Buzios or Cartagena?

Buzios is the better beach destination. The coves are the whole point of the place and they are right there: Ferradura, Joao Fernandes and Tartaruga on the calm bay side, Geriba and Tucuns for surf and a sociable crowd on the Atlantic side. Water taxis and schooners hop between them. The one surprise is the water, which upwelling can make cooler than you would expect.

Cartagena's sea is warmer by several degrees, but the city beaches at Bocagrande are dark sand facing cloudy water and full of vendors. For pale sand and turquoise water you need a boat to the Rosario Islands or Playa Blanca on Baru, so a beach day there is a planned outing rather than a habit.

Cartagena has more to eat and more character to its eating. Fried fish with coconut rice, ceviche from street carts, arepas de huevo on the corner, and Palenquera women selling fruit and cocadas around the Portal de los Dulces make the streets themselves part of the meal. Restored colonial houses in the walled city hold a polished modern Colombian tier.

Buzios eats well for a small resort, with moqueca, grilled fish and shrimp along Rua das Pedras and the Orla Bardot, and caipirinhas at beach kiosks. There is no market or street-food culture behind it, though, so it is better for pleasant sunset dinners than for exploring a cuisine.

There is little contest here. Cartagena's walled city is one of the finest colonial townscapes in the Americas. You can walk its painted, balconied streets and its ramparts at sunset, then go on to the Castillo San Felipe, the Palace of the Inquisition and the Church of San Pedro Claver, with Getsemaní's murals beyond. The museums are modest, but the streets themselves are the sight.

Buzios has the chapel of Sant'Ana above the bay, fishing boats on Ossos beach and the Bardot statue, and you will have seen them all in an hour.

Cartagena has the fuller and more varied night out. Plaza de la Trinidad in Getsemaní fills with drummers and people drinking on the steps, and the streets around it hold salsa bars that go on to the small hours. Inside the walls you get rooftop cocktail bars and reggaetón clubs, plus chivas and party boats. Expect touts to come with it.

Buzios is smarter and smaller: dinner late on Rua das Pedras, then lounge bars and a few clubs full of visitors from Rio and Buenos Aires. That holds in summer, but out of season it shrinks to a drink by the water.

Buzios has the better outdoors, almost all of it at sea level. Boat trips circle clear bays where snorkellers meet turtles, the wind at Rasa and Manguinhos draws kitesurfers, short trails reach ocean viewpoints, and Arraial do Cabo's diving is under an hour away.

Cartagena's natural highlight is the Corales del Rosario reef, which is worn by boat traffic. Add mangrove canoeing at La Boquilla and a wallow in the Totumo mud volcano. Neither place has hills or forest hiking close by.

Neither city is a base for touring, but Cartagena has a little more. San Basilio de Palenque, about an hour inland, offers a village with its own language and music, and Baru or Tierra Bomba can be combined with lunch. Mompox and Santa Marta need overnight stays.

From Buzios the options are Cabo Frio's seventeenth-century fort and the boat trips at Arraial do Cabo. Rio is three hours away and deserves its own stay.

Buzios is slightly easier with young children. The calm, shallow bay coves are on the peninsula itself, pousadas with pools are common, and boat trips with snorkelling stops keep older children happy. You still need taxis on hilly roads.

In Cartagena the gentle, warm water is a boat ride away on the islands. Steady heat and uneven pavements tire small legs, though horse carriages, plazas and the National Aviary on Baru help. Neither has a zoo, aquarium or theme park.

Cartagena is easier to get around. The walled city, San Diego and Getsemaní sit within a few minutes' walk of each other, the Castillo is a stroll from Getsemaní, and plentiful, cheap taxis cover the rest. The airport is also close to town. The real handicap is the midday heat on narrow, uneven pavements.

Buzios has a small walkable core around Armacao and Rua das Pedras, but its beaches are spread over a hilly peninsula with few pavements. That means taxis, beach buggies or water taxis, after a road transfer of about three hours from Rio.

Cartagena has more worth buying. Las Bóvedas, in vaults built into the city walls, sells Wayuu mochila bags, sombreros vueltiaos and hammocks. There are emerald jewellers around the Plaza de Bolívar, Colombian designer resortwear, and malls in Bocagrande if you need them.

Buzios is narrower but pleasant. Brazilian swimwear and linen labels line Rua das Pedras and stay open after dinner, and an evening craft fair sells jewellery, but there is little beyond the centre.

Cartagena is somewhat easier on the budget, as long as you stay outside the boutique mansions in the walls. Getsemaní guesthouses, street food, set lunches and cheap taxis keep daily costs low, though you should agree prices with hawkers and boatmen first.

Buzios charges resort prices across most of the town, and taxis and boat trips add up because everything is spread out. Per-kilo lunch places and the quieter months from April to November soften it. Both cities get pricier around New Year.

Cartagena has a real if modest stage. The ornate Teatro Adolfo Mejía hosts concerts and dance, and the January classical festival fills churches and courtyards. Most evenings bring cumbia dancers and drummers to the plazas and salsa bands to Getsemaní.

In Buzios, live music means bossa nova and samba played in waterfront restaurants on summer evenings, pleasant over dinner but nothing to plan a night around.

The two are level, and neither has a bathing tradition, but the calm comes in different forms. In Buzios the town itself slows down: hillside pousadas with sea-view spas, long lunches by a cove and real quiet from April to November, as long as you sleep away from Rua das Pedras.

Cartagena's streets are hot and noisy, so rest happens behind closed doors, in courtyard hotels with plunge pools and in cheap massages. A few nights on the islands give it the hammock pace that Buzios has every day.