Cape Town or Hermanus?

Cape Town gives you two coasts. On the Atlantic side, Clifton, Camps Bay and Llandudno are some of the most photographed beaches in the country, though the water there is icy. A short drive away on False Bay, Muizenberg, St James and Boulders have warmer water, gentle surf, tidal pools and penguins on the sand.

Hermanus has a single fine stretch at Grotto, smaller coves at Voëlklip and Kammabaai, and the Klein River lagoon, which is the calmest place to swim. Walker Bay is similar to False Bay in temperature but has less choice, and a change in the wind can make it bracing overnight.

Cape Town is a place to travel for food. It has its own Cape Malay cooking of curries, bobotie and the gatsby roll, inventive chefs along Bree Street and in Woodstock's warehouses, weekend markets, and wine lists drawn from estates on the city's edge.

Hermanus eats well but simply. The best of it is line fish and abalone near the old harbour and lunches with long views at the Hemel-en-Aarde estates, whose cool-climate Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are among South Africa's finest. Beyond that you will mostly find grills, pizza and a few bistros.

On sightseeing the two are far apart. Cape Town tells the country's hard history: the ferry to Robben Island from the V&A Waterfront, the District Six Museum and the Castle of Good Hope. Add the museums around the Company's Garden, the mosques of the Bo-Kaap and Zeitz MOCAA, and you have three or four full days.

Hermanus has the Old Harbour, with its stone slipways, old fishing boats and a small museum, and the Whale House Museum. That takes an afternoon at most, and nobody goes there to sightsee.

In Cape Town you can choose your kind of night: rowdy balconied bars on Long Street, cocktails and wine bars on Bree and Kloof, De Waterkant's gay quarter, and in summer clubs that run into the small hours after sundowners in Camps Bay. You will move between areas by ride-hailing rather than on foot.

Hermanus has a sundowner on a terrace near the waterfront, a pub, then bed. Anyone who wants more faces a drive of about an hour and a half back to the city.

Both sit in superb landscape, but Cape Town offers more variety. You can climb Table Mountain via Platteklip Gorge or Lion's Head at sunrise, drive Chapman's Peak to Cape Point, walk Kirstenbosch, see penguins and seals, learn to surf at Muizenberg or kitesurf off the Atlantic beaches, and spot whales in False Bay.

Hermanus is narrower but has one outstanding draw: southern right whales calving in Walker Bay close to the rocks, seen from a cliff path that runs the length of town. Fernkloof's fynbos trails, paddling on the lagoon and the penguins at Stony Point round it out.

The day trips from both are about equally good, but they lead in different directions. From Cape Town, the Winelands are the main event and very close: Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, Paarl and Constantia have enough estates for several days, with Hermanus itself as the main trip beyond them.

From Hermanus, the Winelands and Cape Town are each a longer drive. In return you are close to small country places like Stanford, Greyton and the mission town of Elim, and can reach Arniston and Cape Agulhas, the southern tip of Africa. Either way, you need a car.

Cape Town has more for children to do: the Two Oceans Aquarium, the penguins at Boulders, the cableway ride, Kirstenbosch's treetop walkway, and warm tidal pools at St James and Fish Hoek. The cost is long drives between sights and the need for some street awareness.

Hermanus is simpler. You can spot whales from the path, explore rock pools and paddle in the shallow Grotto lagoon, all from a self-catering house. There is nothing built for children, though, so it suits families who want a quiet week more than a full one.

Neither works well without a car, but Cape Town gives you more options. The City Bowl, Bo-Kaap and Waterfront are walkable by day, MyCiTi buses run out to the airport, the Atlantic beaches and Hout Bay, and ride-hailing is cheap for everything else.

In Hermanus, you can walk the village centre, the Old Harbour and the cliff path, but the town stretches for kilometres along the coast. There is no public transport a visitor can rely on, so the eastern beaches, the wine valley and everything beyond mean driving yourself.

Cape Town has real places to shop. There is the V&A Waterfront mall with its makers' hall, local design and ceramics in Woodstock and on Bree and Kloof Streets, and African crafts on Greenmarket Square, though you still would not plan a trip around it.

Hermanus has a few galleries and boutiques, craft stalls by the Old Harbour and a weekend market. The best thing to take home is wine bought at the Hemel-en-Aarde cellars.

Both are good value for visitors from Europe or North America, with cheap wine and restaurant meals. In Cape Town, the money you save at dinner, even on tasting menus, can go on rooms, which are expensive in Camps Bay and around the Waterfront in December and January. Paid sights such as the cableway and Robben Island add up for a family.

In Hermanus, self-catering cottages give you more space for the money, but rooms rise in the summer vacation and in whale season too. You cannot avoid a hire car, and boat trips take a large share of the budget.

Cape Town has a musical identity of its own in Cape jazz, a major annual jazz festival, and summer Sunday concerts on the lawns at Kirstenbosch. There is also opera and ballet at Artscape, South African drama at the Baxter and a resident philharmonic, enough for a couple of good evenings.

Hermanus has a yearly arts festival, outdoor stages during the whale festival and the occasional singer in a pub. For a concert or a play, you go to Cape Town.

Neither town has a bathing tradition or thermal baths, and both rely on a slow outdoor pace and cold morning dips in tidal pools. In Cape Town you build calm into a city stay: yoga on the Atlantic seaboard, an afternoon in Kalk Bay, or a spa on a grand Winelands estate.

In Hermanus the whole stay is slow, with cliff-path walks, watching the bay and a town that empties out of season. The spas, though, are fewer and simpler.