Cali or Quito?

Neither city is a beach destination, and in both the sea has to be planned as a separate leg. From Cali the Pacific beaches of Juanchaco and Ladrilleros mean a drive and a boat and a night away. From Quito the coast is a long day's drive or a flight, and many visitors pair it with the Galápagos instead.

The everyday swimming differs. Cali's heat makes the Pance river pools a real pleasure at weekends, while in cool Quito a swim means a hotel pool or the warm municipal pools in the valleys below the city.

The two are evenly matched, but they taste of different worlds. Cali cooks with tropical fruit and the Afro-Colombian Pacific: lulada and cholado from street carts, warm pandebono in the morning, and seafood stews with coconut, with the Galería Alameda the place to see it all.

Quito's food is highland and warming, built on potatoes, corn and pork, from locro de papa to hornado, with canelazo on cold evenings. Its extra draw is Ecuadorian cacao and coffee, easy to taste around the old town and La Floresta, while Cali's market counters give the sharper sense of place.

Here Quito is far ahead. Its colonial centre is one of the largest and best-preserved in the Americas, with the gilded La Compañía, the San Francisco monastery on its great plaza, the Quito school altarpieces and towers to climb at the Basílica del Voto Nacional, plus solid museums such as the Capilla del Hombre.

Cali has a handful of good sights, La Merced, the San Francisco tower and the Museo La Tertulia among them, and the low houses of San Antonio make a pleasant walk. But its culture is heard more than seen, and a day or two covers the buildings.

Cali is one of the great dancing cities of Latin America, and Quito cannot match it. Nights here revolve around salsa, from small salsotecas spinning old vinyl to the big clubs of Juanchito running until near dawn, with louder bars on Avenida Sexta and Menga and the December Feria turning the whole city out.

Quito's going-out scene is concentrated around Plaza Foch in La Mariscal, busy from Thursday to Saturday and quiet midweek. Its quieter craft-beer and cocktail bars and a canelazo on La Ronda make for good evenings, but rarely late ones.

Both cities have wild country at their edge, but Quito's is grander. The TelefériQo lifts you to about 4,000m on the slopes of Pichincha, and the Avenue of the Volcanoes brings Cotopaxi's glacier, Antisana and Cayambe within reach, with Mindo's cloud forest dropping away to the west.

Cali is strong in its own right, with the Farallones rising behind the southern suburbs, the dawn climb to Tres Cruces and superb birding around Kilometre 18. Lake Calima adds windsurfing and kitesurfing, but there are no snow peaks or high páramo to compare with Quito's.

Quito has the more memorable days out. Otavalo's Saturday market, one of the largest Indigenous markets on the continent, pairs with Cotacachi and the weaving villages, and the equator line at Mitad del Mundo is under an hour away.

From Cali the outings are gentler: the pilgrimage town of Buga, the old sugar haciendas including El Paraíso of the novel María, and Lake Calima. Its finest neighbours, Popayán and the coffee region, really need an overnight stay.

Neither city is built around children, but Cali is the easier of the two. Its zoo by the river and weekends in the Pance pools give fixed outings, water parks and malls cover rainy afternoons, and young children face heat rather than thin air.

Quito has fun moments, from straddling the equator to the TelefériQo ride and the Yaku water museum, but the altitude can make small children unwell at first and the old town is steep. Families often treat it as a gateway rather than a base.

Getting about is similar work in both: taxis and ride-hailing do most of the job, and walking after dark is best avoided. The shape of the city is what differs. Cali is flat and spread out, served by the MIO bus lanes, with San Antonio, Granada and the riverside close enough to walk between in the heat.

Quito is long and thin, so its single metro line running the length of the valley is genuinely useful, backed by crowded bus corridors where pickpockets work. The historic centre is compact and best on foot, though its steep streets at altitude leave newcomers breathless.

There is little to choose between them for shopping, but they sell different things. Cali's shopping mostly happens in the big malls of the north and south, with Colombian fashion labels, swimwear and leather goods, and its most local buys are salsa shoes and dancewear. For something less polished, the stalls of the Galería Alameda sell coffee and household goods, and woven baskets from the Pacific coast turn up at fairs and small shops.

Quito is the place for souvenirs with a story: Panama hats of toquilla straw, bean-to-bar chocolate, alpaca textiles and tagua-nut carvings, all gathered under one roof at the La Mariscal artisan market. Its malls hold little for a visitor. In Cali the best buys are things to dance in, while in Quito they are crafts to take home.

Both are cheap for a visitor, and day-to-day costs barely separate them. Cali's money goes on nights out and dance classes that cost a fraction of their price elsewhere, with spending climbing only in the upscale north and during the December Feria.

In Quito the set lunch, the metro and colonial-house guesthouses are all good value, but guided trips to the volcanoes and cloud forest add up, and a Galápagos extension costs far more than anything in the city.

Cali has the livelier stage, almost all of it salsa. Big cabaret-style shows with orchestras and acrobatic dancers, dance-school showcases and the Petronio Álvarez festival of Pacific marimba and drums give a visitor plenty to watch, alongside the Teatro Municipal and the historic Teatro Experimental.

Quito's programme is more formal and more modest. The nineteenth-century Teatro Nacional Sucre hosts opera, the national symphony and dance, and the folk ballet is the distinctive thing to see, but it fills an evening rather than a trip.

Quito offers a proper way to unwind, Cali hardly any. About an hour and a half from Quito, the misty thermal pools of Papallacta have a real spa culture, and simpler hot springs such as El Tingo lie in the valleys below the city, even if the altitude makes the first days in town tiring.

Cali has no bathing tradition, so rest means a hotel spa, a slow afternoon in San Antonio or a country house with a pool in the hills around Pance.