Havana or Punta Cana?

Havana has no sand in its centre. Its seafront is the rocky Malecón, so a swim means a taxi half an hour east to the Playas del Este. Strands such as Santa María del Mar and Guanabo are white and clear but basic, and crowded with local families at weekends.

Punta Cana is built around the beach. Pale sand runs almost unbroken from Juanillo to Macao, mostly calm behind the reef, with sunbeds a few steps from your room. Bávaro suits a sociable day, Juanillo a quiet one and Macao the surf, though some summers bring sargassum onto the shore.

Neither is a destination for serious eaters, but Havana gives you more to seek out. Its paladares, in old mansions, on Vedado rooftops and in family apartments, serve ropa vieja, roast pork and lobster, sometimes with real invention. The daiquiris, mojitos and aged rum in the old bars are worth the trip on their own.

In Punta Cana most meals are resort buffets and themed restaurants: plentiful but forgettable. The honest Dominican cooking, sancocho, la bandera and mangú, is in roadside comedores used by local workers, and you have to go looking for it.

This is where the two cities differ most. Havana's UNESCO-listed Habana Vieja is a grid of colonial squares, baroque churches and arcaded mansions. The Morro and La Cabaña fortresses stand across the harbour, the Capitolio marks the edge of the old town, and Centro and Vedado are full of art deco. Add the Cuban collection at the Bellas Artes and the Museo de la Revolución, and you have a week of sightseeing.

Punta Cana is a resort coast built from the 1970s onwards, with no old town and no museums of note. If you want heritage, you have to leave for the day.

Havana's nights are about dancing alongside locals: salsa clubs in Vedado and Miramar, old town bars pouring rum until late, and the Malecón filling with people on warm evenings. It is rough around the edges, but nights go on long.

Punta Cana's evenings mostly end at the resort disco around midnight. Bávaro adds big party-show clubs, a club inside a limestone cave and colmados playing bachata and reggaeton. That suits a group after one or two loud nights more than anyone looking for a local bar scene.

Both are flat coasts with no hills to walk from the door. Havana's outdoor life is mostly the Malecón, with waves breaking over the wall, and the shade of the Almendares river park. For forest trails and river pools you go an hour west to Las Terrazas, and Viñales is three hours away.

Punta Cana offers much more without a long drive, nearly all of it on the water. You can snorkel and dive the offshore reef, take a boat across Parque Nacional del Este to Saona's starfish pool or kitesurf at Cabeza de Toro. On land there are the lagoon trails of Indigenous Eyes and the Hoyo Azul sinkhole.

From both places, the best of each country lies further away than a comfortable day out allows. Around Havana the easy outings are Hemingway's Finca Vigía, Cojímar and Matanzas with its rumba tradition. Viñales and Trinidad really need overnight stays.

From Punta Cana the nearby options are the basilica at Higüey, the stone village of Altos de Chavón and Bayahibe for the Saona boats. Its one great excursion, Santo Domingo's Zona Colonial, is a long day on the road, but it supplies the colonial history the coast itself lacks.

Children are warmly welcomed in Havana, and the aquarium in Miramar, the classic-car rides and the fortress cannons are real treats. But broken pavements, heavy summer heat and scarce baby supplies make it better for older children with an interest in music and history.

Punta Cana is far easier with little ones. Family resorts have kids' clubs, splash parks and food all day, and the beaches at Bávaro and Juanillo shelve gently into calm water. Catamaran trips and zip lines fill the days out. Choose a family resort rather than a party one, and pack for strong sun and mosquitoes.

Havana at least has a centre you can walk. Habana Vieja is compact, and the Malecón takes you on foot to Centro and Vedado in under an hour. Beyond that you rely on classic-car taxis, shared almendrones and coco-taxis, agreeing the fare first, and you need to watch your step on uneven, dim streets at night.

Punta Cana has no centre at all. The resorts sit behind gates and long driveways on roads with few pavements, so the beach is where you walk. Everything else means a transfer, a hotel taxi or a tour pickup, with guaguas on the main road for the adventurous.

Neither is a place to shop for clothes, so the difference lies in what each sells of its own. In Havana that means cigars, aged rum, coffee and, best of all, paintings and prints from artists' studios in Habana Vieja and Vedado, with the harbourside craft market for woodwork and guayaberas.

Punta Cana's specialities are larimar, the pale blue stone found only on this island, along with amber, cacao and faceless dolls from beach stalls where you haggle. Its open-air malls in Bávaro and Cap Cana stock sportswear and resort fashion, which Havana lacks.

Havana usually costs less once you arrive, provided you sleep in a casa particular with breakfast included, ride shared taxis and spend your evenings on live music and simple food. State hotels and the smarter paladares charge far more, and card payments are unreliable, so carry cash.

Punta Cana's all-inclusive packages can be fair value when booked with flights, but the extras add up quickly: fixed tourist taxi fares, boat trips and resort-area restaurants. Eating in comedores, riding guaguas and staying in the apartment hotels of Los Corales keep the costs down.

Havana is one of the great music cities of the Americas. Son, salsa and rumba play live in bars and on street corners from midday, and Vedado's jazz clubs host the island's best players. The Ballet Nacional de Cuba dances at the Gran Teatro, and the Callejón de Hamel and the Tropicana offer a looser night.

Punta Cana has no theatre and no concert hall. What it offers is resort shows, glossy acrobatic spectacles in Bávaro and merengue and bachata bands at beach bars, which are enjoyable but light.

Havana is a much harder place to unwind than Punta Cana. It has only a few hotel spas, and the heat, noise and traffic fumes work against rest. Calm comes from a shaded balcony in a Vedado guesthouse or a day on the sand.

Punta Cana makes relaxing simple. The larger resorts have hydrotherapy circuits, steam rooms and massages using cacao or coconut, and nothing pulls you away. If quiet is what you want, choose an adults-only resort.