Ella or Pokhara?

Neither town is for swimming. Ella sits high in the hills, and the nearest sand is at Arugam Bay or on the south coast, each about three hours away by road. The only water close by is the pools below the waterfalls, and those call for real caution.

Pokhara has Phewa Lake on its doorstep, but people go out on it in painted rowing boats rather than swim in it. Begnas Lake is the better place for a dip, and a hotel pool is the dependable choice.

Both towns eat simply, and neither has fine dining. What differs is the cooking. In Ella, the best meals come from homestay kitchens: rice with a spread of vegetable curries, string hoppers at breakfast and kottu at night. Family-run cooking classes use spices from their own gardens, and tea from the surrounding slopes is the drink.

Pokhara's Lakeside menus are longer and built for hungry trekkers. The Nepali dishes are the ones to seek out: Thakali dal bhat with refills, momos, and buffalo sekuwa grilled away from the lake. Its bakeries and Nepali-grown coffee make the better slow breakfast.

Pokhara has more to see, though two days covers it. There is the island temple of Tal Barahi, the Peace Pagoda on the ridge, and the old bazaar with surviving Newar shopfronts. The International Mountain Museum and the Gurkha Museum are both worth an afternoon.

Ella has no museums or old quarter. Its sights are the colonial-era Nine Arches Bridge, the Ravana cave with its Ramayana legend, and the tea factories that explain how the hills have worked for generations.

Pokhara gives you more of an evening out. Trekkers fresh off the Annapurna circuit fill the rooftop and lakefront bars, cover bands play rock standards, and a couple of small dance bars keep going until about midnight. Ella has a handful of backpacker bars and rooftop cafés with fire pits. They can be sociable for a few hours, but the village empties early because so many people are up before dawn for sunrise on the peaks.

Both are outdoor destinations first, but Pokhara works on a larger scale. Machhapuchhre and the Annapurna range rise above 7,000m straight over the lake. Paragliders launch from Sarangkot, and multi-day treks to Poon Hill, Mardi Himal or Annapurna Base Camp begin a short drive away.

Ella's strength is half-day walking through tea estates: Little Adam's Peak, the steeper Ella Rock and the railway path to the bridge. It also has something Pokhara lacks, a safari to Yala for leopards and elephants, along with the cloud forest at Horton Plains and the cliff at World's End.

Ella has more within easy reach. The tea towns of Haputale and Bandarawela are on the same railway, and Nuwara Eliya's colonial bungalows and lake make a full day by road or slow train. Closer in are the painted cave at Dowa and the thousand-year-old rock carvings at Buduruwagala.

From Pokhara, the slow mountain roads limit your options. Bandipur, a car-free Newar hill town about two hours away, is the clear pick. Gorkha and Tansen are better as overnight stops on the way to somewhere else.

Both suit families with children old enough to walk, and neither has zoos or play parks. In Ella, the good days are the train ride through the hills, watching trains cross the Nine Arches Bridge and ziplining. Narrow roads with fast tuk-tuks and distant medical care need some thought.

Pokhara's lakeshore has lighter traffic and rowing boats to hire. Teenagers can add the caves, the mountain museum and tandem paragliding if they meet the age and weight limits.

Both towns are easy on foot at their centre. The difference is how far that gets you. In Ella, the main walks, the bridge and Little Adam's Peak all start from the one road, and tuk-tuks cover the rest. Take a torch after dark on the unlit lanes.

Pokhara's flat Lakeside strip is good for walking or cycling. Sarangkot, the caves, the old bazaar and the trailheads all need a taxi, a scooter or a hired driver, because local buses are hard to use.

Pokhara has far more to browse. Lakeside is lined with shops selling and renting down jackets and boots for a trek, along with pashminas, singing bowls and thangka paintings. Carpets and jewellery come from the Tibetan settlements, where you can visit the workshops. Ella's few shops sell tea, spices, batik and carved masks, and the best thing to take home is tea bought at an estate factory.

Both are inexpensive, but Pokhara goes further. Even its Western-style Lakeside restaurants charge little, and the main extra costs are paragliding, guided treks and Annapurna permits. Ella's homestays and train fares cost very little and its walks are free, but the cafés and hillside boutique hotels aimed at foreign visitors close some of the gap.

Neither is a place for live performance, but Pokhara offers a little more. It has cover bands in the bars, the odd Nepali folk group, and dinner shows of Gurung and Magar dances. In Ella, an acoustic set in a café or Kandyan drumming at a hotel is about all you will find, and keen visitors save traditional dance for Kandy.

Pokhara is a little more restful, mostly because of its slow lakeside pace and its yoga and meditation retreats. These run from drop-in classes to residential courses on the quieter far shore, and massage places for sore trekking legs are everywhere.

Ella's offer leans on Ayurveda, with oil massage, herbal steam and shirodhara, plus fuller programmes at the hillside resorts. Its cooler air helps you unwind, but the main road gets busy, so stay on the slopes above the village for quiet.