Cape Town or Knysna?

The two coasts are equally rewarding but in different ways. Cape Town's Atlantic beaches at Clifton and Camps Bay are some of the most photogenic anywhere, but the cold water makes them places to lie in the sun rather than swim. For a proper swim you go half an hour to False Bay, where the water is warmer and you share the sand with penguins at Boulders.

Knysna itself lies on a lagoon, so the sea is a short drive away, at the long, empty sands of Brenton-on-Sea and Buffalo Bay or the cove at Noetzie. The Indian Ocean here is warmer for swimming, but watch for rip currents and stay near the lifeguards. The calm lagoon shallows at Leisure Isle are something Cape Town has no equivalent for.

Cape Town is far ahead. It has its own creole tradition in the Cape Malay dishes of the Bo-Kaap, from bobotie to the gatsby, plus an ambitious restaurant scene around Bree Street and Woodstock, and Stellenbosch and Constantia wines poured from estates less than an hour away. You could eat somewhere different every night of a week and never repeat yourself.

Knysna's strength is narrow but real: oysters farmed in its own lagoon, line fish and braai on the Thesen Island quays, and a local brewing tradition. Expect relaxed lunches by the water rather than variety. After a few days the menus start to look alike.

Cape Town offers three or four days of sightseeing with real weight. The ferry to Robben Island, the District Six Museum and the Castle of Good Hope tell the story of colonial rule and apartheid. The museums around the Company's Garden and the contemporary African art at Zeitz MOCAA add more.

In Knysna, heritage takes a morning: the small stone church at Belvidere, the gold-rush remains at Millwood and the timber-trade museums. The Heads at the lagoon mouth are the landmark people remember, and that is scenery rather than history.

Both places share the sundowner habit, but only Cape Town keeps going afterwards. Long Street has rowdy bars and clubs, Bree and Kloof Streets have cocktail and wine bars, and De Waterkant is a long-established gay quarter, with weekend clubs running into the small hours. You will need ride-hailing between areas.

Knysna's evening is a drink on a lagoon deck, a long dinner and perhaps a pub. The town only livens up in the summer peak and for the Oyster Festival and the Pink Loerie Mardi Gras.

Both are superb outdoor bases, and Cape Town edges ahead because the wild is right on its streets. You can climb Table Mountain or Lion's Head from the city, the fynbos national park runs to Cape Point, and there are penguins, seals, surf lessons at Muizenberg and kitesurfing on the Atlantic side.

Knysna's landscape is greener and gentler: South Africa's largest indigenous forest at Diepwalle and Harkerville, a lagoon for kayaking and paddleboarding, and the clifftop walk on Robberg with its seal colony. The forest and lagoon make a calmer counterpart to Cape Town's mountain, and both get whales in winter and spring.

Cape Town has the stronger range of days out, thanks to the Winelands. Stellenbosch, Franschhoek and Paarl alone could fill several days, and Hermanus adds clifftop whale watching.

From Knysna the outings run along the Garden Route to Plettenberg Bay, Wilderness and Mossel Bay. The best of them crosses the Outeniqua passes to Oudtshoorn, with its ostrich mansions and the Cango Caves. They are pleasant, but more of the same coast and forest. Either way you will be driving.

Both work equally well for children who like the outdoors, and neither has a theme park. Cape Town offers set-piece outings: the Two Oceans Aquarium, the cableway, Boulders penguins and the treetop walkway at Kirstenbosch, with False Bay's tidal pools for swimming.

Knysna is more about open-ended days: paddling in the lagoon shallows, a boat out through the Heads, walking with rescued elephants and the animal sanctuaries near Plettenberg Bay. In both places the family will spend much of the day in the car.

Neither is easy without a car, but Cape Town gives you more options. The City Bowl, Bo-Kaap and Waterfront are walkable by day, MyCiTi buses reach the airport and the Atlantic beaches, and cheap ride-hailing covers the rest, including door-to-door trips after dark.

In Knysna, only the town centre and Thesen Island are walkable. Everything else is spread along the N2 and up forest roads, so the usual plan is to fly into George, about an hour away, and hire a car there.

Cape Town has more to offer, though neither is a shopping destination. The V&A Waterfront covers the chains and South African labels, Woodstock and Kloof Street sell local design and ceramics, and you can take wine and rooibos home.

Knysna's shopping is for browsing. The best things to buy are galleries on Thesen Island and furniture and turned pieces in local yellowwood and stinkwood, a craft that comes straight from the surrounding forest.

Both are good value for visitors from Europe, North America or Australia, and the difference lies in where the money goes. In Cape Town, tasting menus, wine and ride-hailing are remarkably cheap. Rooms on the Atlantic seaboard in December and January are the big expense, along with the cableway and Robben Island tickets.

Knysna's guesthouses and cottages are reasonable for most of the year, and most outdoor activities cost little. Car hire is the one cost you can't avoid, and rooms there also peak in the same summer weeks.

Cape Town has a musical identity of its own in Cape jazz. It hosts one of Africa's biggest jazz festivals and summer sunset concerts on the lawns at Kirstenbosch, and Artscape, the Baxter and the Cape Philharmonic provide a few good evenings of opera, drama or orchestral music.

Knysna has no theatre season or orchestra. Live music means a weekend band in a pub, or the concerts that come with its festivals.

Neither has a bathing tradition or thermal springs, and both rely on hotel and lodge spas. In Cape Town, rest is something you plan into a busy city stay: a long lunch on a wine estate, yoga on the Atlantic seaboard, or a morning swim in a False Bay tidal pool.

In Knysna the slow pace comes with the place. Lagoon mornings, forest lodges and retreats in the hills mean you wind down without trying.