening is a long dinner, often near a loud wedding band, then a walk past the illuminated Registan. The streets are quiet well before midnight.

Samarkand is the better base for the outdoors. About an hour away, the Aman-Kutan valley and the hills above Urgut have juniper woods, walnut groves and trails through the villages. The Nuratau mountains suit longer homestay treks. Spring and autumn are the times to go.

Baku's surroundings are flat semi-desert, more strange than green, with mud volcanoes, the burning hillside of Yanar Dag and the Gobustan plateau. For real mountains you need an overnight trip to Quba or Shahdag.

Samarkand has more good day trips. Bukhara makes a long day out by high-speed train, Shakhrisabz and the ruins of Timur's White Palace lie over a mountain pass, and the Sunday bazaar at Urgut and the paper-making village of Konigil are close by.

Baku's best day out is the Stone Age carvings at Gobustan, combined with the mud volcanoes. The Ateshgah fire temple, the Absheron watchtowers and Shamakhi's vineyards make shorter outings. Most of these need a driver, and Sheki and Quba need an overnight stay.

Baku is the easier choice with children. The Boulevard has playgrounds, boat rides, fountains and room for scooters, the funicular to Highland Park is a treat, and a beach half-day is possible in summer. There is no zoo or theme park, though, and underpasses with stairs are hard work with a pushchair.

Samarkand is calm and welcoming, but a day of madrasas and mausoleums in the heat asks a lot of young children. It suits older children with an interest in history, ideally in spring or autumn.

Both centres are walkable, app taxis fill the gaps, and neither city needs a car. Baku also has a metro with deep, ornate Soviet stations and one card for metro and buses, although its lines miss most of the sights. Heavy traffic means crossing busy roads through underpasses.

Samarkand's centre is more of a single line on foot, with a pedestrian street running from the Registan to Shah-i-Zinda. Its buses and marshrutkas are hard for visitors to work out, and summer heat cuts every walk short.

Baku offers a little more range. Carpet dealers in the Old City sell pieces from across the Caucasus, alongside silk kelaghayi and Lahij copperware. Nizami Street, Neftchilar Avenue and the malls cover fashion. Older carpets need an export certificate.

Samarkand sells crafts only, but many are made in the city: suzani, ikat silk, ceramics and miniature paintings sold from madrasa cells, plus mulberry paper from Konigil. Quality is uneven, and there is no fashion shopping.

Samarkand is the cheaper trip almost across the board. Plov, bazaar food, taxis, guesthouses and entry fees all cost little. Only the upmarket hotels near the Registan and imported drinks push the bill up.

Baku is cheap for transport and tea-house meals, but its business hotels, smart seafront restaurants and bars can come close to Western European prices. What you spend there depends much more on where you stay and eat.

Baku has far more to see on stage. Mugham, the improvised classical music played on the tar and kamancha, is performed regularly at the International Mugham Centre. The State Opera and Ballet Theatre stages Azerbaijani works alongside European ones, and there is a jazz tradition with its own festival. Summer is a quiet season.

Samarkand's performances are mostly folk-dance shows for visitors and sound-and-light shows at the Registan, with the Sharq Taronalari festival in some years. You are more likely to hear maqom at a wedding than in a concert hall.

Neither city is a place to come for rest. In both, the old bathing tradition is mostly history, and hotel spas cover the rest. Samarkand keeps one working domed hammam near Bibi-Khanym, and its slow afternoons on a chaikhana topchan and quiet courtyards make it gentler than Baku with its traffic and wind.

Baku's calm comes from evenings on the seafront and tea with jam in the Old City. Its working bathhouses are few, and the oil baths of Naftalan are many hours away.