Essaouira or Stone Town?

For swimming, Stone Town is clearly ahead, thanks to the warm sandbanks and islets a boat ride away and the island's famous beaches beyond. Essaouira's long pale crescent starts right at the medina walls, but it suits walking, riding and watching the kites more than swimming. The Atlantic stays cool, and from spring to late summer the wind blows sand across the bay, so swimming means calm mornings or the sheltered corner by the port.

Stone Town's own shoreline is a working waterfront of dhows and jetties, but Nakupenda sandbank and the islets of Changuu and Bawe have white sand and clear, warm water in every season. Nungwi, Kendwa and Paje are an hour or more by road, which is why most visitors move on to the coast after a few nights in town.

Both towns eat from the sea, and each has a grill where the catch is cooked in front of you: the harbour stalls in Essaouira and the Forodhani Gardens night market in Stone Town. Stone Town's cooking has more depth. Centuries of Omani, Indian and Persian trade shaped its Swahili curries, its pilau and biryani scented with clove, its urojo soup at breakfast and the coffee poured on street corners.

Essaouira's range is narrower: sardines and spider crab at the port, fish tagines, couscous on Fridays, and argan oil and amlou from the hills. In both towns alcohol is mostly limited to hotels and places aimed at visitors.

Both old towns are UNESCO-listed, but Stone Town has more to see and more weight behind it. Its coral-stone maze holds the carved doors of merchant houses, the Omani Old Fort, the sultans' Palace Museum and the Hamamni baths. The Anglican cathedral stands on the site of East Africa's last open slave market, and a visit there stays with people.

Essaouira is lighter and more orderly. Its 18th-century planned grid of white houses with blue shutters, the Skala ramparts with their bronze cannons, the mellah and a small ethnographic museum are full of atmosphere, but most visitors have seen them in a day or two.

Neither is a place for a big night out, though Stone Town has a little more going on. Sundowners on a seafront terrace or rooftop bar followed by dinner at the night market make a proper evening ritual, and a couple of bars play music at weekends. The island's parties happen up the coast at Nungwi and Kendwa.

Essaouira's evenings are quieter still: a drink on a rooftop at sunset, perhaps one of the few licensed bars on the edge of the medina, then a walk on the ramparts. Only the kitesurfers linger late in the beach bars.

Essaouira's outdoors is shaped by its wind, which makes it one of Africa's best-known spots for kitesurfing and windsurfing. There are schools on the bay and wilder waves at Sidi Kaouki and Moulay Bouzerktoun. Horse and camel rides towards the Diabat dunes, goats in the argan trees and Eleonora's falcons on the offshore islands add to it, and the mild climate lets you stay active all day.

Stone Town's nature is mostly about the sea: reef snorkelling and diving, dhow sailing, dolphin trips from Kizimkazi, plus the red colobus monkeys of Jozani Forest. The island is flat with little for walkers, and the heat pushes most outings into the mornings and late afternoons.

Essaouira sits on its own at the end of the road, and the outings from it are small: the surf village of Sidi Kaouki, the thuya workshops at Ghazoua, the argan cooperatives and the sand-swallowed fort near Diabat. Marrakech and Agadir are around three hours away, better as stops on the way in or out than as day trips.

Stone Town has a longer and richer list, all on its own island. A spice farm walk among clove and vanilla, the giant tortoises on Prison Island, the ruined Maruhubi and Mtoni palaces and the Mangapwani slave chambers fill several half days, and the fast ferry to Dar es Salaam takes about two hours.

Essaouira is the easier of the two with children. The medina is small, flat and mostly car-free, the beach is a few minutes' walk away, and the camels on the sand and the boats in the port keep younger children busy. The cool sea and summer wind do limit beach play, and riad stairs and open terraces need watching.

Stone Town has good moments: the tortoises on Changuu, boat trips to the sandbanks and the colobus monkeys. But its lanes are shared with motorbikes, the uneven paving defeats pushchairs, and the midday heat wears small children out. Malaria and food hygiene need care, and most families do better once they move to a beach hotel with a pool.

Essaouira's medina is a flat, regular grid that you learn within an hour, with the port at one end and the beach promenade running on from the walls. Porters with hand carts take luggage from the gates to the riads. For Sidi Kaouki or the argan cooperatives you need a driver, but coaches to Marrakech and Agadir are straightforward.

Stone Town's lanes are a genuine labyrinth, shared with motorbikes and persistent touts, and the seafront is the easiest way to find your bearings again. Beyond the old town the crowded dala-dalas are hard for newcomers to work out, so most trips to beaches, spice farms and Jozani mean taxis, hired drivers or tour transfers.

Both towns shop for crafts in souk lanes and have no fashion or luxury shopping, so the difference is in what you bring home. Essaouira's speciality is fragrant thuya wood, carved and inlaid in workshops under the ramparts. Argan cosmetics, silver and rugs fill the souk, small galleries sell naive and gnawa-inspired painting, and the sellers are unusually relaxed.

Stone Town's best buys are the island's own spices from Darajani market. Around Gizenga Street there are kanga and kikoi cloth, miniature Zanzibar chests and Tingatinga canvases, though much of it repeats from shop to shop and bargaining is expected.

Essaouira is the more affordable of the two, because its main pleasures cost little or nothing. The medina and ramparts are free to wander, and lunch can be fish picked at the port grills. Since the beach and the port are both a short walk away, a full day there need not include anything organised or any transport. Spending only climbs at the smarter riads, the rooftop restaurants and the few places serving alcohol.

Stone Town is just as cheap at street level, with the night market, local cafés and simple guesthouses. Much of what people travel to Zanzibar for is priced for foreigners, though. The sandbank and spice tours, drivers to Jozani and the beaches, and boutique hotels in restored merchant houses add up quickly, so the same number of days usually costs more. You also have to bargain for shop prices and taxi fares, which makes every day more of an effort.

Each town has its own music and one big moment in the year, and neither has theatre, opera or a regular concert programme. Essaouira is the home of gnawa, the trance music of iron castanets and the guembri. The Gnaoua World Music Festival fills its squares and ramparts with free concerts.

Stone Town's sound is taarab, Swahili poetry set to violins, qanun and oud. You can hear it at the long-established music clubs and the waterfront academy, and its peaks come with Sauti za Busara and the film festival. At other times of year, finding live music in either town means asking around.

Essaouira is made for slowing down. It has traffic-free lanes, sea air, long breakfasts on roof terraces and yoga retreats along the coast. Neighbourhood hammams are still in daily use, and riad spas offer argan oil massages. Only the wind spoils outdoor lounging on some days.

Stone Town shares the unhurried pace of pole pole and has its shaded rooftops, but its Persian baths are monuments rather than working hammams, so treatments mean boutique hotel spas. The heat, the motorbikes and the touts make the lanes tiring, and most visitors save their real rest for the resorts on the coast.