Chennai or Pondicherry?

Neither is a swimming destination, because the Bay of Bengal surf is heavy and the currents are dangerous off both. Chennai's Marina and Elliot's Beach are for evening walks, kites and snacks. Real swimming means a drive south along the East Coast Road, or settling for a hotel pool.

Pondicherry gets you closer to a proper beach day. Serenity Beach and the Auroville shore are a short scooter ride away, and the boat through the Chunnambar backwaters to Paradise Beach is an outing in itself, with sand, sunsets and fried fish, even if the water is only for wading.

Chennai is the better place to eat South Indian food. Tiffin halls in Mylapore and T. Nagar serve idli, dosa and pongal with filter coffee, and lunch is a banana-leaf meal that keeps being refilled. There are also Chettinad meat dishes and biryani in several regional styles. The choice is deep, though alcohol and foreign cooking play only a small part.

Pondicherry has the same Tamil basics on a smaller scale and adds what Chennai lacks: French bakeries, Creole Franco-Tamil cooking, Auroville's farm-to-table kitchens, and beer or wine with a long lunch in a colonial courtyard. It has more charm but less depth, and a few days covers it.

These two differ more in kind than in weight, and Chennai has slightly the stronger sights. Its monuments are bigger: the painted gopuram of Kapaleeshwarar above its tank, the Chola bronzes in Egmore, Fort St George, and the red Indo-Saracenic High Court and Central station. They are spread across a large city, though, and you need transport between them.

In Pondicherry the main sight is the town itself. You can walk the ochre villas of the French Quarter and the pillared verandas of the Tamil Quarter in an afternoon. Its landmarks, from the Sacred Heart basilica to the silent samadhi at the Ashram, are modest, and two or three days covers them.

Neither is a place for a late night, but Pondicherry has a little more going on in the evening. Alcohol is taxed less there, so there are rooftop bars in the French Quarter and beach shacks out towards Serenity Beach, and the Promenade fills with walkers once it closes to traffic.

In Chennai, drinking is mostly limited to hotels and a few licensed pubs in Nungambakkam and Alwarpet. Evenings there mean families on the sand, temple festivals and late dinners.

Both sit on a flat, hot coastal plain with no hills to climb, so in either city the outdoors means water and birds. Chennai's strength is its wetlands: blackbuck in Guindy, waders at Pallikaranai, pelicans and flamingos at Vedanthangal and Pulicat in winter, and turtle walks along the shore.

Pondicherry is more about the sea and the forest. It has scuba diving on offshore reefs and wrecks, surfing at Serenity Beach, cycling under Auroville's replanted trees and rowing through the Pichavaram mangroves.

Both can reach Mahabalipuram, about an hour from Chennai and two from Pondicherry. Beyond that, Pondicherry has the wider choice. Chidambaram's Nataraja temple, Gingee Fort on its three granite hills and the pilgrim town of Tiruvannamalai each make a full day out, and Auroville is close enough for half a day.

From Chennai the other great outing is Kanchipuram, a temple city and silk centre, with DakshinaChitra on the coast road. Pondicherry itself is a long day out from Chennai and works better with an overnight stay.

For families the choice comes down to more things to do against an easier pace. Chennai has more for children, including the large zoo at Vandalur, the Birla Planetarium and the amusement parks on the East Coast Road. The heat, the traffic and the long distances wear young children out, though, and a car with a driver becomes essential.

Pondicherry has fewer attractions but is gentler day to day. The French Quarter is quiet and shaded, the Promenade is closed to cars in the evening, the Botanical Garden has a toy train and there is the boat ride to Paradise Beach. It works best for older children who are happy to go slowly.

Pondicherry is the easier place to get around, at least in its centre. The French Quarter is small, flat and quiet, ideal on foot or by hired bicycle. Reaching the beaches and Auroville takes an auto-rickshaw, an app cab or a scooter on rough roads.

Chennai has a clean, air-conditioned metro to the airport and Central station. Walking between sights is rarely practical outside the lanes around Kapaleeshwarar, so most trips mean auto-rickshaws or app cabs through heavy traffic.

Chennai is the place for serious shopping. T. Nagar's multi-storey sari emporia and jewellers draw wedding shoppers from across the south, Kanchipuram silk comes in every weight, and the state emporia sell bronzes and Tanjore paintings.

Pondicherry is smaller and more about design. French Quarter boutiques sell block-printed cotton, linen clothes and sandals, the Ashram workshops make handmade paper and incense, and Auroville adds pottery and natural soaps. It is better for gifts than for a big purchase.

Both are very cheap: tiffin, filter coffee and autos cost little in either. The difference is where the money goes. In Chennai the main costs are the business hotels aimed at corporate travellers and alcohol, which is sold mostly in hotels.

In Pondicherry drinks cost less, but the boutique mansions and cafés of the French Quarter are priced for visitors and get dearer at weekends and in winter. Staying across the canal or near the beaches keeps a trip inexpensive.

This is where the two differ most. Chennai is the capital of Carnatic music and Bharatanatyam. During Margazhi, from December into January, the Music Academy and the sabhas of Mylapore and T. Nagar run concerts from morning to night, and outside the season there are still regular recitals and classical dance at Kalakshetra.

Pondicherry has no regular programme. There are occasional recitals, events at the French cultural centre and community concerts in Auroville, so a music lover staying there would do better to travel up to Chennai for the season.

Pondicherry is a town many people visit simply to slow down. There is meditation in the Ashram courtyard, and Auroville offers yoga, breathwork and holistic therapies, forest guesthouses and yoga courses lasting up to several weeks.

Chennai has a yoga lineage of its own, taught in Mylapore and Adyar, and inexpensive Ayurvedic massage, but the city around them is loud and hot. Its calm places are the grounds of the Theosophical Society and the resorts out on the East Coast Road.