Cairo or Riyadh?

Neither city is a beach destination, so the difference is how far you have to go for the sea. From Cairo, the Red Sea resorts at Ain Sokhna are a road trip of about two hours, which makes a weekend by warm, calm water easy to add.

Riyadh lies about 400km from the Gulf, so the coast means a separate stay reached by plane or a long drive. In the city itself, Riyadh's water parks and resort day passes give a little more variety than Cairo's hotel and club pools.

Cairo is the better place to eat on the go. Ful and taameya from a cart at breakfast, koshari at lunch, feteer, stuffed pigeon and konafa make the street itself the restaurant, and the ahwa gives every neighbourhood its tea-and-shisha rhythm. Alcohol is available if you want it, even if few people drink it with meals.

Riyadh eats differently: late, sitting down, and in groups, with Najdi kabsa, mandi and jareesh served on shared platters, often in family sections. Its strengths are Arabic coffee with dates, specialty coffee around Olaya, and the range of Lebanese, Yemeni and South Asian kitchens. Street snacking and any wine or beer are absent.

This is the widest gap between the two. Cairo has the pyramids and Sphinx, three major antiquities museums including the royal mummies at Fustat, and a whole UNESCO-listed medieval city around Al-Muizz Street, the Citadel and Al-Azhar, plus Coptic churches and a belle époque downtown. You could spend a fortnight and still leave things unseen.

Riyadh's heritage is worth seeing but compact: the restored mud-brick citadel of At-Turaif in Diriyah, Masmak Fort, the Murabba Palace and a well-presented National Museum. After that the city is mostly towers and highways, and a long weekend covers it.

Cairo offers more to do after dark, and more choice in how to do it. Ahwas around downtown and Islamic Cairo stay full past midnight, families stroll the corniche, and Zamalek, the big hotels and the moored party boats give you bars, rooftops and some dancing, if at a price.

In Riyadh the late hours are real but alcohol-free. Evenings mean coffee shops, dessert cafés, malls and entertainment zones, with big festivals in the cooler months, so anyone after a drink or a regular club night will come away disappointed.

Both are desert cities with little green space, so the landscapes on offer are quite alike. Cairo's outdoors leans on water: a felucca at sunset on the Nile, the lawns of Al-Azhar Park, and in the Fayoum the lakes of Wadi El Rayan and birdlife on Lake Qarun, with Wadi Al-Hitan's whale fossils further out.

Riyadh gives you the open desert more directly. The Edge of the World escarpment, red dunes for quad biking and overnight camps under the stars make it the better base for a night in the sand, and Wadi Hanifah offers a long palm-lined corridor for walking and cycling.

Cairo has far more within a day's reach. Saqqara's Step Pyramid, the nearly empty pyramids of Dahshur and the ruins of Memphis are under an hour away, and the Wadi Natrun monasteries, the Fayoum and Alexandria's catacombs and Corniche are all possible in a day, usually with a driver.

From Riyadh the choice is short: the mud-brick village of Ushaiger and the old Najdi houses of Shaqra, about two hours out, then mostly desert. Other Saudi cities are a flight away.

Riyadh is the more practical city with children. The big malls have indoor amusement parks, ice rinks and play areas, and there is a zoo. Outdoor entertainment districts fill with local families on winter evenings, and desert camps add camel rides and dune drives for older children.

Cairo gives children the bigger memories, the pyramids, a camel at the desert's edge and Tutankhamun's gold, and Egyptians fuss over them warmly. Day to day, though, the traffic, missing pavements and insistent touts make it harder going, so a hotel pool and a private driver are close to essential.

Cairo's problem is congestion, Riyadh's is distance. In Cairo the metro reaches Coptic Cairo and Heliopolis but not the pyramids, so most journeys mean a ride-hailing car inching through some of the heaviest traffic anywhere. Walking works in short stretches, along Al-Muizz Street, under Zamalek's trees or across downtown's grid, and river taxis are a calmer way across the Nile.

Riyadh is laid out for the car. Its driverless metro runs along Olaya and King Abdullah Road and out to the airport, but the sights lie far apart and the wide roads are hard to cross on foot, so a taxi usually covers the last stretch. Walking is only realistic around Masmak Fort and in Diriyah, and only in the cooler months.

The two are evenly matched, but they suit different shoppers. Cairo is for crafts and haggling: Khan el-Khalili and its surrounding lanes, the appliqué makers on the Street of the Tentmakers, the coppersmiths' alley and small Zamalek boutiques for Egyptian cotton and design.

Riyadh is for malls and luxury labels, with the Kingdom Centre, Al Faisaliah and the northern districts carrying international fashion alongside oud, Arabian perfume and abayas. Souq Al Zal is its traditional counterweight, busiest in the evening.

Cairo is far cheaper. Meals, transport and good mid-range rooms in downtown or Zamalek cost very little. The main extra expenses are foreigner-priced entry to the big sites, guided tours and constant small tips.

Riyadh is built around business travel, so hotels around Olaya and in the towers, sit-down restaurants and the entertainment zones all add up. Free or modest museum entry, cheap metro fares and simple South Asian eateries soften the bill without making it a budget city.

Cairo has a steady season of formal performance. The Opera House on Gezira Island is home to a symphony orchestra, a ballet company and Arabic music ensembles, and the tanoura whirling dance in the medieval Wikala of al-Ghouri is one of the most memorable evenings in the region. Small venues add zar music and jazz.

Riyadh works in bursts, with large concerts, outdoor festivals and touring arena shows in winter and the ardah sword dance at heritage events. It has no opera, orchestra or theatre district, so in summer there is little to see.

Neither city is built for rest, and they sit close together here, so the real difference is where each one finds its calm. In Cairo it comes from the river and the old city: an hour on a felucca as the light fades, or a pause in the shaded courtyard of a historic house in Islamic Cairo between sights. The bathhouse tradition has largely lapsed, so a proper treatment means one of the big Nile-side hotels, and travellers who want to properly unwind usually move on to the Red Sea or the Fayoum.

Riyadh's version is drier and more spacious. Its hotel spas offer Moroccan-style hammam rituals, generally with separate sections for men and women, and the escape from the sprawl is the open desert, with a night at a dune camp or a cool winter evening in Diriyah's palm groves rather than a trip to the coast.