Cebu or El Nido?

Neither place lets you walk out of your hotel onto good sand, but the beaches are on a different level. Cebu City faces a port, so swimming means crossing to Mactan for small coral-sand beaches, usually through a resort day pass. The best water is on a boat day out to the Nalusuan, Hilutungan and Pandanon sandbars.

El Nido is built around its beaches. To the north, Nacpan is a pale sweep about 4km long. Las Cabanas has the sunsets, and the island-hopping boats stop at shallow, very clear coves between limestone walls. Cebu's beaches that come closest to this, at Moalboal, Malapascua and Bantayan, are a journey of three hours or more.

Cebu has a food identity of its own, and El Nido doesn't. Cebu's lechon is widely held to be the country's best, and it comes with puso rice pouches, ngohiong rolls, evening street grills and sutukil fish restaurants on Mactan. Carbon Market shows the everyday side.

In El Nido the town lanes serve pasta, burgers and smoothie bowls to backpackers, with adobo and kinilaw at the Filipino places in between. The best food there is charcoal-grilled squid and the rice-and-seafood lunch the boat crews cook on the islands.

Cebu's heritage is modest but real, and you can see it in a full day on foot downtown. It includes Magellan's Cross from 1521, the Basilica del Santo Niño with its packed daily worship, Fort San Pedro, the colonial houses of the Parian and the hilltop Taoist Temple.

El Nido grew from a fishing town into a tourist base and has almost nothing of this kind. There is a small parish church and a few wooden houses. Its one landmark is the limestone cliff behind the town, which is nature rather than history.

Cebu has the bigger and later night out. IT Park's open-air bar strips and beer gardens run into the early hours, Mango Avenue has the older, rougher clubs, and Sinulog in January turns the whole city into a street party. Nights still tend towards cheap beer and karaoke rather than cocktails.

El Nido's evenings are smaller but very social: sunset drinks at Las Cabanas, then reggae bars, fire dancers, hostel pub crawls and party boats. There are no clubs, and families at the outlying resorts will hardly notice the scene.

El Nido's setting is the stronger of the two. Bacuit Bay is full of sheer black limestone islands. You kayak through gaps in the rock into the Big and Small Lagoons on Miniloc, and snorkelling or diving to walls, caverns and turtle sites is part of almost every day. On land there is less, mainly the Taraw cliff climb and the Nagkalit-kalit falls.

Cebu's outdoors is wider but more spread out. The Busay and Sirao hills behind the city, Mactan's reefs and the shorebirds on Olango are close by. The headline experiences are canyoneering to Kawasan Falls, Osmeña Peak, the Moalboal sardine run and the Oslob whale sharks, and those sit about three hours south and are best done with an overnight stay.

Cebu gives you a real choice of days out, and El Nido gives you almost none. From Cebu the strongest outing is the fast ferry to Bohol, about two hours away, for Tagbilaran, the stone church at Baclayon and the river towns. If you stay on the island, you can drive south to colonial Carcar and the Spanish-era coral-stone churches at Argao and Boljoon, or keep it short with the Lapu-Lapu shrine on Mactan, where Magellan was killed, and a boat to Olango. The catch is the roads, which are slow, so start early.

In El Nido the boat trips around the bay take the place of day trips. The only easy road outing is the small 18th-century fort at Taytay, about an hour and a half south. Port Barton is a long ride away, and Coron and Puerto Princesa are too far to do in a day.

Both are workable with children and both are warmly welcoming, but they suit different ages. Cebu has things built for children: Cebu Ocean Park's aquarium, the safari park in the northern hills and air-conditioned malls for the hottest hours. A Mactan resort with a pool makes an easy base even with toddlers, although the city streets are hard work.

El Nido rewards confident older children who love snorkelling and boat days in shallow, clear coves. It has no parks or museums, the boats involve steep ladders and wet landings, the journey there is long and medical care is basic.

Getting around is awkward in both places, for different reasons. Cebu is a large city with no rail and gridlocked bridges to Mactan, so you depend on taxis and ride-hailing apps, and short-looking trips run slow.

El Nido is small, so the town centre is walkable, although the lanes have no pavements. There is no public transport: tricycles reach Las Cabanas and Corong-Corong, the north needs a scooter or a hired van, and everything else goes by bangka.

You can actually go shopping in Cebu. El Nido mostly sells what you need for the boats. Cebu's big air-conditioned malls, such as Ayala Center, SM City and SM Seaside, cover chains and Filipino brands, but there is little luxury or independent design. The local finds are better: ukuleles and guitars from the family workshops on Mactan, shell and rattan crafts, the stalls of Carbon Market, and dried mangoes or otap pastries to take home.

El Nido has nothing like that range. A few stalls and small shops sell swimwear, sarongs, dry bags, woven bags and shell or pearl jewellery, and there is a market for produce and fish. Buy what you need for the water there, and do any proper souvenir shopping in Cebu.

Cebu is the cheaper stay. City hotels, street barbecue and taxis cost very little, and the historic sights are mostly free. Spending rises only if you move to a Mactan resort or pay for diving and boat trips.

El Nido is still fairly cheap by international standards, but its remote location pushes prices above most of the Philippines. You pay for flights in, restaurants charge visitor prices, and boat tours are a daily cost rather than an occasional treat. The private-island resorts in the bay are among the most expensive in Asia.

Neither is a place to plan around performances. Cebu has the stronger moment in the Sinulog in January, when costumed contingents dance the traditional prayer dance through the streets. For the rest of the year it has skilled cover singers in bars and occasional shows at university venues.

El Nido has acoustic guitarists, reggae covers and fire dancers on the sand, with no venue for theatre or concerts.

Both offer good massage, including the warm-oil hilot, and neither has a bathing tradition. The difference is where the calm comes from. In Cebu it comes from a Mactan resort, with a full spa and a quiet pool deck as a break from the noisy, hot city.

In El Nido the setting does most of the work. There are yoga classes, massage huts on the beach, and hillside or private-island resorts that are very quiet, as long as you stay out at Corong-Corong, Las Cabanas or the northern beaches rather than in town.