Cairo or Hurghada?

Here the two could hardly be further apart. Cairo has the Nile, which nobody swims in, and the nearest sea is at Ain Sokhna, a resort-lined coast that works as a weekend escape rather than a day out. In the city, swimming means a hotel or club pool.

Hurghada is built around the Red Sea, with about 40km of coast and clear, warm water for swimming in almost any month. The catch is that the hotels own the sand, and reef flats often mean you get in from a jetty. The finest beaches are out on the Giftun islands or in the bays towards Makadi and Sahl Hasheesh.

Cairo eats better, and mostly on the street. Breakfast is ful and taameya, lunch comes from shops that serve nothing but koshari, and there is feteer, stuffed pigeon and molokhia, with the ahwa coffeehouse setting the pace day and night. Fine dining is thin, but the everyday food is the reason to eat out.

In Hurghada the all-inclusive buffet sets the tone. You can find the same Egyptian staples in El Dahar, and the restaurants by the fishing harbour grill your pick from the ice. The marina menus, though, are aimed at tourists, and few people come here for the food.

Cairo is one of the world's great heritage cities. It has the pyramids and Sphinx at Giza, the Grand Egyptian Museum and the Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square, the royal mummies at Fustat, and the medieval city of Islamic Cairo running from Al-Muizz Street up to the Citadel. Seeing it properly takes days.

Hurghada grew out of a fishing village and has little historic fabric. The Hurghada Museum, the El Mina mosque and a walk through the market streets of El Dahar fill a morning or two. For temples and tombs you have to travel inland.

Cairo's nights have more depth, although they run on tea and shisha rather than drink. Ahwas in downtown and Islamic Cairo stay packed past midnight, families stroll the corniche and Qasr el-Nil bridge, and Zamalek has a small scene of bars, rooftops and party boats on the river.

Hurghada's evenings are made for visitors: hotel discos, the bars and beach clubs of Sheraton Road and the marina, and foam parties in high season. It is easier to find a drink and a dance there, but the strip has little local character, and the town behind it is quiet after dark.

Hurghada's outdoors is mostly underwater, and it is much the richer of the two. Reefs start just offshore, turtles, dolphins and sometimes dugongs are seen around Giftun, and divers come for the famous wrecks and walls. The steady north wind draws kitesurfers to El Gouna and Soma Bay, and the bare Red Sea mountains behind the town are explored by jeep and quad bike.

In Cairo, getting outdoors comes down to Al-Azhar Park, a felucca sail on the Nile or the canyons of Wadi Degla. Real landscape is about two hours away in the Fayoum, with the lakes of Wadi El Rayan and the whale fossils of Wadi Al-Hitan.

Cairo has far better outings, and many are under an hour away. There is Djoser's Step Pyramid at Saqqara, the often empty Bent and Red Pyramids at Dahshur, and the ruins of Memphis among the palms. Further out are the monasteries of Wadi Natrun, Alexandria and the Fayoum, though most of these need a driver or a tour.

Near Hurghada the choices are modest: an afternoon at El Gouna's marina, the port of Safaga or the Roman quarries in the desert. Karnak and the Valley of the Kings at Luxor are the great prize, but with about four hours on the road each way, they mean a pre-dawn tour or an overnight stay.

Hurghada is the easier place with children, as long as the family spends most of its time in the resort. Hotels have water slides, splash pools, kids' clubs and shallow beaches, and glass-bottom boats, dolphin trips and the aquarium make good outings. The main limit is the midday heat in summer.

Cairo gives children moments they will remember for years: the pyramids, a camel ride and Tutankhamun's gold. Egyptians are warm towards children, but little else in the city is made for them, and the traffic, missing pavements and touts make each day hard work.

Neither is easy, but Cairo has a metro. It links Tahrir Square, Coptic Cairo and Heliopolis cheaply and avoids the traffic, and ride-hailing covers the rest. Road journeys can take far longer than the distance suggests, and walking works only in short stretches such as Al-Muizz Street or the leafy streets of Zamalek.

Hurghada spreads its hotels along a single coast road with few pavements. You depend on shared minibuses, taxis with the fare agreed beforehand, and hotel shuttles, and many visitors hardly travel beyond the transfers that come with their excursions.

Cairo is a real city for shopping. Khan el-Khalili has been trading since the fourteenth century, appliqué is still stitched by hand on the Street of the Tentmakers, the coppersmiths work in their own alley, and Zamalek's boutiques carry contemporary Egyptian design and cotton linens.

In El Dahar and along Sheraton Road, Hurghada sells similar souvenirs, such as spices, papyrus, alabaster and galabeyas, but there are no crafts being made behind them. Its malls are for everyday brands and groceries.

Both are inexpensive, and Cairo is the cheaper day to day. Street food, the metro and ride-hailing cost very little, and mid-range hotels downtown or in Zamalek are a bargain, although foreigners pay much more at the big sites.

In Hurghada, all-inclusive packages keep costs low, and diving and boat trips are cheap for a reef coast. Imported alcohol, marina restaurants and excursions sold through hotels push the bill up, so it pays to book trips locally.

Cairo has a real stage. The Opera House on Gezira Island is home to the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, a ballet company and Arabic music ensembles, the tanoura whirling dance is performed in the medieval Wikala of al-Ghouri, and small venues host zar music and jazz.

In Hurghada, the performances are put on for tourists: hotel animation, belly dancing, and tanoura at folklore nights and desert-camp dinners. They are fun for one evening, but if you want to see the tanoura done properly, see it in Cairo.

Hurghada is the place to rest. Lazy days by the pool are the norm, and the spas in the larger resorts offer cheap massage and Turkish-style hammams. Quality varies from hotel to hotel, and the town outside is noisy, but calm inside the resort is easy to find.

Cairo offers little respite. The noise, dust and traffic rarely stop, the old hammams are mostly out of use, and relaxing means a big hotel spa or a felucca at dusk. Many visitors to Cairo do their resting afterwards on the Red Sea, which is where Hurghada is.