Darjeeling or Kandy?

Neither works for swimming. Darjeeling is about 2,000m up in the Himalaya, and its valley rivers are cold and fast. Kandy is about three hours inland from the Sri Lankan coast.

The practical difference is that Kandy's hillside hotels often have pools, which suits its warm climate, and the south or east coast is easy to add to the trip. A beach after Darjeeling means a much longer journey.

The two eat at a similar level, and in both cases tea matters more than restaurants. Darjeeling gives you momos, thukpa and thenthuk from the Himalayan kitchens around Chowk Bazaar, and you can taste first and second flush muscatel tea in colonial tea rooms with long breakfasts and cakes.

Kandy's cooking is Sri Lankan rice and curry served with many small dishes, plus hoppers in the morning, kottu off the griddle at night and short eats with sweet milk tea. The food is spicier and warmer, but serious restaurants are rare in either town.

Kandy has more weight here. The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic is the holiest Buddhist shrine in Sri Lanka, and pilgrims, drummers and offerings fill it every day inside a royal city protected as a World Heritage Site. The palace buildings, the lake and the Garrison Cemetery are close by.

Darjeeling's heritage is more spread out: the steam railway to Ghoom and its old monastery, the colonial buildings along the ridge and the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute's museum of Everest history. Each is enjoyable, but none moves you as the temple at Kandy does.

Both towns are quiet by about ten. Darjeeling has a drink by the fire in an old pub, and Kandy a drink on a hotel terrace overlooking the hills, and that is about all. Darjeeling's visitors go to bed early for the dawn trip to Tiger Hill, while in Kandy the evening is spent at a dance show rather than a bar.

Darjeeling is ahead on scale. Kangchenjunga stands over the town, the snow peaks at sunrise reach as far as Everest, and the Singalila Ridge climbs through red panda forest to views of four of the world's five highest mountains.

Kandy's green is lower and gentler, at about 500m. You can walk into Udawatta Kele forest straight from the temple, the Peradeniya gardens have giant bamboo and fruit bats, and the Knuckles Range offers good cloud-forest hiking without the high-mountain backdrop.

Kandy has the better outings. It is the gateway to the Cultural Triangle, with the painted caves of Dambulla, Sigiriya's rock fortress and a half-day circuit of the medieval temples at Embekke and Lankatilaka. Spice gardens, tea factories and the Pinnawala elephants add variety.

Day trips from Darjeeling go mostly to similar hill towns. Kurseong, lakeside Mirik and Kalimpong's monasteries are pleasant, but on winding roads they repeat much of what you have already seen.

The two are broadly level, and neither is easy with toddlers. Darjeeling has more aimed at children: the toy train, a zoo with red pandas and snow leopards, the ropeway and pony rides on Chowrasta. Against that come the steep steps, pre-dawn cold starts and a long drive that can make children carsick.

In Kandy the gardens at Peradeniya, the elephant visits and the hill-country train are the highlights. Families are made welcome, the heat and congested streets make a hotel with a pool the most useful base, and the temple expects children to be quiet.

Both are hard work on foot and equally reliant on hired wheels. Darjeeling has the more pleasant core, a car-free ridge around Chowrasta and the Mall, but everything else means steep steps and shared jeeps. Getting there takes three hours or more by road from the plains.

Kandy's compact centre is choked with traffic and fumes, so tuk-tuks and a car with driver do most of the work. Its advantage is the railway, which links it to Colombo and runs the famous line through the tea country to Ella.

Darjeeling is somewhat better for shopping, mainly because of its tea. Specialist shops on the Mall and Nehru Road let you compare estates and flushes before you buy, and the Tibetan Refugee Self Help Centre sells carpets and thangkas made on site.

Kandy also has tea, along with spices, batik, lacquerware and masks, and the government craft shop sells at fixed prices. The gem showrooms reached through drivers on commission call for caution, which takes some of the pleasure out of browsing.

Both are cheap, and the costs fall in much the same places. Guesthouses, local meals and shared transport cost little, while heritage hotels and hillside resorts charge far more.

The difference is in the extras. In Darjeeling, private taxis for Tiger Hill and peak-season rooms with a mountain view add the most. In Kandy, the separate entrance fees for foreign visitors at the temple and the ancient sites, plus a driver for day trips, are what raise the total.

Kandy has a real performance tradition and Darjeeling has very little. Kandyan dance, with its drummers, fire walkers and silver headdresses, is staged every evening near the lake, and the Esala Perahera brings elephants and torchlit processions through the streets in July or August.

In Darjeeling you would need to time your visit for masked cham dances at a monastery festival or catch an occasional evening of Nepali and Lepcha music.

Kandy offers more ways to unwind. Ayurveda gives it a real treatment culture, from oil massages and herbal steam baths to week-long programmes, often combined with yoga on the hillside retreats.

Darjeeling's calm comes from the setting: a tea-estate bungalow, cool mornings and a quiet corner at Ghoom monastery. In both towns the centre is noisy, so stay out on the hills.