Cusco or Puno?

Neither city is a place to swim, and a beach vacation means flying down to the Pacific coast. The difference is that Cusco has no water to speak of, only glacial lagoons in the hills. Puno at least lies on Lake Titicaca, where a few island coves allow a brief, bracing dip on a sunny afternoon in water of around 10 to 14°C.

Cusco eats noticeably better. San Pedro market, with its juice stalls and set-lunch counters, is a good start, and the picanterías serve slow-cooked highland dishes with chicha. Around San Blas and the main square, Novoandino kitchens turn native potatoes, quinoa and alpaca into tasting menus, and there are more serious tables out in the Sacred Valley.

Puno's cooking is plainer altiplano fare built on lake trout, quinoa stews and chairo soup, with good early breakfasts at the Mercado Central. Most of the restaurants on Jirón Lima serve the same trout, pizza and set menus, and there is no top tier to aim for.

There is no real contest here. In Cusco the Inca capital is still standing under the Spanish one: mortarless walls along whole streets, the sun temple of Qorikancha beneath Santo Domingo, the cathedral and La Compañía facing each other across the Plaza de Armas, and the zigzag ramparts of Sacsayhuamán above town. You could spend several days on it.

Puno's own sights fill an afternoon. They are the carved baroque front of the cathedral, the view from Kuntur Wasi, a coca museum and the Victorian steamship Yavari. Its culture lies out on the lake, and to see it you take a boat.

Cusco has a real if narrow night out. The bars and clubs off the Plaza de Armas fill with backpackers and trekkers and stay open late at weekends, and San Blas has calmer cocktail and craft beer spots. Puno has a few pubs around Jirón Lima and freezing streets, so most evenings end after dinner. In both towns the altitude and dawn departures keep the drinking moderate, but Puno quietens down much sooner.

Cusco is the gateway to bigger mountain country. The terraced Sacred Valley lies below the snow peaks of the Cordillera Urubamba, and from Cusco you can hike to Humantay lake and the Rainbow Mountain, take the Inca Trail or Salkantay treks, and go rafting on the Apurímac. This is a place for people who want to push themselves on foot.

Puno's landscape is wide and open, not steep. Lake Titicaca runs to the Bolivian peaks, its reed beds hold the flightless Titicaca grebe, and the outdoor activities are kayaking off Capachica and short, breathless island climbs. It is a place for looking and birdwatching more than for long treks.

Cusco has the richer list of excursions. Pisac, Ollantaytambo, Chinchero, and the terraces of Moray with the salt pans of Maras are all about an hour away, and Tipón and Andahuaylillas make quieter days to the south-east. Machu Picchu is the great prize, though the road, train and bus make it a very long day.

Puno's outings mostly happen on the water: the floating Uros islands close to port, Taquile's weaving community further out and Amantaní with an overnight homestay. On land there are Sillustani's burial towers and the colonial churches of Juli and Lampa. It has fewer big names, but they feel quite different from Cusco's string of Inca sites.

Neither city is easy with small children. The altitude is the main worry in both, and almost nothing is designed for young visitors. Cusco offers an escape, since families can drop down to the lower Sacred Valley and meet llamas and alpacas there. Puno is higher and colder, and many guesthouses are poorly heated, so families tend to keep the stay short. Older children usually enjoy its boat to the reed islands and the reed watchtower.

Both centres are small enough to walk, and neither has a metro or tram. Cusco is the easier of the two in practice. Its steep cobbled climbs to San Blas are hard work at first, but taxis are plentiful for the uphill trip home, and tours, drivers and minibuses connect smoothly with the Sacred Valley and the Machu Picchu trains.

Puno's centre is compact, with the port an easy walk downhill. Getting further means crowded colectivos and tricycle taxis in heavy, chaotic traffic, and boats from the port for the islands.

Both towns sell alpaca and woven textiles, and neither has fashion or design shops. Cusco offers more beyond the knitwear: San Blas workshops make ceramics, carved saints and silver, and the weaving cooperatives of Chinchero use natural dyes. Puno comes down to one long craft market by the port where quality varies, but buying on Taquile straight from the island's knitters is the most rewarding purchase of either trip.

Puno is the cheaper stay. Guesthouses, market counters, tricycle taxis and shared island boats cost next to nothing, and only the lakeside hotels and traveller restaurants charge more. Cusco is also inexpensive from day to day, but the Machu Picchu train and tickets, guided treks and the colonial mansion hotels around the square push a typical trip's cost well above Puno's.

Puno has the edge, almost entirely because of February. During the Virgen de la Candelaria festival, tens of thousands of masked, sequined dancers parade through the city for days to brass bands, and it is one of the largest festivals in South America.

Cusco's big moments are Inti Raymi at Sacsayhuamán around the June solstice, Corpus Christi and the Qoyllur Rit'i pilgrimage. For the rest of the year both towns offer much the same: folkloric shows and panpipe bands over dinner, with little formal theatre or classical music.

Cusco offers more ways to recover. Cheap massages are sold all around the main square, hotel spas pump oxygen into rooms to ease the altitude, and riverside lodges in the Sacred Valley offer yoga and quiet gardens, with hot springs further out at Aguas Calientes and Lares.

Puno has little beyond a massage in one of the better lakeside hotels. Its calm comes from the islands at dusk, while the town centre is noisy with traffic.