Guanajuato or Puebla?

Neither city has a beach. Guanajuato is a long day's drive from either coast, and Puebla is several hours from the Gulf around Veracruz. In both, swimming means a hotel pool or a balneario: warm-water pools in Guanajuato's countryside, spring-fed ones on Puebla's outskirts. Anyone who wants the coast as well will need to add a separate leg to the trip.

Guanajuato eats cheaply and simply. Look for enchiladas mineras, the food counters upstairs in Mercado Hidalgo and gorditas around the plazas. Still, the range narrows after a few days, and the terraces on the main square trade more on the view than on the cooking.

Puebla is worth the trip for its food alone. Mole poblano began in its convent kitchens, chiles en nogada fill menus in late summer, and everyday cemitas, chalupas and tacos árabes mean you can eat for a week without repeating yourself. The Calle de los Dulces adds a whole street of traditional sweets.

Both are UNESCO-listed colonial towns that deserve two or three days, but they feel very different. In Guanajuato the setting is the draw: a coloured ravine of stairways and plazas, with the Alhóndiga de Granaditas, the Valenciana church and the macabre Museum of the Mummies as its highlights.

Puebla is a flat grid where the treasures are mostly indoors. The gilded Capilla del Rosario, the Biblioteca Palafoxiana and the Museo Amparo's collections give it the deeper line-up of interiors and museums, and the forts of Loreto and Guadalupe add the story of 5 May 1862.

Both cities go out on student energy from Thursday to Saturday, and neither is worth the trip for nightlife alone. In Guanajuato it all happens in the centre, on the terraces around the Jardín de la Unión and in small bars down the alleys, so you can walk home. Puebla's centre is quieter, with mezcal bars, cantinas and rooftop terraces looking at the cathedral, and for clubs you take a taxi to Cholula or Angelópolis.

Guanajuato's outdoors are on a small scale. You can climb to the Pípila for the rooftop view, spend half a day on the rocks of La Bufa or head out to the oak forest of the Sierra de Santa Rosa. The hills are dry and rocky, and they suit walkers who like a view.

Puebla has the grander landscape. Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl, with snow on their peaks, fill the skyline on clear mornings. La Malinche is a full day's volcano climb above 4,400m, and the Izta-Popo park has high-altitude trails. Each outing does need a car, a tour or an early bus.

Guanajuato's outings make a circuit of colonial towns. San Miguel de Allende, with its cobbled streets, galleries and pink-spired parish church, is the trip not to miss. Dolores Hidalgo with its Talavera workshops, the aqueduct at Querétaro, the half-abandoned mining town of Mineral de Pozos and a small wine country fill several more days.

From Puebla the trips go further back in time and deeper into folk art. Cholula's Great Pyramid, the largest by volume in the world, is barely half an hour away. The village churches of Tonantzintla and Acatepec are covered in folk-Baroque plasterwork and tile, and Tlaxcala pairs well with the painted murals at Cacaxtla. Mexico City is a long but workable day out.

Guanajuato works for older children who enjoy the funicular, the tunnels under the town and the singing callejoneadas. Its long stairways are hard going with a pushchair, though, and there is no zoo or park of note. Puebla has a real outing for children in Africam Safari, plus the Angelópolis wheel and the tunnels inside Cholula's pyramid, and its flat centre makes it the better choice with younger ones.

Guanajuato is the easier city once you have arrived. Nearly everything is a short walk from the Jardín de la Unión, the traffic is kept underground in tunnels, and buses, cheap taxis and a funicular cover the rest. The cost is steep lanes and stairways at altitude.

Puebla's centre is a flat grid and simple to walk, but beyond it there is no metro and the local buses are hard for visitors to work out. Reaching Angelópolis, Cholula or Africam means a taxi or a ride-hailing app, and day trips mean a coach, a tour or a hire car.

Guanajuato's shopping is modest: ceramics, silver jewellery, cajeta and Cervantes keepsakes, much of it in Mercado Hidalgo, with León the place to go for leather and shoes in quantity.

Puebla gives you more to bring home. Talavera is its signature, and you can watch it being painted at the old workshops. El Parián sells onyx and textiles, antiques stalls fill the Callejón de los Sapos at weekends, and the Angelópolis malls cover fashion and brands.

In Guanajuato, when you go makes a real difference to the bill. During the Cervantino in October rooms become scarce and expensive, so festival visitors need to book early. All year round, the boutique hotels in restored mansions and the restaurants on the main plazas charge noticeably more than the rest of town.

Puebla's prices are steadier. Comfortable hotels in colonial houses near the zócalo cost much less than similar rooms in Mexico City, and some museums are free on certain days. Apart from those exceptions, street food, market lunches and taxis cost little in either city.

Guanajuato is the better city for performance, above all in October, when the Cervantino brings theatre, dance and orchestras from many countries to the Teatro Juárez, the plazas and the university courtyards. Outside the festival, the estudiantinas still lead singing callejoneadas most evenings.

Puebla has the historic Teatro Principal, the university's cultural complex, and concerts and folk dance around the 5 de Mayo anniversary. Day to day, though, live music mostly means trios and mariachis in the restaurants and on the squares.

Neither city is a place to retreat to, and in both wellness mostly means a hotel spa. From Guanajuato you can spend a half day at thermal balnearios such as Comanjilla near León, but weekend crowds and late street music break the calm in town. Puebla has temazcal sweat lodges around the city and Cholula and the sulphur pools at Agua Azul, with quiet courtyards in the old town but heavy traffic beyond it.