Jaipur or Varanasi?

Neither city offers swimming beyond a hotel pool, and both lie far inland. In Jaipur, pools are common in heritage and mid-range hotels. In Varanasi, only a few of the larger hotels away from the old city have one, and the ritual dips in the polluted, fast-flowing Ganges are not for visitors.

Jaipur has more range. Rajasthani cooking brings dishes you will not find on a Varanasi street, such as fiery laal maas from the old royal kitchens, dal baati churma and desert ker sangri. You can eat well at long-established canteens around Johari Bazaar or at a thali feast in a palace courtyard.

Varanasi's eating is narrower but memorable. There is kachori and potato sabzi in the morning lanes, winter malaiyo sold only at dawn, and paan rolled to order around Godowlia. Both cities lean vegetarian, but alcohol is harder still to find near the ghats.

Both are among India's great sightseeing cities, but they offer different things. Jaipur is a city of buildings: the planned Pink City of 1727, the City Palace, Hawa Mahal and the giant instruments of Jantar Mantar, and above it the Amber Fort with its mirrored halls. Three days of monuments are well spent there.

In Varanasi the sight is human activity rather than architecture. Pilgrims and priests fill the ghats along the Ganges, cremation fires burn at Manikarnika, and the lanes lead to Kashi Vishwanath. Museums are weak and some sanctums are closed to non-Hindus, but the daily ritual is unlike anything in Rajasthan.

Neither is a place for a big night out, but Jaipur at least offers a drink. After a rooftop dinner facing the lit forts, there are hotel bars, a few old-city rooftop lounges and some clubs in C-Scheme that fill up at weekends.

Varanasi is a holy city where alcohol is frowned upon around the ghats. Evenings end with the aarti and chai and music in the Assi Ghat cafés, and everyone goes to bed early because the city rises before dawn.

Jaipur has much more to offer outdoors. The rocky Aravalli hills ring the city, Nahargarh gives wide views from above, and jeep safaris in Jhalana, on the city's edge, regularly find leopards. Balloon flights and birdlife at Sambhar salt lake add variety in the cool months.

In Varanasi, being outdoors mostly means the river: a rowing boat at sunrise or a walk on the sandbank opposite the ghats. Beyond lies flat farmland, and the nearest hills and waterfalls at Chandraprabha are about two hours away.

Jaipur has more and more varied outings close at hand. The Chand Baori stepwell at Abhaneri, the painted palace at Samode, the ruins of Bhangarh and the block-printing villages of Sanganer and Bagru all make easy outings. Pushkar and Agra are possible too, as long days.

Varanasi has one outstanding trip in Sarnath, half an hour away, where the Buddha preached his first sermon. Chunar Fort and Jaunpur's mosques make good additions, but after those the choice thins out quickly.

Jaipur is workable with children if you plan around two things: go between November and February, when the days are mild, and hire a car with driver for the day. That keeps young ones out of the traffic and off the broken pavements of the old city, and makes Amber and the sights on the city edge easy to reach. People are warm towards children, though the persistent sellers in the bazaars tire everyone out.

Varanasi asks far more of a family. Open drains and street food mean hygiene needs care all day. There are no parks, zoos or museums for children to break up the sightseeing, and in summer the heat is extreme. Families who do come usually stay only briefly, with a dawn boat ride, a trip out to Sarnath and a comfortable hotel well away from the ghats.

Both are slow and tiring to get around, in different ways. Jaipur's sights are spread out, with Amber about 11km north, so most visitors hire a car and driver or use rickshaws, and the short metro line is little help. In Varanasi the river is the main route: you can walk the linked ghats for several kilometres or travel by boat, but the old city behind them is a maze of lanes, and beyond it there is no metro and only heavy traffic.

Jaipur is one of the main shopping cities in India. Its bazaars each have a speciality, from gems and silver along Johari Bazaar to bangles and textiles. Block prints, blue pottery, rugs and miniatures are made locally, and C-Scheme boutiques give the same crafts a modern look. Be careful with gem sellers.

Varanasi is worth it for one thing above all: Banarasi brocade silk, ideally bought straight from the weavers' workshops. Apart from brass ritual ware and wooden toys, the lanes mostly sell devotional goods and souvenirs.

Both are very cheap, with street food, rickshaws and simple guesthouses costing very little. Varanasi stretches a budget a little further because its main sights, the ghats and the aarti, are free. In Jaipur, foreigners pay higher entry at the monuments, and many visitors spend on a car and driver to reach Amber and the forts.

Varanasi has the far stronger music tradition. It is one of the homes of Hindustani classical music, with its own schools of vocal, tabla and dance, and you can hear it at small recitals or at festivals such as the all-night Sankat Mochan concerts and the Dhrupad Mela on Tulsi Ghat. The nightly Ganga aarti and the month-long Ramlila at Ramnagar are performances in their own right.

Jaipur has its own Kathak tradition, but visitors mostly see folk music, Kalbeliya dance and puppetry as dinner shows. Jawahar Kala Kendra is the place for more serious programmes.

In Jaipur you find calm in your hotel. Heritage havelis and palace hotels have shaded courtyards, gardens and pools, and many offer Ayurvedic massage and yoga on site, a refuge after mornings in the hot, loud old city.

Varanasi's calm is out in the city and more spiritual: yoga classes and meditation teachers around Assi Ghat, and a slow boat or a quiet ghat at first light. Spas are few, though, and the intensity of the place means many visitors leave moved rather than rested.