Cusco or Puerto Iguazu?

Neither city has a beach, and the reasons differ. Cusco is high in the Andes, where the lagoons are glacial and the nights cold, so swimming is simply not part of the trip. Puerto Iguazu is hot enough that you will want to cool off, but the rivers are fast and muddy, so the hotel pool is where you swim.

Cusco gives you much more to explore at the table. Highland cooking runs from many kinds of potato and maize to trout, alpaca and cuy, the San Pedro market is good for lunch, and Novoandino tasting menus in San Blas show what chefs do with native ingredients.

Puerto Iguazu eats simply: parrilla beef, empanadas and river fish such as surubí. The evening picada at the Feirinha market is its pleasantest meal, but the food is something to refuel on after the falls, not a reason to visit.

The gap here is wide. Cusco was the Inca capital, and its streets still run between mortarless stone walls, with Qorikancha under a Dominican monastery, two great churches facing each other across the Plaza de Armas, and the zigzag ramparts of Sacsayhuamán on the hill above.

Puerto Iguazu is a modern gateway town with almost no history to see. The Three Frontiers obelisk and an arranged visit to a Mbyá Guaraní community are about all there is, so a culture lover will find little to do here.

Cusco has the livelier evenings, with a cluster of bars and clubs near the Plaza de Armas full of backpackers and trekkers, some open late at weekends, and quieter cocktail bars in San Blas. Altitude and pre-dawn tour departures still keep many visitors' nights short.

Puerto Iguazu offers a few beer gardens, a casino and late Argentine dinners, and most people are asleep early to reach the park when it opens.

Both are outstanding, but Puerto Iguazu has the stronger single attraction. Some 275 cascades fall through subtropical rainforest, and you can reach them easily on catwalks, the forest train and boats that run into the spray. Coatis, monkeys, toucans and clouds of butterflies come with it, and you need no special fitness.

Cusco's nature is a mountain landscape you have to work for: Humantay lake, Rainbow Mountain, the Salkantay and Ausangate treks and the Inca Trail, with rafting and condors on the side. It is grander country but harder going, with early starts and thin air.

Cusco has far more to fill extra days. The Sacred Valley is about an hour away, with Pisac, Ollantaytambo, Chinchero, Moray and the Maras salt pans, while Tipón and the painted church at Andahuaylillas make a quieter outing. Machu Picchu is the big one, though it needs a long day or an overnight stay.

From Puerto Iguazu the choices are short and mixed: the Itaipu Dam and Foz do Iguaçu in Brazil, the duty-free sprawl of Ciudad del Este, and the gem mines at Wanda, with a border crossing adding time to most of them.

Puerto Iguazu is far easier with children. The little train, the walkways over roaring water, soaking boat rides and animals on every path make the falls a natural family day out, and pool hotels fill the hot afternoons. Bold coatis and long humid days on foot are the main things to watch.

Cusco is hard on young children. Altitude sickness is a real risk, the pavements are steep and narrow, and the sights are ruins and churches. Older children who like history do better, and families often base themselves lower down in the Sacred Valley.

Both centres are small enough to walk, but Puerto Iguazu's flat grid is the easier of the two, and regular buses take you to the park entrance in about half an hour. Cusco's walks are short but steep, and the thin air makes the climb to San Blas tiring at first, so cheap taxis are useful. Its longer journeys are also more complicated, with minibuses or tours to the valley and a train to Machu Picchu.

Cusco is the better place to shop if you want something worth bringing home. Alpaca knitwear, ponchos and naturally dyed weaving from cooperatives such as Chinchero's are the highlights, and San Blas workshops sell ceramics and silverwork. Check the labels, as much of the stock near the square is factory made.

Puerto Iguazu offers cheese, salami and yerba mate from the Feirinha, Guaraní carvings and local amethyst, and bargain hunters cross into Paraguay for electronics.

Cusco is clearly the cheaper stay. Meals, taxis and guesthouses cost little, and a combined ticket covers many sites, although the Machu Picchu train and guided treks take a large share of any budget.

In Puerto Iguazu, everyday costs are moderate, but the falls add up: a higher park fee for foreigners, boat trips and a second fee for the Brazilian side. Argentina's shifting exchange rate also makes costs there harder to predict.

Cusco has more to watch, almost all of it Andean. There are folkloric dance shows most evenings and panpipe bands over dinner, and the big festivals stand out: Inti Raymi at Sacsayhuamán and the masked dancers of Corpus Christi and Qoyllur Rit'i.

Puerto Iguazu has little beyond an occasional dinner show or some chamamé accordion music, with no theatre or regular live venue.

Neither is a place to come for rest in its own right, but they offer different kinds of quiet. In Cusco it is cheap massage, hotel spas with oxygen-enriched rooms and riverside yoga lodges down in the Sacred Valley, set against tiring altitude and cold nights. Puerto Iguazu's version is a forest lodge with a pool, a massage room and birdsong, with a warm, slow pace once the day at the falls is over.