Cusco or La Paz?

Neither city has any swimming to offer, and a beach means a separate leg on the Pacific coast either way. The difference is the water you can look at. Around Cusco there are only glacial lagoons in the hills, while La Paz has Lake Titicaca two hours away, which is cold but good for boat trips and views.

Cusco has a little more range at the top end. Novoandino tasting menus around the Plaza de Armas and in San Blas, along with a few serious tables in the Sacred Valley, make native ingredients the focus of a special meal. The San Pedro market and the local picanterías cover the hearty everyday side. Avoid the tourist menus nearest the square.

La Paz eats more on the street and to a daily rhythm: salteñas mid-morning, anticuchos on the corners after dark, set lunches at the long tables of Mercado Rodríguez and Mercado Lanza. Its ambitious kitchens are fewer, mostly in Sopocachi, but Tarija wine and singani give it something to drink that Cusco lacks.

Here Cusco is far ahead. It is a whole Inca city with a Spanish one built on top: Hatun Rumiyoc's mortarless walls, the Santo Domingo monastery rising from Qorikancha, a cathedral full of Cusco School paintings, and the zigzag ramparts of Sacsayhuamán above town.

La Paz has a smaller colonial core, with the mestizo baroque front of San Francisco, Calle Jaén and a good ethnography museum. Its real pull is the living city: ritual offerings in the Witches' Market, the cholet mansions of El Alto and the view from the cable cars with Illimani behind.

Neither is a big night out, and in both the altitude and early tour departures cut evenings short. What differs is who you drink with. Cusco's bars and clubs are packed into the streets off the Plaza de Armas and are run largely for backpackers, with hostel pub crawls and late weekend hours.

La Paz is more local. Students and young professionals fill the small bars and late cafés of Sopocachi, and the bigger clubs are out in the southern zone, so you will need taxis between areas after dark.

Both are superb mountain bases, but for different things. Cusco is trekking country: the Inca Trail, Salkantay and Ausangate for several days on foot, Humantay lake and Rainbow Mountain for a hard day, and rafting on the Urubamba and Apurímac.

La Paz leans to climbing and adrenaline. Huayna Potosí is a six-thousand-metre summit within reach of a novice with a guide, and the Death Road ride drops from snow to cloud forest in a day. The canyon setting under Illimani means the scenery starts on the city streets.

Cusco has far more within a day's reach. The Sacred Valley, about an hour away, packs in Pisac's citadel, the lived-in Inca grid of Ollantaytambo, Chinchero's weavers, and Moray with the Maras salt pans. Tipón and Andahuaylillas make a quieter day to the south-east. Machu Picchu is possible in one long day, though many stay overnight.

From La Paz the one essential outing is Tiwanaku, the great pre-Inca site across the Altiplano. Lake Titicaca, Isla del Sol, Coroico and Sorata are all worth going to, but they work better as overnight trips than as day trips.

Both are tough with small children, mainly because of altitude sickness, steep streets and narrow pavements. Cusco has the easier way out: families can base themselves in the lower Sacred Valley, where there are llamas and alpacas to win children over. La Paz has fiercer traffic and an airport at about 4,000m, but its cable cars and the zoo at Mallasa give younger travellers a couple of real treats.

Getting around is a similar effort in both, with steep climbs and cheap taxis, but the systems differ. Cusco's centre is compact enough to walk end to end, and trips out depend on minibuses, tours, drivers and the Machu Picchu train. La Paz spreads across a canyon, and its Mi Teleférico cable cars are the easy way to cover it, gliding over the daily traffic jams that the minibuses get stuck in.

Cusco is the better place to buy something fine. The cooperatives in Chinchero sell textiles coloured with natural dyes, and the San Blas workshops make ceramics, carved saints and silver, though much of the stock around the main square is the same factory knitwear.

La Paz is more of a rummage. You get the stalls of Sagárnaga and Linares, musical instruments and Witches' Market charms, and the vast 16 de Julio fair in El Alto selling everything from car parts to antiques. Quality varies widely, so look closely.

La Paz is clearly the cheaper trip. Hotels in the centre or Sopocachi, market meals, cable cars and Tiwanaku all cost little, and the main expenses are optional ones, such as a guided climb or the Death Road ride.

Cusco is also cheap from day to day, but it has costs that are hard to avoid. The Machu Picchu train and entry, guided Inca Trail permits, and the boutique hotels in colonial mansions take a big share of any budget.

Both rely mainly on Andean folk music and dance, and both have the most to offer at festival time. Cusco's shows and dinner bands are mostly staged for visitors, but Inti Raymi at Sacsayhuamán and the masked dancers of Qoyllur Rit'i are remarkable. La Paz has peñas that also draw a local crowd, a modest programme at the Teatro Municipal and from the National Symphony Orchestra, and the huge Gran Poder parade of dancers and brass bands.

Cusco is the easier place to recover, mainly because you can get away from the altitude. The Sacred Valley lies well below the city, so spending the first nights there helps both sleep and acclimatisation. The hot springs at Aguas Calientes fit naturally into a Machu Picchu trip, and Lares is further out for a soak on its own. The city itself is less restful, with cold nights and pre-dawn tour departures setting the pace.

La Paz has no such escape close at hand. It sits higher, sleep is often broken for the first few nights, and its nearest thermal pools, the Urmiri hot springs, are about two hours away by road. The calmest places to stay are the lower southern suburbs, a little below the city centre and away from the steep streets of the old town.