Cali or Santa Marta?

This is where the two cities differ most. Santa Marta lives by the sea, which stays warm all year. It has the calm grey sand of El Rodadero, small coves such as Bahía Concha and the golden beaches of Tayrona, where you should swim only in sheltered spots like La Piscina and Cabo San Juan.

Cali has no coast of its own. Swimming there means the Pance river pools at weekends or a hotel pool. The Pacific beaches at Juanchaco and Ladrilleros are an overnight trip by road and boat.

Cali's food is more distinctive. It draws on both the Valle del Cauca and the Afro-Colombian Pacific: lulada, champús and cholado from street carts, warm pandebono in the morning and seafood stews with coconut. At the Galería Alameda market you can eat at the counters among the fruit and fish.

Santa Marta serves plain, satisfying Caribbean cooking: fried fish with coconut rice, arepas de huevo, fresh juices and coffee from the Sierra Nevada. The evening choice around Parque de los Novios is modest, and neither city is a fine-dining destination.

Neither city is built for sightseeing, and each can be seen in about a day. The difference lies in the kind of past. Santa Marta, Colombia's oldest surviving Spanish city, has the whitewashed cathedral, Tairona gold in the Casa de la Aduana and the hacienda where Bolívar died.

Cali's colonial core is younger in feel but has more variety. It has La Merced, the brick tower of San Francisco, modern art at La Tertulia and the low houses of San Antonio, which make the nicest walk. Its real culture is in its music.

People travel to Cali for its nights out. Dancing is the whole point, whether in small salsotecas spinning old records, the big Juanchito clubs at weekends or the louder bars along Avenida Sexta, and a few lessons first pay off. The December Feria turns the city into a party for a week.

Evenings in Santa Marta are more casual: terrace drinks around Parque de los Novios, vallenato and champeta at El Rodadero, and backpacker parties in Taganga. It is fun, but the scene is small and comes alive mainly at weekends and in the peak seasons.

Both cities sit beneath mountains, but Santa Marta's are on a grander scale. The Sierra Nevada climbs from the Caribbean to snow peaks. Close by are Tayrona's rainforest coast, Minca's cloud forest and coffee farms, the Lost City trek, and diving and snorkelling from Taganga.

Cali still has plenty. The Farallones park rises behind its southern suburbs, locals climb to Tres Cruces at dawn, the forests at Kilometre 18 are excellent for birding and Lake Calima is good for windsurfing. What it lacks is the drop from summit to sea.

Cali's outings run to the towns and estates of the valley, while Santa Marta's lean towards literature and the coast. From Cali, the pilgrimage town of Buga and its basilica are about an hour away, past old sugar haciendas such as El Paraíso, the setting of the novel María. Ginebra adds a day of Valle cooking and music.

Santa Marta offers García Márquez's childhood home in Aracataca, the carnival port of Barranquilla and Palomino, where a river meets the sea. These are modest outings, and the famous names need an overnight stay: Popayán and the coffee region from Cali, or Cartagena from Santa Marta.

Both cities welcome children, but neither is built around them, so the choice comes down to the kind of day you want. Cali offers the riverside zoo, water parks, malls with play areas and the Pance pools, with most journeys made by taxi. Santa Marta offers beach time instead, with El Rodadero's calm, shallow bay, a small aquarium and sheltered coves, although Tayrona's long walks and strong currents suit older children better.

Cali is flat and spread out, so most visitors rely on cheap taxis or ride-hailing, and the MIO rapid buses run on their own lanes along the main avenues. San Antonio, Granada and the riverside are close enough to walk between by day, although heat and uneven pavements make it hard going, and walking at night is best avoided.

Santa Marta's old centre is compact enough to cover on foot, but everything beyond it goes by road. Crowded minibuses run to El Rodadero, Taganga and along the coast, shared jeeps climb to Minca and taxis handle most short trips. For Tayrona and the mountains, many visitors book a tour or a driver.

Cali has more to browse. Its large malls sell Colombian fashion labels, swimwear and leather, and it has its own speciality in salsa shoes and dancewear. The Galería Alameda stalls are good for coffee and fruit.

Santa Marta's shopping comes down to crafts and coffee: Arhuaco mochilas, Wayuu bags and hammocks, and beans from the mountain farms. It is the better place for those things, but not for a day of shopping.

From day to day, the two cost about the same: low-cost guesthouses, cheap set lunches and street food, and short taxi rides that barely add up. In Cali, dance classes and nights out are inexpensive too, so a trip built around salsa stays cheap.

Where the spending climbs is different. In Cali it is the upscale restaurants of the north and the December feria. In Santa Marta it is the excursions, with a separate foreigners' rate for Tayrona and costly guided treks to the Lost City, and beach hotels fill up and cost more at Christmas and Easter.

Cali has far more to see. There are big salsa shows with full orchestras, dance-school showcases, the Petronio Álvarez festival of Pacific music in August and the Festival Mundial de Salsa. The Teatro Municipal and the Filarmónica add a small formal programme on top.

Santa Marta has no regular season at all. Its music is informal: accordion vallenato and champeta in bars, and drummers and dancers in the squares on busy evenings.

Neither city is a spa destination, but Santa Marta has better places to rest nearby. The eco-lodges of Minca, with hammocks and river pools in the cool cloud forest, and the yoga retreats along the coast towards Palomino make it easy to add a few quiet nights.

Cali is built for energy rather than rest. Its calm moments are a garden café in San Antonio or a weekend at a country house with a pool in the hills around Pance.