Darjeeling or Pokhara?

You can't really swim in either town. Darjeeling has no water to bathe in at all, and its valley rivers are cold and fast. Pokhara at least has Phewa Lake, but people go out on it in painted rowing boats rather than swimming, so a dip at Begnas Lake or a hotel pool is the realistic option.

Darjeeling has the edge for anyone curious about food, mostly because of tea. Tasting first and second flush muscatel in tea rooms around the Mall or on an estate below town is something Pokhara can't match. Hill food fills in the rest: momos, thukpa, thenthuk and sel roti in family kitchens around Chowk Bazaar, and long breakfasts in the colonial bakeries.

Pokhara's Lakeside is set up for hungry trekkers, with long international menus of pizza and apple pie. The better meals are Thakali dal bhat with refills and buffalo sekuwa grilled away from the lake, washed down with coffee grown in Nepal's hills. Neither town has fine dining.

Darjeeling has far more to see. The heritage toy train loops round Batasia to Ghoom and its old Yiga Choeling monastery. Add Observatory Hill with its prayer flags, the Gothic St Andrew's Church and the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute with its Tenzing Norgay links, and you have two or three full days.

Pokhara's sights are pleasant but slight: the island temple of Tal Barahi, the World Peace Pagoda, Bindhyabasini above the old bazaar, and the Mountain and Gurkha museums. Most of the town is modern, and it doesn't hold the layered Raj and Buddhist history that Darjeeling's ridge does.

Of the two, only Pokhara has much of an evening. Lakeside's rooftop and lakefront bars fill with trekkers celebrating a finished circuit, cover bands play rock standards and a couple of small dance bars stay open until about midnight. Darjeeling offers a drink by the fire in an old pub or hotel bar, then cold, empty streets by ten. That suits visitors who are getting up before dawn for Tiger Hill.

Both are superb mountain bases, but Pokhara gives you more to do in the mountains. Machhapuchhre and the Annapurnas rise straight above Phewa Lake, and the Sarangkot ridge gives you sunrise and world-class paragliding. Kayaking and mountain biking fill the other days, and treks to Poon Hill, Mardi Himal and Annapurna Base Camp start an hour or two away.

Darjeeling is about the view and the walking. Kangchenjunga fills the sky from town, and Everest shows from Tiger Hill on a clear dawn. Paths through tea estates and rhododendron forest start at the edge of town, and the Singalila Ridge trek climbs to Sandakphu through red panda country.

Darjeeling has the better range of outings, even though they are all hill towns of a similar kind. Kurseong is an hour down the road or a slow ride on the toy train, Mirik has a lake ringed by tea gardens, and Kalimpong's monasteries and Sunday market make a long but rewarding day.

From Pokhara the one obvious day trip is Bandipur, the car-free Newar hill town about two hours away. Gurung villages such as Ghandruk are really stops on a trek. Gorkha and Tansen work better as overnight stops on the road to Kathmandu or Lumbini.

Neither is an easy place with small children, but the draws differ. Darjeeling has the toy train, the ropeway, pony rides on Chowrasta and a zoo with red pandas and snow leopards. Against that come steep steps, missing pavements and pre-dawn starts.

Pokhara is calmer and flatter along the shore, with rowing boats, caves, a waterfall and tandem paragliding for older children who meet the limits. It has no zoo or play facilities, so it suits outdoorsy teenagers best.

Both have a small, walkable core and hard going beyond it. In Darjeeling that core is the car-free ridge of Chowrasta and the Mall. Around it are steep lanes, long flights of steps and jeep traffic on the Hill Cart Road, and getting there means three hours or more uphill from Siliguri or Bagdogra.

Pokhara's Lakeside is flat, so walking and cycling along the shore are easy. Sarangkot, the caves and the trailheads all need a taxi, a rented scooter or a hired driver.

Darjeeling is the better place to buy something worth taking home. Above all that means tea, which you can taste and compare by estate and flush in the specialist shops on the Mall and Nehru Road. The Tibetan Refugee Self Help Centre also sells carpets and thangkas made on site.

Pokhara's shopping is mostly practical: trekking gear to buy or rent, much of it local copies of big brands. The craft shops sell shawls and singing bowls, and the Tibetan settlements sell carpets and jewellery. Neither town has fashion streets.

Both are inexpensive, but your money goes further in Pokhara. Lakeside guesthouses with mountain views and even comfortable hotels stay modest, and the real spending is on paragliding, guided treks and Annapurna permits.

Darjeeling is just as cheap for momos, tea and shared jeeps. However, its heritage hotels and tea-estate bungalows charge international rates, and private taxis to Tiger Hill add up. Rooms with a view also cost more in the peak seasons and Indian school vacations.

There is little to plan around in either town. Darjeeling's best moments are the masked cham dances at monastery festivals such as Losar, which are real ritual but tied to the calendar. Pokhara's cover bands and Gurung and Magar dinner shows are easy to find on any night, though they are staged for visitors.

Pokhara is the more restful base. The unhurried pace of Lakeside, yoga and meditation retreats on the far shore and countless massage places for trekkers' sore legs make it easy to build a stay around recovery.

Darjeeling can be just as restorative in a tea-estate bungalow, with mountain mornings and quiet corners at Ghoom. The town itself is steep, crowded and loud with jeeps, though, and spa treatments are limited to a few upmarket hotels.