Galle or Kochi?

This is Galle's great advantage. It sits on a coast of sandy bays, with sheltered Unawatuna minutes away, Jungle Beach under the Rumassala headland and reef pools at Dalawella and Thalpe where you can snorkel among turtles, and Mirissa and Weligama within the hour.

Kochi has the Arabian Sea but no swimming in town, since the Fort Kochi sand is for strolling past the fishing nets. Cherai Beach on Vypeen island is a fine palm-backed stretch, but it is an hour away and works as a side trip. Both coasts turn rough in the southwest monsoon, so the calm winter months matter in either place.

Kochi is the stronger place to eat. Kerala cooking has real depth here, from appam and stew at breakfast to banana-leaf rice meals, pearl spot in its leaf wrap, and the Syrian Christian duck roasts and Malabar biryanis left by the city's old communities. You can also buy fish at the nets and have it cooked nearby, or eat spicy food with palm wine in a toddy shop.

Galle has good Sri Lankan rice and curry, hoppers and kottu, but the range is narrower and a few days covers it. The fort's courtyard cafés lean towards visitors, and the best curries are usually in plain places outside the walls.

Kochi has more to see and more of it is individually significant. St Francis Church, the Paradesi Synagogue with its Chinese tiles, the Hindu murals in Mattancherry Palace and the royal collections at the Hill Palace fill two or three unhurried days. In the years it is held, the Biennale adds contemporary art to the old warehouses.

Galle's appeal is a single, complete townscape: the UNESCO-listed Dutch fort with its ramparts, verandas, gravestone-floored church and lighthouse, best enjoyed on a sunset walk along the bastions. It is a more coherent place to wander but can be seen in a day or two, and neither city has a large museum.

Neither city is for a night out, and both suit a long dinner and an early bed. In Galle that means a drink on a fort veranda or rooftop, with Unawatuna's beach bars and the odd party night in high season for anyone wanting more. Kerala's strict alcohol rules make Kochi quieter still, with drinking mostly in hotel bars and a few licensed lounges in Ernakulam, and evenings built around a sunset walk by the fishing nets.

Galle offers more to do outdoors, and most of it is in the sea: snorkelling and diving over the reefs in the dry season, surf breaks for beginners at Weligama and Hikkaduwa, and blue whales off Mirissa from December to April. Inland, the Kanneliya rainforest and the birdlife of Sinharaja add jungle.

Kochi's landscape is water of a calmer kind. You can kayak or take a country boat through the canals of Kumbalangi and around Vembanad Lake, watch birds at Mangalavanam and Thattekad, or visit the Athirappilly falls. Hill walking around Munnar needs an overnight trip.

The range of outings is much the same, but the character differs. From Galle the trips run along the coast: Ambalangoda for carved masks, old Matara and Dondra Head, the cliff temple at Mulkirigala, or Colombo for a dose of the capital. Many of them are simply more beaches.

Kochi's trips go inland and into history: a houseboat day on the Alappuzha backwaters, the Muziris sites of the port that once traded with Rome, and Thrissur's great temple. Slow, congested roads make the days longer than the distances suggest.

Both cities are easy with children rather than built for them, and both are hot and humid all year. Galle works best as a beach and villa stay, with paddling at Unawatuna in the dry months, turtle hatcheries and whale-watching trips to fill the days.

Kochi has no swimming beach close at hand, so families lean on a pool hotel, ferry crossings, backwater boats and the large amusement and water park on the city's eastern edge. Heavy traffic in Ernakulam is a strain, and food and water need care.

Kochi is easier to move around. Public ferries and the water metro link Fort Kochi with Ernakulam and make the crossing part of the day, a metro line runs through the commercial centre, and app taxis back up the auto-rickshaws.

Galle's fort is flat and walkable, but beyond the walls everything depends on tuk-tuks and private drivers. Walking between beaches along the narrow coast road is impractical, and the train and buses to other towns are cheap but uncomfortable.

Kochi has more worth buying and more variety. In Jew Town, warehouses are stacked with carved doors, temple bells and Dutch-era furniture, and spice merchants sell pepper and cardamom by the sack. Broadway in Ernakulam is a working market street, kasavu handloom is the craft to bring home, and a huge mall covers international brands.

Galle's shopping is a pleasant browse along a few fort lanes: linen and handloom boutiques, tea, beeralu lace and masks from Ambalangoda. Its sapphire and moonstone dealers need care and some knowledge before you buy anything valuable.

Galle is good value as long as you live like a local. Rice and curry, short eats, trains and tuk-tuks cost very little. The catch is that the most appealing base is also the dearest: the fort's restored villas, boutique hotels and visitor cafés charge close to European resort prices, and imported drinks add up quickly. A stay inside the walls can cost far more than the town's cheap streets would suggest.

Kochi is the cheaper of the two and much harder to overspend in. Fort Kochi, the quarter where you want to be, is full of modest family-run lodgings, so you pay no premium just for sleeping among the sights. Kerala's alcohol rules leave little to spend money on in the evenings. The big bills come only from extras you choose on purpose, such as a heritage hotel, a private houseboat or a long Ayurvedic course.

Kochi has a real tradition to see. Small Fort Kochi theatres put on shortened Kathakali every evening, where you can watch the performers apply their green-and-red make-up, often alongside Mohiniyattam dance and Kalaripayattu. In festival season, the temples fill with chenda drumming.

Galle has almost nothing beyond hotel dance and drumming shows and the odd acoustic set. Its mask-dance heritage belongs to Ambalangoda up the coast.

Both cities are equally strong for unwinding, and both are built on Ayurveda. In Galle it comes with a beach setting: yoga retreats around Unawatuna and Thalpe, villa treatment rooms and week-long residential programmes close to the sea, with evening walks on the ramparts.

Kochi treats Ayurveda more as medicine, with doctor-led courses of shirodhara and oil treatments running for weeks, traditionally taken in the monsoon. Ernakulam's noise means many people finish with a few days at a backwater resort.