Chennai or Kochi?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Kochi gives you a better chance of a proper swim. Chennai's Marina and Elliot's Beach are for evening strolls, snacks and kites, not for going in. Even the resort stretches down the East Coast Road are often rough, and many visitors end up using the hotel pool.

Kochi's own sand at Fort Kochi is no better for swimming, but Cherai on Vypeen island, about an hour north, is a real palm-backed swimming beach with a lagoon behind it. Go between November and March, because the monsoon months make the water unsafe.

Chennai is the stronger food city, especially for vegetarian South Indian cooking at its source. Mornings mean tiffin halls with idli, dosa and filter coffee, lunch is the full banana-leaf meal in Mylapore or T. Nagar, and fiery Chettinad meat dishes add range.

Kochi's cooking is a different world, built on coconut, pepper and tamarind. Its strength is seafood: pearl spot, dry-roasted prawns and catches cooked beside the Chinese nets. Syrian Christian and Malabar kitchens add beef fry, duck roast and biryani. Drinking plays a small part in both cities, though Kochi's toddy shops make an unusual afternoon.

The two are about even for sights, but they are seen in very different ways. Kochi's heritage is concentrated in Fort Kochi and Mattancherry. In two or three unhurried days on foot you can see St Francis Church, the Paradesi Synagogue with its Chinese tiles and the murals of the Mattancherry Palace.

Chennai's sights are larger and more scattered. The Kapaleeshwarar and Parthasarathy temples are busy places of worship, and Fort St George and the red Indo-Saracenic buildings recall British Madras. The Egmore museum's Chola bronzes give Chennai a world-class collection that Kochi has no equivalent for.

Both cities go to bed early under strict alcohol rules, so neither suits a night out. Chennai at least has a few licensed pubs and hotel lounges in Nungambakkam and Alwarpet that fill with young professionals at weekends. Its evenings are otherwise spent outdoors, on the beaches or at temple festivals. Kochi is quieter still: a sunset walk by the fishing nets, dinner, and bed before an early boat.

Kochi is far richer in nature. Water shapes it: canals at Kumbalangi, the villages around Vembanad Lake, and the Mangalavanam mangroves in the city. The forested foothills at Thattekad and the falls at Athirappilly are both within a day trip.

Chennai sits on a flat coastal plain with no hills to walk. Its outdoors means birds: Guindy's blackbuck, plus the pelicans and flamingos at Vedanthangal and Pulicat in winter. It also has the olive ridley turtle walks on winter nights, which are its most distinctive outdoor experience.

Chennai has a slight edge, thanks to two first-rate destinations. Mahabalipuram's Pallava carvings, including the Shore Temple and Arjuna's Penance, are about an hour away. The great temples and silk looms of Kanchipuram are a little further inland.

Kochi's outings are pleasant rather than famous. The best known are a backwater day from Alappuzha, the Muziris sites that trace the old Roman trade, and the temple town of Thrissur. Congested roads in both regions mean journeys take longer than the distances suggest.

Both are tiring with young children, but in different ways. Kochi's advantage is pace: Fort Kochi is small and slow, and ferries, boat rides and the nets being hauled in keep children happy without long drives.

Chennai has more attractions built for children, such as the large zoo at Vandalur, the planetarium and the pony rides on Elliot's Beach. Reaching them takes long trips through heavy traffic. In either city, a hotel pool and outings in the cooler mornings make the trip much easier.

Kochi is easier to get around. The main sights are in a compact, flat old quarter you can walk or cycle, and public ferries and the water metro make crossing the harbour to Ernakulam part of the day out.

Chennai is too spread out and short of pavements for much walking beyond the lanes around the Kapaleeshwarar Temple. The metro helps for the airport and Central station, but most journeys end up in an auto-rickshaw or app cab, often in heavy traffic.

Chennai is the better place to shop, as long as you want silk, gold and textiles. T. Nagar's crowded sari emporia and old silk houses sell Kanchipuram weaves to wedding shoppers from across the south. Mylapore adds brass lamps and temple jewellery, and the state emporia sell bronzes and Tanjore paintings.

Kochi's shopping is narrower but has more character. Look for antiques in the Jew Town warehouses (many are reproductions), pepper and cardamom from the spice merchants, and cream-and-gold kasavu handloom.

Both are very cheap, and everyday meals, autos and sights cost little in either. The difference lies in where a budget can grow. In Chennai the main expense is a good hotel, as the business hotels are aimed at corporate travellers. In Kochi the family homestays are cheap, and the costs come from optional extras: heritage hotels, private houseboats and long Ayurvedic courses.

This is Chennai's biggest advantage. As the capital of Carnatic music and Bharatanatyam, it fills its sabhas with hundreds of concerts during the Margazhi season in December and January, many of them free in the mornings. Kalakshetra and the Mylapore halls keep classical dance and music going for the rest of the year.

Kochi offers nightly Kathakali, shortened for visitors, in small Fort Kochi theatres, where you can watch the make-up being applied, often followed by Kalaripayattu. It is worth one evening, but it is not a full performing-arts scene.

Kochi is far ahead here. Kerala is the home of Ayurveda, and treatments range from small Fort Kochi clinics to doctor-led programmes lasting one to three weeks, traditionally best taken during the monsoon. The backwater resorts are an easy place to end a trip quietly.

Chennai's appeal is yoga rather than treatment. Studios in Mylapore and Adyar teach in a well-known hatha lineage, and the Theosophical Society's shaded grounds offer a rare quiet spot in a loud, demanding city.