Boracay or Cebu Island?

White Beach gives Boracay the edge: about 4km of fine, pale sand in one place, calm water from November to May, and the hotels and bars right along it. When the monsoon roughens it, the sheltered east-coast coves take over.

Cebu's best sand, the powder-white beaches of Bantayan and the bay at Malapascua, comes close, but it lies at the northern tip, a long bus ride and a boat crossing from the city. Mactan's resort beaches are short and groomed, and at Moalboal you get snorkelling straight off the shore rather than sand.

Cebu has a dish of its own worth travelling for: lechon, the spit-roast pig of Cebu City and Carcar. Around it are street grills serving puso rice parcels and the sutukil stalls on Mactan. Boracay's best equivalent is D'Talipapa, where you buy seafood at the market and have it cooked next door, but its beachfront restaurants rely on pizza and international menus that feel much the same.

The gap here is wide. Boracay has no museums or historic buildings at all. Cebu City is where Spanish rule in the Philippines began, and Magellan's Cross, the Basilica del Santo Niño and Fort San Pedro are all a short walk from Plaza Independencia.

Beyond the city, Cebu has coral-stone churches along the south coast and the old houses of Carcar. That is a morning or two of sightseeing rather than a cultural trip, but Boracay has nothing to set against it.

Boracay's nights happen on the sand. Around Station 2 the bars turn up the music after sunset, fire dancers perform and a few clubs keep going past midnight, all a short walk from your bed. It is one stretch of similar bars, but for many visitors it is the point of the trip.

On Cebu, going out means the city: IT Park, Lahug and Mango Avenue, far from the beach coasts where most visitors stay. Malapascua and Moalboal have a few quiet divers' bars, and only the January Sinulog festival turns Cebu City into a weekend-long street party.

Cebu offers far more, both underwater and on land. At Moalboal there are sardine shoals and turtles a few metres from shore, and off Malapascua you can dive with thresher sharks at dawn. Canyoneering near Kawasan Falls and the short walk up Osmeña Peak add something on land.

Boracay's outdoors is about wind and boats: kitesurfing on Bulabog from about November to April, paraw sailing at sunset and snorkelling stops such as Crystal Cove. Mount Luho is its only hill, and there is no real hiking.

Of the two, only Cebu has a really good day out: the fast ferry to Bohol for the Chocolate Hills, the tarsiers and the Loboc river. Carcar and the old south-coast churches are closer to hand. From Boracay there is little beyond island-hopping boats and the fishing villages of Carabao Island, and Kalibo is a plain town except during its January festival.

The two are level for families. On both, the appeal is warm, calm water and people who are warm towards children, not places built for children. On Boracay it all comes together on gently sloping White Beach from November to May, with Station 1 and Station 3 as quieter bases, but getting there by flight, van, boat and tricycle takes a long day.

Cebu is the other way round. Mactan's pool resorts sit close to the airport, and Cebu Safari and Adventure Park and a few water parks give children something besides the sea. The better beaches, though, mean long, hot road journeys.

Once you are on Boracay, nearly everything lies along the beach path, and electric tricycles cover Puka Beach or Bulabog, so only the arrival and departure days are hard. Cebu is the reverse: easy to fly into, then slow to get around, with heavy traffic in Metro Cebu, no rail, and buses taking a few hours to Moalboal or Oslob before any boat to the northern islands. On Cebu it pays to pick one or two bases and stay put.

Neither island is a shopping destination, but Cebu has more: large air-conditioned malls, Carbon Market downtown and the workshops on Mactan where guitars are built by hand from local wood. Boracay's shopping stops at beachwear, shell jewellery and T-shirts along the path and in D'Mall.

Cebu is the cheaper island to travel on. Street barbecue, buses, massages and the simple guesthouses of Moalboal and Malapascua keep daily costs low, and the diving is good value. Only Mactan's big resorts and private drivers push spending up.

Boracay costs more than most of the Philippines. The Station 1 beachfront is the dearest place to stay, and prices rise sharply from Christmas to Easter. Staying a few lanes back and eating at the market keeps costs modest, but transfers, cocktails and water sports add up.

Neither island has a theatre or a concert season, and on both an evening's music means cover bands in bars. What differs is the extras. Boracay has fire dancers on the sand around Station 2 every night, while Cebu has Sinulog in January, when troupes in feathered costumes perform the Santo Niño dance through the city's streets.

The two are level here. Both do wellness through massage and a slow pace rather than bathing, and both offer hilot. Boracay puts it on your doorstep, with therapists on mats along White Beach and resort spas on the hills above Diniwid, as long as you stay away from the noise of Station 2.

On Cebu the calm comes from where you stay: Malapascua, with footpaths and almost no cars, the quiet roads of Santa Fe on Bantayan, and Moalboal's rhythm of diving and rest. Metro Cebu is best left behind.