Baku or Yerevan?

Baku at least has a warm sea. The long sandy beaches at Bilgah, Novkhani and Mardakan are a taxi ride across the Absheron peninsula, and in high summer the Caspian is genuinely good for swimming, even if the water is shallow and cloudy and parts of the shore still carry the marks of the oil industry.

Yerevan is landlocked. Summer swimming means park and hotel pools, or a drive of about an hour to Lake Sevan, where the water is clear but stays cool and the season is short. Neither city is a beach destination, but only Baku gives you an afternoon in warm sea.

The food is equally good in both, but the two tables taste different. Baku's cooking leans Persian: saffron plov, sturgeon kebabs, herb-filled qutab and dushbara dumplings, with caviar and pomegranates at the Taza Bazaar and the ritual of black tea with jam after every meal.

Yerevan is built around the grill and the glass. Khorovats over vine cuttings comes with lavash fresh from the tonir, and drinking matters as much as eating: brandy tastings by the Hrazdan gorge, Areni reds and amber wines from clay karas, and thick coffee on terraces. In both cities the choice thins fast once you leave the local cuisine.

The two are roughly equal for sightseeing, but in different ways. Baku's appeal is its streets and buildings. The walled Icherisheher, with the Palace of the Shirvanshahs and the Maiden Tower, gives you a genuine medieval quarter to wander, and outside the walls the oil barons' mansions and the curves of the Heydar Aliyev Center make the whole centre worth looking at.

Yerevan's oldest roots go back to Erebuni, but the city you walk through is a twentieth-century plan in pink tuff, and its strength lies indoors. The Matenadaran's illuminated manuscripts and the Genocide Memorial at Tsitsernakaberd are the visits that stay with people, and the Cascade adds views to Ararat.

Neither city is a party destination, and the real difference between them is where the evening happens. Baku's night begins outside, with the crowds strolling the seafront and the pedestrian streets off Fountain Square, but the drinking moves indoors to pubs, wine bars and hotel rooftops. Its weekend lounges and clubs are places to dress up for, which makes Baku the more formal night of the two.

Yerevan does the opposite and keeps its drinking outdoors. The bars around Saryan Street and Northern Avenue open onto pavement terraces, Republic Square's singing fountains work as the meeting point, and in summer the centre stays out until the small hours. Its nights run as long dinners followed by a late glass more than as dancing, and a handful of late electronic nights are the nearest either city gets to an alternative scene. In winter the terraces empty and Yerevan's evenings go much quieter.

Here Yerevan is far ahead. Within an hour you can be hiking up from the high lake at Kari on Aragats or standing under the basalt columns of the Garni gorge, and Khosrov Forest, the Sevan shore and Dilijan's green hills give real walking country, with Ararat on the skyline.

Baku's surroundings are flat semi-desert with oil derricks and salt lakes. The mud volcanoes and the burning hillside of Yanar Dag are memorable oddities, but forests and proper hiking start in the Caucasus around Quba, which needs an overnight stay.

Yerevan is one of the best day-trip bases in the region. Echmiadzin and Zvartnots, the temple at Garni and the rock-cut monastery of Geghard, and Khor Virap under Ararat all lie within about an hour, and Noravank, Sevanavank, Dilijan and the old town of Gyumri fill further days. Churches and monasteries run through almost all of them.

Baku has one standout in the Gobustan rock carvings, usually paired with the mud volcanoes, and pleasant half-days at the Ateshgah fire temple and the Mardakan towers. Shamakhi's mosque and vineyards make one more outing, and then the list runs out.

Both cities welcome children warmly and offer about the same, with evening fun outdoors and little purpose-built beyond it. Baku's draw is the seafront Boulevard, with its playgrounds, boat rides and fountains, and the funicular up to Highland Park. Stairs in the underpasses make pushchairs a chore.

In Yerevan the singing fountains, the Cascade's steps and sculptures, a modest zoo and the children's railway play the same role. Uneven pavements and long drives to the monasteries are the strain, though older children who love ruins get more from the day trips.

Baku makes public transport simpler. One rechargeable card covers both the buses and the metro, with its deep, ornate Soviet stations, though the few lines mostly serve residential districts. Its walkable core runs from the Old City along Nizami Street to the Boulevard, but heavy traffic and underpasses slow you down wherever you cross a main road.

Yerevan's centre is tighter, with Republic Square, the Opera, the Cascade and the market a short stroll apart along tree-lined avenues. Its single metro line covers little and the minibuses are hard to work out without Armenian or Russian, so app taxis fill the gaps, much as they do in Baku. Trains run to Gyumri, but the monasteries need a driver or a tour.

Baku has slightly the better shopping, thanks to its carpets. The Old City dealers sell handwoven pieces from Quba and Karabakh along with silk kelaghayi scarves and Lahij copperware, though older carpets need an export certificate.

Yerevan is more for browsing. The weekend Vernissage spreads out carved backgammon boards, obsidian jewellery and Soviet curios, and brandy from the covered market is the most useful thing to take home. Both cities' high streets offer little you can't find at home.

Yerevan is the cheaper city overall. Food, local wine and brandy, taxis and museum tickets cost little, and shared tours to the monasteries are reasonable when split. Your main expense is a central bed in summer.

Baku is very cheap for tea houses, plov and the metro. It turns expensive quickly once you move into international hotels, smart seafront restaurants and imported drinks, so a budget there depends on sticking to Old City guesthouses and local canteens.

Baku's signature is mugham, the improvised classical song of the tar and kamancha, heard at the International Mugham Centre on the seafront and in some Old City restaurants, and woven into the city's jazz. The State Opera and Ballet Theatre mixes Azerbaijani operas with the European repertoire, and the Philharmonic plays in an ornate oil-boom hall, though summer seasons can be thin.

Yerevan's musical life revolves around the round Opera and Ballet Theatre, where Khachaturian's Gayane and Spartacus return often and the Philharmonic plays in the hall named after him. Recitals at the Komitas hall, duduk ensembles and small jazz clubs playing most evenings fill out the week, and tickets are easy to get. In both cities the theatre is of little use unless you speak the language.

Neither city is a place to unwind, and both send you hours away for their famous spa towns: Naftalan from Baku, Jermuk from Yerevan. Baku's large hotels have the better spas and pools, while its medieval baths are mostly visited as monuments and the wind rarely lets up.

Yerevan's version of rest is its pace: long coffees on shaded terraces and slow walks through the ring of parks. Its traffic and summer heat work against that.