Bengaluru or Chennai?

Bengaluru has no beach at all. The coast is a full day's travel away, so sand and sea mean a separate leg of the trip to Goa, Kerala or the Karnataka shore.

Chennai at least lives beside the sea. Marina Beach and the quieter Elliot's Beach are good for evening walks, snacks and the sea breeze, though the heavy surf makes swimming unwise. For a proper dip you would drive down the East Coast Road towards Mahabalipuram, and even there a hotel pool is often the safer bet.

Both cities share the same South Indian breakfast of idli, dosa and filter coffee, and both do it very well. In Bengaluru it comes at the stand-up darshinis and the old Malleswaram and Basavanagudi institutions, with Karnataka dishes like ragi mudde and bisi bele bath, plus Mangalorean and Kodava cooking. The evening runs on to VV Puram's street food and brewpub beer.

Chennai is more of a pilgrimage for Tamil cooking itself. The banana-leaf meals of Mylapore and T. Nagar, fiery Chettinad curries and sundal from the beach stalls are the draws. Alcohol plays almost no part, so meals rather than drinks set the rhythm of the day.

Chennai has the richer heritage. The Kapaleeshwarar and Parthasarathy temples are living places of worship rather than monuments, and the Egmore museum's Chola bronzes are world-class. Fort St George and the red Indo-Saracenic buildings of George Town add the story of British Madras.

Bengaluru's sights are fewer and more modest: Tipu Sultan's wooden summer palace, the Tudor-style Bangalore Palace, the Vidhana Soudha and the Bull Temple. Two or three days covers them. In both cities the sights are far apart, so neither is a place to stroll from one landmark to the next.

Bengaluru is much the better place for an evening out. Its brewpubs, rooftop terraces and cocktail bars along Indiranagar's 100 Feet Road, in Koramangala and around Church Street fill up from Friday after work. Licensing still closes them early, and clubs are scarce.

Chennai keeps drinking mostly to hotel bars and a handful of licensed pubs. Its real evening life is sober and outdoors: families on the beach, temple festivals and late dinners.

Bengaluru gives more to do outdoors. Cubbon Park and Lalbagh are pleasant in the mild plateau air, and beyond the city the granite of Nandi Hills, Savandurga and Ramanagara offers sunrise drives, hikes and climbing. Bannerghatta adds a safari.

Chennai's flat coastal plain is mostly about birds and the shore. Guindy's blackbuck, the Pallikaranai marsh, the winter pelicans and flamingos at Vedanthangal and Pulicat, and olive ridley turtle walks are the highlights, and there are no hills. The heat confines most activity to early mornings.

Bengaluru's best day out is Mysuru, about two hours away by express train, with its palace, its markets and Tipu Sultan's island fortress at Srirangapatna on the way. Lepakshi's painted temple makes a quieter trip to the north. The region's finest sites, Hampi and the Hoysala temples of Belur and Halebidu, need a night away, and traffic out of the city makes every outing longer.

Chennai has the slightly stronger list, and its best trips are closer. The Pallava carvings of Mahabalipuram are about an hour down the coast and the temple city of Kanchipuram about two hours inland, with DakshinaChitra easy to add on the way. Pondicherry's French quarter and Vellore's fort are longer trips, often better with an overnight stay.

Bengaluru makes a family trip easier, mainly because of its climate. Bannerghatta's zoo, butterfly park and safari, the water park off the Mysuru road and the science museum by Cubbon Park keep children busy.

Chennai offers the large Vandalur zoo, a planetarium and the evening ritual of balloons and pony rides on Elliot's Beach. Its heat and humidity wear young children out quickly, and in both cities long car rides and broken pavements make pushchairs a struggle.

Neither city is easy to move around, and in both the auto-rickshaw and the app cab do most of the work. Bengaluru's traffic is the more notorious, and its metro runs between MG Road and the old market district. Chennai's metro links the airport and Central station, while the MRTS and suburban trains follow the coast towards Mylapore, and the temple lanes there are one of the few places worth walking.

The two are broadly level, but they sell different things. Bengaluru's specialities are Mysore silk, sandalwood and Channapatna's lacquered toys, found in Chickpet's wholesale lanes and the state emporia. Commercial Street and Indiranagar's boutiques cover everyday fashion.

Chennai is the place for serious silk and gold. The multi-storey sari emporia and jewellers of T. Nagar draw wedding shoppers from across the south, while Mylapore's brass lamps and temple jewellery give a gentler browse.

Both are cheap for visitors, but Chennai stretches money further. Temples are free, tiffin and transport cost almost nothing, and simple guesthouses stay inexpensive.

Bengaluru is among India's pricier cities. Its business hotels charge more during the week, and its brewpub evenings, with heavily taxed alcohol, add up faster than anything you would spend in sober Chennai.

Chennai is the home of Carnatic music and Bharatanatyam, and during Margazhi, from December into January, the Music Academy and the Mylapore sabhas stage hundreds of concerts and recitals. Kalakshetra and the temple festivals keep music and dance going through the rest of the year.

Bengaluru has Carnatic concerts too, mostly around Ramanavami at Chowdiah Memorial Hall. Its stronger suits are the plays at Ranga Shankara and a long-standing rock and indie gig circuit, which Chennai largely lacks.

Bengaluru is the somewhat better choice for rest. It has Ayurvedic clinics, drop-in yoga schools and residential retreats on its rural edges for longer stays, and the cooler air makes early mornings in Lalbagh genuinely restful.

Chennai's strength is its yoga lineage, taught in the studios of Mylapore and Adyar, along with cheap Kerala-style massage. Heat and crowds make the city itself tiring, so calm comes from the Theosophical Society grounds or a resort on the East Coast Road.