Cancun or Santa Marta?

Cancun is built around its beach, and it shows. Some 22km of fine, pale coral sand runs along the Hotel Zone, and you can choose between the calm, shallow bay at Playa Langosta and Playa Tortugas and the open Caribbean surf further south, all a short walk or bus ride from your hotel. Isla Mujeres adds the gentle shelf of Playa Norte. The main snag is sargassum on the eastern shore in some summers.

Santa Marta's beach days take more planning. The town's own bay is a harbour, so swimming means the grey sand of El Rodadero or a boat to coves such as Bahía Concha. Tayrona's golden beaches below the jungle are lovely but often an hour's walk from the gate, and several are unsafe for swimming.

Neither city is a food destination, and both cook better away from the beachfront. Cancun's draw is Yucatecan cooking, cochinita pibil, sopa de lima and habanero salsas, found at taco stands and in Mercado 28 downtown rather than at the Hotel Zone buffets.

Santa Marta serves Colombian Caribbean food instead: fried fish with coconut rice and patacones, arepas de huevo and fresh juices, cheap and filling, with Sierra Nevada coffee grown in the hills above town.

Santa Marta has more to see, though the list is still short. Founded in 1525, it has a walkable grid of colonial and republican streets around the whitewashed cathedral, a gold museum on the Tairona people in the Casa de la Aduana, and the hacienda where Bolívar died.

Cancun, planned as a resort in the 1970s, has almost no history of its own. An afternoon at the Maya Museum and the small San Miguelito ruins covers it, and the real heritage lies at sites a long drive away.

For a big night out, Cancun is in another league. The Party Center at the bend of the Hotel Zone packs enormous clubs with acrobats, confetti and open-bar wristbands until dawn. It is loud and all aimed at the same vacation crowd, with cheaper local bars downtown on Avenida Tulum.

Santa Marta's evenings are smaller and more Colombian: terraces and pavement tables around Parque de los Novios, dance bars at El Rodadero playing vallenato and champeta, and backpacker beach parties in Taganga. It livens up at weekends and in the peak seasons.

Santa Marta is the stronger choice for landscape. The Sierra Nevada rises to snow peaks above the coast, Tayrona mixes rainforest trails, boulders and monkeys, Minca's cloud forest offers coffee farms, waterfalls and rare birds, and the Lost City trek starts from town.

Cancun's nature is flat and mostly underwater, but very good of its kind. You can snorkel the Mesoamerican Reef and the MUSA sculptures, swim in the cenotes inland, swim with whale sharks in summer and paddle the Nichupte mangroves. There is no hiking to speak of.

Cancun has far more within a day's reach. Chichen Itza, paired with Valladolid and a cenote, makes a long but rewarding day, and Coba and Ek Balam add jungle-wrapped ruins. Closer in are the ferry to Isla Mujeres, Playa del Carmen and the clifftop ruins of Tulum.

From Santa Marta, most outings head into the landscape rather than to other towns. Aracataca's García Márquez house, Barranquilla, Minca and Palomino are pleasant, and Cartagena is too far for a day.

Cancun is much easier with children. The resorts are built for it, with kids' clubs, shallow pools and buffets for fussy eaters, and the northern bay beaches are calm. An aquarium and the eco-parks down the coast fill the days, though the eastern shore's currents and the summer heat need watching.

Santa Marta welcomes children warmly but offers them little that is made for them. El Rodadero's calm bay and Bahía Concha are the easy options. Uneven pavements, chaotic traffic and Tayrona's long walks to beaches with dangerous currents make it better suited to older children who like wildlife.

Cancun stretches along one long road, Boulevard Kukulcan, and walking makes sense only near your hotel. Frequent buses run its length and on to downtown, and the ADO coach network is reliable for Playa del Carmen, Tulum and Valladolid, though most visitors still rely on tours or a hire car for cenotes and ruins.

Santa Marta is the easier of the two from day to day, because its historic centre is compact and flat enough to cover on foot, heat permitting. Crowded local buses and plentiful taxis cover El Rodadero, Taganga and the coast road, and you won't need a car.

Cancun has more choice, even if little of it is memorable. Air-conditioned malls in the Hotel Zone carry international and luxury labels and duty-free, and Mercado 28 sells hammocks, silver, huipiles and tequila. Expect to bargain, and expect the same stock at every stall.

Santa Marta has less to browse but more that is distinctive. Hand-woven Arhuaco mochilas, bright Wayuu bags and mountain coffee are worth buying, and there is little else to shop for.

Santa Marta is clearly cheaper to stay in. Guesthouses, set lunches, buses and taxis cost little, and even boutique hotels in the old centre are reasonably priced. The big costs are Tayrona's foreigners' entry and a guided Lost City trek, plus higher hotel prices around Christmas and Easter.

Cancun's Hotel Zone is priced for international visitors, and resort meals, Party Center drinks and tours add up fast. Eating and sleeping downtown narrows the gap considerably.

Neither city has a theatre or concert season worth planning a trip around. The difference is in who the music is for. Cancun stages it for visitors, with mariachi dinner shows, resort entertainment and big evening spectacles at the eco-parks. In Santa Marta it comes from the coast itself, with vallenato accordions, champeta and street drumming in the squares, at its liveliest around carnival.

Cancun makes rest easier to find. The large Hotel Zone resorts have proper spas with hydrotherapy circuits and ocean-view treatment rooms, and the Maya temazcal sweat lodge adds a local ritual. For quiet, head to the southern end of the strip or to Puerto Morelos rather than the Party Center.

Santa Marta itself is hot and noisy, with only hotel spas and beach massage. Its calm lies outside town, in Minca's cloud-forest eco-lodges and the small yoga retreats towards Palomino, which mean moving base for a few nights.