Havana or Santo Domingo?

Neither city swims from its centre, since both seafronts are rock and sea wall, so in each case the beach is a trip east. Havana has the edge: the Playas del Este, half an hour out, are a long string of white-sand strands like Santa María del Mar and Guanabo, with clear water.

Santo Domingo's Boca Chica is closer in feel to a big shallow pool, a reef-sheltered lagoon that is calm for wading but crowded at weekends, with quieter Juan Dolio a little further on. Its best white sand is much further along the coast.

Santo Domingo eats better. Its cheap lunchtime comedores, street carts selling yaniqueques and chimi burgers, and the Piantini and Naco kitchens reworking Creole dishes give more range and more ways to eat on the go.

In Havana the good meals are found in paladares in old mansions and on rooftops, while state restaurants are dull and menus depend on supplies. Its strength is the drink: daiquiris, mojitos and aged rum in the old bars.

Havana offers more to look at. Habana Vieja is a whole grid of colonial squares and baroque churches, the Morro and La Cabaña guard the harbour, and Centro and Vedado add streets of art deco and mid-century buildings, with the Bellas Artes holding a fine Cuban collection.

Santo Domingo's Ciudad Colonial matters more as history than as a spectacle. Its first cathedral, first paved street and the Alcázar de Colón tell of Spain's earliest foothold in the Americas, but the core is compact and fully seen in two or three days.

Both cities go out to dance, but Santo Domingo gives a visitor more choice. The Colonial Zone has bars in old houses with crowds filling the plazas, Piantini and Naco have polished lounges and proper clubs, and the colmadón with its loud speakers and plastic chairs is the classic local night out.

Havana's nights centre on salsa clubs in Vedado and Miramar, old town bars and the Malecón as an open-air meeting place, with few real clubs. In both cities you will need taxis between districts.

Both are flat, hot coastal capitals where serious hiking means leaving town. Santo Domingo has more green space inside the city, with the limestone cave lagoons of Los Tres Ojos, the botanical garden and the long wooded Parque Mirador Sur.

Havana has less inside the city beyond the Malecón and the Almendares park, but the forest trails and river pools of Las Terrazas are only about an hour away, closer than Los Haitises or Jarabacoa are to Santo Domingo.

Santo Domingo has slightly more to fill a day out, mostly along the coast to the east: the hilltop village of Altos de Chavón, boats from Bayahibe to Saona island, and the sugar town of San Pedro de Macorís on the way.

From Havana the easy trips are short ones, such as Hemingway's Finca Vigía, Cojímar and Matanzas, plus Varadero's beaches. Viñales and Trinidad, the highlights of Cuba, are too far for a day and need a night away.

Children are warmly welcomed in both. Santo Domingo is a little easier, with a zoo as well as an aquarium, the caves of Los Tres Ojos and the shallow lagoon at Boca Chica, one of the gentlest places for small swimmers.

Havana's treats are the Miramar aquarium, rides in classic cars or horse carriages, and the cannons at the fortresses. Baby supplies and medicines can be hard to find there, so it suits older children better than toddlers.

For a visitor, Santo Domingo is slightly easier to get around. App-based taxis take you between the Colonial Zone, Piantini and the Malecón without any haggling, and the clean metro helps on the odd trip, even if its lines were built for commuters rather than sightseers. The catch is heavy traffic, and the guaguas are hard to work out.

Havana gives you more to cover on foot, since a walk along the Malecón joins Habana Vieja to Centro and Vedado. Further afield, though, every classic car, almendrón or coco-taxi ride means agreeing a fare before you set off, the buses are hard for a visitor to use, and uneven, badly lit streets call for care after dark.

Santo Domingo is the better place to shop. Amber and blue larimar, a stone found only on this island, give it its own souvenirs, and Calle El Conde and the Mercado Modelo sell them. Large malls in Piantini and Naco cover fashion and international brands.

Havana has almost no fashion retail, and its shelves can be sparse. The best buys there are cigars, rum and the work of the artists' studios in Habana Vieja and Vedado.

Santo Domingo is the cheaper and simpler city to budget for. Comedor lunches, colmado beer, street food and app taxis all cost little, and only the boutique hotels and Piantini restaurants push prices up.

Havana can be good value too if you stay in casas particulares with breakfast included and stick to shared taxis. State hotels and the better paladares charge foreigners much more, though, and since cards are unreliable you have to carry cash.

This is where Havana pulls well clear. Son, salsa, bolero and rumba play from midday onwards in the plainest bars, jazz clubs in Vedado host top players, and the Gran Teatro is home to the Ballet Nacional de Cuba, a classical company with a world reputation.

Santo Domingo has its own music in merengue and bachata, and the Sunday evening concert in the San Francisco ruins is a lovely ritual. The Teatro Nacional's season is modest by comparison, and visitors tend to remember the dancing more than any stage.

Neither city has a spa or bathing tradition, and both are hot and noisy. In Havana, rest comes from slowing the pace in a rocking chair in a colonial courtyard or a quiet guesthouse in Vedado or Miramar.

In Santo Domingo, the international hotels along the Malecón have more complete spas, and the usual answer for real rest is to leave for a beach resort along the coast.