Havana or Miami?

Miami is a beach city in a way Havana is not. The pale sand of Miami Beach starts at the hotels and runs from South Beach up to quieter Surfside, and Key Biscayne has calmer, shallower water. A swim fits easily around everything else in the day.

Havana's own seafront is the rock and sea wall of the Malecón. Its sandy beaches, Santa María del Mar and Guanabo, are half an hour east by taxi or hired car. The water there is just as warm and very clear, but with only basic shade and food stalls it works as a day out rather than a daily routine.

Oddly, Miami is the better place to eat Cuban food. Little Havana's ventanitas and lunch counters serve croquetas, pastelitos, Cuban sandwiches and cafecito. Around them are Venezuelan, Peruvian, Haitian and Nicaraguan kitchens, stone crab and grouper, and a serious upscale tier in Brickell and the Design District.

Havana's cooking is narrower and depends on what the kitchen can get hold of. The best of it is ropa vieja, beans and roast pork in paladares set in old mansions and on rooftops. Havana does hold its own in the glass, with daiquiris, mojitos and aged rum in the bars that made them famous.

Havana has far more to see. Habana Vieja's colonial squares, baroque churches and harbour fortresses carry centuries of history. The Capitolio, the Gran Teatro and the Cuban collection at the Bellas Artes add to them, and the half-restored, half-crumbling streets are part of the sight.

Both cities have art deco, but in Miami it is close to the whole story. The pastel hotels of South Beach and Vizcaya on the bay are the highlights, backed by good museums such as the Perez and the murals of Wynwood. Little is older than a century, and a few days covers it.

Miami is the bigger night out. South Beach has glossy clubs with dress codes and international DJs, downtown venues run until dawn, Brickell has rooftop cocktail bars and Wynwood has warehouse parties. It suits people with money to spend and the stamina to go late.

Havana's nights are about dancing more than clubbing. Old-town bars pour rum late, locals dance seriously in the salsa clubs of Vedado and Miramar, and the Malecón becomes an open-air meeting place. It is looser and less polished, and you need taxis between neighbourhoods.

Miami has wild country on its doorstep. The Everglades are within an hour for airboats, alligators and the Anhinga Trail boardwalks. Biscayne National Park has mangroves to kayak and reefs to snorkel, and the bay is ready-made for paddleboarding and fishing, best done in winter before the summer heat and mosquitoes arrive.

Havana's outdoors is mostly the Malecón and the shaded Almendares park. Real landscape starts an hour west at Las Terrazas, with forest trails and river pools, and Viñales is around three hours away.

Neither city is a great base for excursions, but the outings differ in kind. From Havana they are about history and Cuban life: Hemingway's Finca Vigía, the fishing village of Cojímar and the rumba port of Matanzas. They usually mean a car with a driver or an organised tour, and Viñales and Trinidad are far enough to need a night away.

From Miami you get Gilded Age mansions in Palm Beach, the canals of Fort Lauderdale or seafood shacks in the Upper Keys. All are easy drives in a hire car, but they are pleasant rather than memorable, and Key West is too far for a single day.

Miami is much easier with children. It has calm water at Key Biscayne and North Beach, the large open-air Zoo Miami, and a planetarium and aquarium at the Frost Science Museum. Many hotels are built around pools, and the main effort is long drives and summer heat.

Cubans are openly fond of children, and the aquarium, the fortress cannons and classic-car rides in Havana go down well. Broken pavements, heavy heat and scarce baby supplies make it a better fit for older children curious about music and history.

Both cities leave visitors relying on cars, but in different ways. Havana's old town is compact and best walked, and the Malecón links it on foot to Vedado. Beyond that, travellers take classic-car taxis, shared almendrones or coco-taxis, agreeing the fare first.

Miami has more infrastructure, with the free Metromover and the Metrorail, but neither reaches Miami Beach. Visitors walk South Beach, use ride-hailing for other neighbourhoods and hire a car for the Everglades or the Keys. Watch for uneven pavements in Havana and heavy traffic in Miami.

For shopping there is no contest. Miami has the Design District's fashion flagships, the exclusive open-air mall at Bal Harbour, the vast Aventura Mall and outlet centres on the western edge, with Lincoln Road for mainstream brands.

Havana sells what Cuba makes: cigars, aged rum, coffee and, best of all, work from the artists' studios in Habana Vieja and Vedado. The harbour craft market adds woodwork and guayaberas, but fashion and brands are essentially absent.

Havana is the cheaper trip if you travel its way. Rooms in casas particulares come with breakfast, and shared taxis, live music and museum entry cost little. State hotels and the paladares that price for foreigners can cost as much as Southern Europe, and you should bring cash because cards are unreliable.

Miami is expensive almost everywhere, with resort fees, parking, tax and tips on every bill and very dear club drinks. Free beaches, Cuban lunch counters, the free Metromover and a room on the mainland rather than the beach all soften it.

Havana is the place to hear music. Son, salsa, bolero and rumba play live from midday in old-town bars and courtyards, and the Vedado jazz clubs host the island's best players. The Ballet Nacional de Cuba performs at the Gran Teatro, and there is weekend rumba in the Callejón de Hamel.

Miami's offer is more conventional. The Arsht Center has opera and touring Broadway shows, Miami City Ballet is a company of real standing, and the New World Symphony plays in its Gehry building. Its Little Havana bands echo the Cuban sound, but the season is concentrated in winter.

Miami is better for being looked after. It has resort spas with ocean views on Miami Beach and Key Biscayne, sunrise yoga on the sand and a long-established Russian and Turkish bath house. For real calm, stay in Surfside or on Key Biscayne rather than in loud South Beach.

Havana has few spas and no bathing culture. Rest there means a rocking chair in a colonial courtyard or a shaded balcony in leafy Vedado or Miramar, away from the heat and fumes of the centre.