Cairo or Nairobi?

Neither city is a beach destination, and in both the only swimming in town is a hotel or club pool. Cairo has a slight edge because the Red Sea at Ain Sokhna is close enough for a weekend by road, though that shore is lined with resort compounds. The Kenyan coast is a flight or a long train ride from Nairobi, so a beach stay there is a separate part of the trip.

Cairo is the better city to eat in. Breakfast is ful and taameya, lunch is koshari from shops that make nothing else, and there is feteer and stuffed pigeon too, all of it cheap. The ahwa coffeehouses are part of every day, though alcohol and fine dining are limited.

Nairobi eats around the charcoal grill, with nyama choma and cold beer on long weekend afternoons, and its Indian and Ethiopian restaurants are a real strength. Fresh Kenyan coffee in the cafés of Westlands and Karen is a pleasure, but everyday local cooking is plainer than Cairo's.

This is where the two cities differ most. Cairo has the Giza pyramids, the Grand Egyptian Museum with Tutankhamun's treasures, and the mosques and madrasas of Islamic Cairo up to the Citadel. Coptic Cairo adds more, and all of it needs many days.

Nairobi began as a railway depot in 1899 and has no old quarter. The Nairobi National Museum, with its early human fossils, and the Karen Blixen farmhouse fill a day or two, and after that most visitors turn to the wildlife.

Nairobi has the livelier night if you want music and a drink. From Thursday to Saturday the rooftop bars and clubs of Westlands play Afrobeats and amapiano until dawn, and the crowd is mostly local. You get between areas by ride-hailing car.

Cairo's late nights are mostly sober. Families crowd the corniche and Qasr el-Nil bridge, and the ahwas fill with shisha and backgammon well after midnight. For a drink you have to go to Zamalek, the big hotels or a few river boats, where prices are well above the rest of the city.

Nairobi wins easily. Nairobi National Park puts lions, rhinos and giraffes on open savanna at the city's edge, and Karura Forest and the Ngong Hills have good walking. Within about two hours you can cycle through Hell's Gate or hike the crater rim of Mount Longonot.

In Cairo, the green space is mostly Al-Azhar Park, a felucca on the Nile and the dry canyons of Wadi Degla. Its real landscapes are desert ones in the Fayoum and at Wadi Al-Hitan. They are worth the trip in the cooler months but hard work in summer.

Cairo has far more within reach. Saqqara's Step Pyramid, the Bent and Red Pyramids at Dahshur and the ruins of Memphis are all under an hour south. Alexandria and the monasteries of Wadi Natrun make longer days out, usually with a hired driver.

Nairobi's nearby outings are quieter: the Limuru tea estates and the stone hand axes at Olorgesailie. Its best excursions are wildlife trips into the Rift Valley. Kenya's historic towns are on the coast, too far for a day trip.

Nairobi is the easier city with children. Feeding giraffes at the Giraffe Centre, watching orphaned baby elephants at the Sheldrick Trust and a morning game drive are all close together around Karen and Langata, which makes a sensible base.

Cairo gives children the pyramids, a camel ride and the mummies, but little else is made for them, and the traffic, touts and heat wear everyone down. People in both cities are warm towards children, and both are tiring on foot because pavements are poor.

Neither city is easy, but Cairo at least has a metro, which links Tahrir Square, Coptic Cairo and Heliopolis. River taxis cross the Nile, and Al-Muizz Street and Zamalek are pleasant to walk in short stretches. You still need a car for the pyramids, and the traffic is heavy.

Nairobi has no transit that a visitor can easily use, and the matatu minibus routes are hard to work out. Its sights are spread between Karen, Langata and Westlands on congested roads, and walking after dark isn't advised, so nearly every journey is by ride-hailing car or hired driver.

Cairo has the better shopping. Khan el-Khalili has been trading since the fourteenth century, and nearby you can watch appliqué stitched on the Street of the Tentmakers and copper hammered in the coppersmiths' alley. Zamalek's boutiques add contemporary Egyptian design and cotton linens.

In Nairobi, craft shopping means the Maasai Market, which moves around the city, with beadwork, soapstone and kiondo baskets, plus the glass and ceramic workshops in Karen. Beyond that there are malls but no boutique streets.

Cairo stays cheap even when you aren't trying, and the extra costs come in small amounts. You tip for every small service, the touts at the pyramids work hard for your money, guided tours add up, and foreigners pay far more than Egyptians to enter the great sites. A drink or a luxury Nile-view room costs much more than anything else, but the total for a stay still stays low.

Nairobi has two price levels. Coffee, beer and a plate from the roadside grill cost what Kenyans pay. The hotels in Westlands, Upper Hill and Karen and the restaurants in the affluent suburbs are priced for visitors, well above the local cost of living. Most attractions also charge non-residents much more, so keeping a Nairobi trip moderate takes planning.

Cairo has more to see on stage. The Cairo Opera House on Gezira Island has a symphony orchestra, ballet and Arabic music ensembles. The tanoura whirling dance in the Wikala of al-Ghouri is a memorable evening, and you don't need Arabic to enjoy it.

Nairobi's strength is its own music: benga, rumba and jazz in clubs and garden venues, plus traditional dances at Bomas of Kenya. There is theatre in English, but opera and classical music barely exist.

Neither city is somewhere to rest, and in Cairo the noise of the streets follows you almost everywhere. With no working bathhouse tradition left to fall back on, quiet has to be sought out in brief breaks, such as a hotel spa by the river, a sail on the Nile as the light fades or a shaded courtyard in the old city. Travellers who want real rest usually end the trip on the Red Sea or in an oasis.

Nairobi comes out ahead because you can stay in its calm rather than escape to it for an hour. In the leafy southern suburbs, the mornings are cool and green and the day starts slowly, with gardens around you instead of traffic. For a massage or treatment there are day spas in Westlands, though many visitors still save their proper unwinding for a safari lodge or the coast.