Cancun or Honolulu?

Cancun has the edge, because its main beach is the place you are staying. The Hotel Zone runs for about 22km of fine coral sand. The calm, shallow bay side suits small swimmers, while the open Caribbean shore from Punta Cancun southwards has bigger waves. The one catch is the sargassum seaweed that some summers bring to the eastern beaches.

Waikiki is sheltered and gentle, good for a first surf lesson, but the sand is narrow and crowded beneath the hotel towers. Honolulu's finest beaches, Lanikai, Kailua and the reef bowl of Hanauma Bay, mean a drive. On the North Shore, the winter surf makes swimming unsafe.

Honolulu eats much better. Its local cooking comes from Hawaiian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Filipino and Portuguese families. That gives you poke by weight, plate lunches and malasadas, along with first-rate ramen and izakaya in Kaimuki, Kapahulu and Chinatown.

Cancun has a real regional kitchen in Yucatecan dishes such as cochinita pibil and sopa de lima, but you have to go downtown to Mercado 28 or Parque de las Palapas to find it. On the beach strip, meals are mostly resort buffets.

There is a clear gap here. Honolulu tells two strong stories, the Hawaiian kingdom and the Pacific war. Iolani Palace, the only royal palace on American soil, the Bishop Museum's Polynesian collections and the USS Arizona Memorial will fill two or three good days.

Cancun was built as a resort from the 1970s and has almost nothing old. Its Maya Museum and the small San Miguelito ruins are worth an afternoon. Anyone serious about the Maya uses Cancun as a base and heads inland.

If you want to stay out until four in the morning, go to Cancun. The Party Center at the bend of the Hotel Zone is packed with huge clubs, acrobatic shows and open-bar wristbands, although nearly every venue aims at the same spring-break crowd.

Honolulu evenings start with a mai tai at sunset and usually end well before dawn. Its better bars are in Chinatown, around Nuuanu Avenue, where you will find cocktail and dive bars, and Kakaako adds craft breweries. It suits couples who want a good drink rather than a big night.

Honolulu's mountains make the difference. You can reach the Diamond Head rim, the rainforest at Manoa Falls and the fluted Koolau cliffs within minutes of the beach. On the water there are turtles to snorkel with, islets off Kailua to kayak to and humpback whales offshore in winter.

Cancun's outdoors is almost all water, and very good water: the Mesoamerican Reef, the sunken sculptures of MUSA, cenotes along the Ruta de los Cenotes and whale sharks in summer. On land there is only flat scrub and no hiking.

Cancun gives you far more to go out and see. Chichen Itza, paired with Valladolid and a cenote, makes a long day. Coba and Ek Balam keep their jungle setting. Closer to hand are Tulum's clifftop ruins, Playa del Carmen and the short ferry to Isla Mujeres.

Honolulu is limited by being on an island. A loop of Oahu takes in Haleiwa's surf-town galleries, the Polynesian Cultural Center and the Byodo-In temple. Maui and the Big Island are better given a few nights than squeezed into a day.

Both cities suit children well, in different ways. Cancun works best as a resort stay, with kids' clubs, the calm bay beaches and eco-parks down the coast, but every outing needs a bus, taxi or tour.

Honolulu spreads the fun more widely. The zoo and the aquarium sit at the Diamond Head end of Waikiki, Hanauma Bay makes a gentle first snorkel, and older children enjoy the Pearl Harbor ships. The long flight and the cost are the drawbacks.

Honolulu is easier to get around. Waikiki is flat and compact enough to walk from end to end along Kalakaua Avenue, and TheBus runs all the way to Pearl Harbor and the North Shore. Many visitors hire a car for only a day or two.

In Cancun, the Hotel Zone is one long boulevard where walking in the heat soon wears thin, so you rely on buses and taxis. Further afield, the ADO coaches are good, but cenotes and ruins usually mean a tour or a hire car.

Honolulu offers more to buy and better things. There are luxury houses along Kalakaua Avenue and the vast open-air Ala Moana Center. You can also find genuinely local goods such as koa wood bowls, ukuleles, Hawaiian quilts and vintage aloha shirts, with independent shops in Kakaako and Haleiwa.

Cancun's malls could be anywhere. At Mercado 28 you can bargain for hammocks, huipiles and silver, but the stock repeats from stall to stall.

Cancun is far kinder to the wallet, although the Hotel Zone is not cheap by Mexican standards. Step downtown and food, buses and small hotels cost very little, and an all-inclusive package keeps the bill predictable.

In Honolulu almost everything is expensive, from rooms and resort fees to car hire and sit-down meals. You can save with plate lunches, poke counters, the bus and free hikes, but a stay there still costs a great deal more.

Honolulu has a performance tradition of its own. Slack-key guitar, falsetto singing and hula, from the gentle modern style to the chanted ancient form, turn up in the free shows at Kuhio Beach as well as at festivals. The restored Hawaii Theatre and short symphony and opera seasons add a modest formal programme.

In Cancun, most of what is on is staged for visitors: folkloric dinner shows with mariachi, resort entertainment and the evening spectacles at the eco-parks.

The two are fairly level, and both centre on big resort spas. The local rituals are what set them apart. Cancun offers the temazcal, a guided Maya sweat lodge with herbs and steam, while Honolulu has lomilomi massage and yoga on the sand at dawn.

Both busy strips can be noisy. For quiet, people head to Isla Mujeres or Puerto Morelos from Cancun, and to Kahala, Ko Olina or the windward coast from Honolulu.