Dar es Salaam or Nairobi?

Dar es Salaam has warm sea all year, but the swimming is away from the city itself. Coco Beach is for strolling, and the good sand is on the island reserve of Bongoyo and Mbudya or along the quieter Kigamboni and Kunduchi shores. The tide goes out a long way, so swims need to be timed around it.

Nairobi sits on a high plateau with no coast nearby, and swimming there means a hotel or club pool. Anyone who wants sand on a Kenyan trip has to fly to the coast for a few extra days.

The two cities eat in similar ways. Both gather around nyama choma and cold beer, and both owe a lot to long-settled Indian communities. The difference is coast against highland. Dar has a sea and spice flavour, with octopus and coconut curries, the morning catch fried at the Kivukoni fish market, and dusk street snacks such as mishkaki and chipsi mayai.

Nairobi's everyday food is plainer: ugali, sukuma wiki and githeri from roadside kiosks. It adds Ethiopian restaurants and a large café scene in Westlands, Kilimani and Karen, serving coffee grown just outside the city.

Neither city is a place for grand sights, and a day or two covers either one. Dar es Salaam's appeal is the working port: German-era churches and colonial offices by the harbour, the Village Museum's traditional houses, and the commercial crush of Kariakoo. The coast's deeper history lies outside the city, in Bagamoyo and on Zanzibar.

Nairobi was founded as a railway depot in 1899 and has no old quarter, so its interest is in a few strong institutions. The National Museum's early human fossils and the Karen Blixen farmhouse lead the list, and contemporary African art galleries add to it.

Nairobi has the bigger night out. Westlands has a cluster of rooftop bars and clubs playing Afrobeats, amapiano and gengetone until dawn from Thursday onwards, and the crowd is mostly local. Kilimani has calmer cocktail bars for slower evenings.

Dar es Salaam comes alive mainly at weekends, and its scene is split. Expatriates go to the beach lounges of Masaki and Oyster Bay, while bongo flava plays in the beer gardens and clubs of Sinza and Mwenge. Midweek is quiet. In both cities you travel between venues by car, not on foot.

In nature, Nairobi is in another league. Its national park, with lions, rhinos and giraffes, starts at the southern edge of the city. Karura Forest and the Ngong Hills offer walks without leaving town, and within two hours you can cycle among zebras in Hell's Gate or take a boat past hippos on Lake Naivasha. The mild highland climate makes all of this comfortable.

Dar es Salaam's outdoors is on the water: snorkelling and diving on the reefs of the marine reserve, dhow trips through the mangroves and kitesurfing on the trade winds. On land it has little beyond the Pugu Hills, and a safari means a separate trip.

Dar es Salaam has the stronger outings, because both of them are historic Swahili places. A fast ferry reaches Stone Town on Zanzibar, with its coral-stone lanes and old slave market, in about two hours. Bagamoyo, at the end of the old caravan route, has its fort, its mission buildings and the medieval Kaole ruins nearby.

Nairobi's closer outings are gentler: lunch among the Limuru tea estates or the stone hand axes at Olorgesailie. Kenya's own Swahili heritage at Mombasa and Lamu is too far away for a day trip.

Nairobi is much easier to plan around children. They can feed Rothschild's giraffes in Langata, watch orphaned elephants play in the mud at the Sheldrick orphanage, and see a real safari after a short drive. Staying in Karen or Langata keeps all of this close.

In Dar es Salaam families are usually passing through. Island boat trips, resort pools and a water park are the highlights, while the heat, malaria precautions and care with food and water add to the effort. Both cities lack pavements and have heavy traffic, and in both places people are warm towards children.

Both cities are sprawling and choked with traffic, and in both visitors end up relying on ride-hailing. Dar es Salaam is a little easier. Its rapid buses run in their own lanes along the main roads, and the old harbour centre is pleasant to walk, though Masaki, the beaches and the museums are far apart.

Nairobi's matatu routes are hard for an outsider to work out, its roads are among Africa's most congested, and its sights sit in Karen and Langata, a long way from the nightlife in Westlands. The airport expressway does save time on arrival.

The two differ mainly in the kind of market they offer. Dar es Salaam has Kariakoo, East Africa's great trading market, a dense grid of wholesalers that is better to watch than to shop in. For things to take home, the Mwenge carvers make Makonde ebony pieces, Tingatinga paintings are the city's own art style, and kanga cloth is quick to have tailored.

Nairobi's Maasai Market is a craft market that moves between sites through the week, with beadwork, kiondo baskets and soapstone to bargain over. In Karen you can watch glass and ceramic beads being made, and Westlands and Gigiri have larger malls with international chains. Fashion and luxury shopping are thin in both cities.

In both cities local life is cheap and the visitor's version is not, but Dar es Salaam is a little kinder to the budget. Street food, bajaji rides and simple guesthouses cost very little there, and the costs rise only with resort stays, Masaki restaurants and island boats.

Nairobi adds wildlife to the bill. Non-residents pay much higher park and attraction fees, and a game drive also means hiring a vehicle and driver. Most visitors also choose secure international hotels, which lifts the baseline.

Nairobi has more for a visitor to see. Troupes at Bomas of Kenya perform traditional dances from across the country, the Kenya National Theatre stages plays in English and Swahili, and jazz nights, benga bands and spoken word fill the weekends.

Dar es Salaam has the richer musical roots, as the birthplace of bongo flava and a home of taarab. Its programme is irregular, though, and anyone who wants traditional performance does better at the Bagamoyo arts college or at Zanzibar's festivals.

Neither city is restful, and wellness in both means hotel spas rather than any local tradition. The difference is where you go to slow down. In Dar es Salaam it is a resort on the Kigamboni coast, where the day follows the tides and the shade, though the city's humid heat follows you.

Nairobi's calm is green and cool instead: the garden hotels and old cottages of Karen and Langata, with birdsong, lawns and fresh highland mornings over a long breakfast.