Cairo or Jeddah?

Jeddah is the obvious choice for swimming. The Red Sea is warm and clear right on its doorstep, with reefs close enough to snorkel from a jetty. The catch is access. The corniche is for walking rather than swimming, so most people pay for a beach club or resort at Obhur.

Cairo has no beach at all. The Nile is not for swimming, so in town your choice is a hotel pool. The nearest sea is the Red Sea at Ain Sokhna, about 130km away and better suited to a weekend than an afternoon.

These two cities eat about equally well, in different ways. Cairo's best food is on the street and cheap: ful and taameya for breakfast, a bowl of koshari at lunch, feteer and stuffed pigeon, then tea in an ahwa long into the night. A beer or a glass of wine is possible in Zamalek and the hotels.

Jeddah's Hejazi cooking runs to rice dishes such as mandi, kabsa and saleeg, with influences from Yemen, South Asia and East Africa. Its real strength is seafood, picked at the fish market and grilled nearby. The northern avenues offer more international choice and speciality coffee than Cairo does, but there is no alcohol anywhere.

There is no real contest here. Cairo has the pyramids and the Sphinx, the royal mummies and Tutankhamun's treasures in its museums, and a whole medieval city of mosques, madrasas and the Citadel in Islamic Cairo, with Coptic Cairo on top. Even a week leaves things unseen.

Jeddah's heritage is concentrated in Al-Balad, a UNESCO-listed old town of coral-stone houses with carved wooden balconies, at its best in the late afternoon. Add the floating mosque and the sculptures on the corniche and you have covered it in two or three days.

Both cities stay up late, and in both the night revolves around tea, coffee and shisha rather than drink. Cairo has more to it. The downtown ahwas are full past midnight, families stroll over Qasr el-Nil bridge, and Zamalek, the big hotels and the moored party boats give you bars, rooftops and some clubbing.

Jeddah has no bars or clubs at all, since alcohol is not sold. An evening there means the corniche, dessert shops and the shisha lounges of the northern districts, with the occasional big music event as the only party.

Jeddah has the edge, and almost all of it is underwater. Fringing reefs with walls and wrecks lie a short boat ride from Obhur, and the northern creek is used for kitesurfing and sailing. On land it offers flat coastal plain and, two hours inland, the cooler mountain roads around Taif.

Cairo's outdoors is desert. Wadi Degla's canyons are on the city's edge, the Fayoum lakes and dunes are two hours away, and Wadi Al-Hitan's whale fossils make a long day out. In town, a felucca on the Nile or Al-Azhar Park is the best way to get some air.

Cairo gives you far more to do beyond the city. Saqqara's Step Pyramid, the near-empty Bent and Red Pyramids at Dahshur and the ruins of Memphis are all under an hour away. Further out are the desert monasteries of Wadi Natrun and a long but rewarding day in Alexandria, though you will usually need a driver or a tour.

From Jeddah, what is open to you depends on your faith. Muslim visitors have Mecca an hour away and Medina by train, but non-Muslims may not enter Mecca. For everyone else the main outing is Taif, with its rose farms and mountain air, and beyond that the surroundings are mostly desert.

Jeddah is the easier city with children. The corniche has playgrounds and lawns for the evening, there is an aquarium and a seafront amusement park, the malls have indoor play centres for the hot hours, and the calm reef water at the Obhur clubs suits confident swimmers. You will need a car with child seats.

In Cairo, children get the more unforgettable sights: the pyramids, a camel ride and Tutankhamun's gold. The city itself works against families, though, with relentless traffic, missing pavements and pushy touts, so a hotel pool and a private driver help a lot.

Neither city is easy, but Cairo gives you more options. Its metro links Tahrir Square with Coptic Cairo and Heliopolis, river taxis cross the Nile, and Al-Muizz Street, Zamalek and the downtown grid can be walked in short stretches. The pyramids and most other trips still mean a car stuck in heavy traffic.

Jeddah has no metro and no bus network a visitor would use. Wide highways spread the city along many kilometres of coast, so every journey outside Al-Balad and the evening corniche is a ride-hailing car or taxi.

For shopping the two are evenly matched, but they reward different shoppers. Cairo is the place for crafts: Khan el-Khalili's brass lamps and inlaid boxes, hand-stitched appliqué on the Street of the Tentmakers, the coppersmiths' alley, and small Zamalek boutiques selling contemporary Egyptian design and cotton.

Jeddah is stronger on big malls and luxury brands in the north. Its Al-Balad souks sell gold by weight, oud and perfumes blended to order, but you will find almost no independent boutiques.

Cairo costs much less on almost every count. Street food, local restaurants, the metro and comfortable mid-range hotels in downtown or Zamalek are all very cheap. Your bigger costs are the higher foreigner prices at the major sites, plus guided tours and alcohol.

Jeddah is moderately priced. Everyday food is good value and fuel keeps rides cheap. Beach club entry, meals in the smart northern districts and hotel rates in the pilgrimage seasons are what push a stay well above Cairo's level.

Cairo is the stronger city for an evening performance. The Opera House on Gezira Island has a season of symphony, ballet and Arabic music, and the whirling tanoura dance in the Wikala of al-Ghouri is one of the city's great sights. Small venues add zar music and some jazz, although most theatre is in Arabic.

Jeddah has no regular theatre, opera or concert season. Performances come as events in the cooler months, such as arena concerts and comedy, with Hejazi music and the mizmar stick dance at heritage events in Al-Balad, so check the dates before you book.

Neither is a place to relax, but Jeddah offers more calm. The seafront resorts at Obhur combine a spa and pool with sea views and slow evenings after sunset, which is a reasonable way to spend a few days.

Cairo's noise, dust and traffic hardly ever let up, and its old hammams are no longer in use. A hotel spa by the Nile, a felucca at dusk or the courtyard of a historic house will give you an hour of quiet. Real rest usually means moving on to the Red Sea or an oasis afterwards.