Bukhara or Marrakech?

Neither city is a place to swim in open water, and in both a pool where you stay matters most in summer. Bukhara lies deep in Central Asia with no beach or bathing lake within reach, and its old pools such as Lyabi-Hauz are for sitting beside.

Marrakech at least offers a day away. The Lalla Takerkoust reservoir is about 40km off in the Atlas foothills, and the windy Atlantic at Essaouira, where the water is cool, is two and a half to three hours' drive.

Both cities have narrow kitchens, but Marrakech's is broader and more of a show. Bukhara centres on plov at lunchtime, with samsa, shashlik and noodles on teahouse platforms. Menus repeat across the old town, and there is little for vegetarians and almost no fine dining.

In Marrakech you get tagines, pastilla, harira and the slow-cooked tanjia, plus the evening grill stalls of Jemaa el-Fna and the mechoui counters in the medina. Riad menus repeat as well, but Gueliz and Hivernage add the international choice that Bukhara lacks.

These are two of the great old Islamic cities, and in both you come for the buildings rather than the museums. Bukhara's strength is how complete it is. The Poi Kalon ensemble with the Kalon Minaret, the Ark, the Samanid Mausoleum and Chor Minor all stand within walking distance, among caravanserais and lanes that are still lived in.

Marrakech is less a set of monuments than a living medina, with its medieval street plan, the Koutoubia minaret and the storytellers of Jemaa el-Fna, plus the Bahia Palace and Ben Youssef Madrasa inside the walls. It also has a twentieth-century side that Bukhara lacks, in the Jardin Majorelle and the Yves Saint Laurent museum.

Neither is a party city, but Marrakech gives you more of an evening out. In Bukhara the night means tea and dinner around Lyabi-Hauz under the floodlit madrasas, maybe a hotel bar, and then bed.

The streets of Marrakech's medina are just as dry. In Hivernage and Gueliz, though, there are lounge bars, rooftop terraces and a few large clubs with DJs that stay open late, at resort-style prices.

This is where the two cities differ most. Bukhara sits in a flat oasis of cotton fields and canals at the edge of the Kyzylkum. Its desert yurt camps towards Nurata are a long drive and mean a night away.

From Marrakech the High Atlas is on the horizon. The Ourika valley and Imlil, the starting point for Jebel Toubkal at 4,167m, are about an hour and a half away, and Oukaimeden has winter skiing. The Agafay desert, dawn balloon flights and the Ouzoud waterfalls give Marrakech an outdoor range Bukhara cannot touch.

For visiting other towns, Bukhara is the better base. The main reason is the high-speed train to Samarkand, which takes a little under two hours and makes the Registan and Shah-i-Zinda a long but realistic day. The ceramic workshops of Gijduvon, the Vabkent minaret and Chor Bakr make shorter outings.

The places people most want to see from Marrakech, Essaouira and Ait Benhaddou, are two and a half hours or more away and really need a night. Closer in, there are only the weekly Berber souks at Asni and Amizmiz and the Almohad mosque at Tinmel. Marrakech's excursions are about mountains and desert instead.

Bukhara's great asset with children is the welcome. Uzbek families go out together in the evenings, and strangers will fuss over a toddler. There is very little to entertain children, though: a puppet show or a camel at the summer palace, and otherwise mosques and fortresses. Summer heat often passes 40°C, so spring and autumn are the seasons to bring them.

Marrakech has slightly more aimed at children, with a water park on the edge of the city and camel rides in the palm grove. Even so, it is the more demanding city to spend a day in. The snake charmers and acrobats of Jemaa el-Fna delight some children and unsettle others. It works best with older children who enjoy markets, and with a riad or resort hotel that has a pool and a garden to retreat to.

Bukhara is far simpler on foot. The Kalon Minaret, the Ark, Bolo Hauz and Lyabi-Hauz are all within about 20 minutes' walk across a flat, largely car-free centre, and cheap ride-hailing covers the outlying sights and the station.

You can walk Marrakech's medina too, but it is a maze of unnamed alleys shared with motorbikes and carts, where unofficial guides offer directions for a tip. To reach Gueliz or the Majorelle garden you take a petit taxi, often agreeing the fare first, and the mountains need a driver.

Bukhara's shopping fits under a few sixteenth-century trading domes and in the madrasa courtyards beside them. There you find suzani, ikat, carpets and the stork-shaped scissors, often made in the next room. Quality is uneven and many stalls sell the same printed fabrics, but gentle haggling is enough.

Marrakech gives a shopper far more ground. Its souks fill whole lanes arranged by trade, from leatherworkers and dyers to lantern and babouche makers. Gueliz adds design boutiques that rework Moroccan crafts, and decorators buy in the Sidi Ghanem showrooms. Neither city has luxury fashion, and in Marrakech the bargaining takes longer and the sellers push harder.

In Bukhara even a comfortable stay is cheap. Entry to the monuments is modest. The costliest choices, a boutique hotel in a restored mansion or dinner beside the old pools rather than in the backstreets, still cost far less than they would in most of Europe.

Marrakech's food stalls, local canteens and simple medina riads are cheap too. The difference is the city's large luxury tier of boutique riads, palace hotels and smart restaurants charging international prices. It is a far bigger part of a stay in Marrakech than Bukhara's few mansion hotels are in Bukhara, so a trip that drifts upmarket costs noticeably more.

The difference is between shows put on for visitors and a street tradition that would go on without them, and Marrakech has the livelier evenings. In Bukhara you mostly get folk dance, music and costume shows in a madrasa courtyard near Lyabi-Hauz, plus puppet plays based on local stories. You are more likely to hear the classical Shashmaqam by chance at a wedding than at a concert you could book.

Marrakech's music needs no ticket. At dusk, gnawa players with clattering metal castanets and the three-stringed guembri gather on Jemaa el-Fna, along with drummers and storytellers. The custom is old enough to be protected by UNESCO, and the Popular Arts Festival brings in troupes from around Morocco. Neither city has opera, an orchestra season or theatre a visitor could follow.

In Bukhara a traditional bath means one of a few centuries-old bathhouses under brick domes near the trading halls, with steam, a scrub and a vigorous herbal massage. Beyond those there are only a few hotel spas. The real rest is the pace of the town: mornings in a courtyard, tea by the pools and empty lanes at dusk.

Marrakech offers far more for bathing. Every quarter of the medina has a public hammam with black soap and the kessa glove. Riads and hotels run spa hammams with argan oil massages and rhassoul wraps, from simple rooms to lavish marble ones. Calm comes from retreating into a riad courtyard or the Majorelle and Agdal gardens, away from the noise of the lanes.