Jodhpur or Varanasi?

Neither city is anywhere near a coast, so swimming means a hotel pool in both. Jodhpur makes this easier, since many of its heritage hotels have courtyard pools. In Varanasi only a few larger hotels away from the old city have one, and the Ganges is for ritual dips, not swimming.

The two eat about equally well, but they eat differently. Jodhpur's Marwari cooking runs from mirchi vada and saffron lassi to desert thalis with ker sangri. It also has laal maas, a fiery mutton curry from the royal kitchens, and the palace hotels serve formal dinners.

Varanasi is almost entirely vegetarian and lives on the street: kachori and jalebi at breakfast, lassi in clay cups, paan rolled to order, and malaiyo whisked overnight and sold only at dawn in winter. Meat-eaters have more to enjoy in Jodhpur.

Jodhpur's sights are monuments. Mehrangarh rises out of the rock with one of Rajasthan's best museums inside, and around it are the marble Jaswant Thada, the Toorji ka Jhalra stepwell and the Art Deco Umaid Bhawan. It is a rich but compact set that takes about two days.

Varanasi gives more, though in a different way. Its museums are modest, but its riverfront of more than eighty ghats is a living spectacle: pilgrims bathing, cremations at Manikarnika, and lanes leading up to Kashi Vishwanath. Watching that daily ritual is what stays with people, and nothing in Jodhpur matches it.

Neither city has a night out to offer. Jodhpur's evening is a rooftop dinner facing the lit fort, perhaps with a drink in a heritage hotel bar. Around Varanasi's ghats alcohol is scarce and frowned upon, so evenings centre on the aarti and chai in the Assi Ghat cafés, and the city goes to bed early to be up before dawn.

Jodhpur gets you closer to its landscape. The Rao Jodha Desert Rock Park has trails across volcanic rock right under the fort, and ziplines cross the ramparts. Further out there are jeep drives among blackbuck and chinkara in Bishnoi country, and camel rides into the edge of the Thar.

Varanasi's outdoors is mostly the river: a rowing boat at sunrise and walks on the sandbank opposite. The surrounding plain is flat and farmed, and real scenery starts at the Chandraprabha sanctuary, about two hours away.

The two are about level, but Varanasi's best outing is much closer and more significant. Sarnath, where the Buddha gave his first sermon, is about half an hour away, with Chunar Fort and the mosques of Jaunpur within easy reach.

From Jodhpur the main trip is to the carved temples and dunes of Osian, an hour and a half north, along with craft villages such as Salawas. Ranakpur and Kumbhalgarh are better visited on the road to Udaipur.

Jodhpur is the far easier place with children. Older children enjoy the fort's armour and elephant howdahs, the ziplines, camel rides and blackbuck safaris, and a hotel with a pool and garden makes the rest manageable, especially in winter.

Varanasi is hard going with children. The lanes are crowded and dirty, cremations burn in plain view, and there are no calm spaces made for children. Families who go usually keep it short: a dawn boat ride, Sarnath and a comfortable hotel away from the ghats.

Jodhpur's sights sit in one tight knot below the fort, while Varanasi's run in a long line beside the river. In Jodhpur the Clock Tower market, the blue lanes and the stepwell are a short walk apart, with a steep climb or a quick ride up to Mehrangarh. For Umaid Bhawan, Mandore and the countryside you need an auto at an agreed fare or a car and driver.

In Varanasi the ghats are the route: a riverside walk of several kilometres from Assi to Raj Ghat, with rowing boats covering the same stretch from the water. Behind them the old city's lanes are too narrow for cars and easy to get lost in, so anything further means cycle rickshaws, e-rickshaws or autos, some of which you can book through an app. Neither city has a metro, and in both the heat makes walking hard work once the morning is over.

Both are craft-and-market cities with touts to watch for, but Jodhpur offers more variety. It has tie-dyed bandhani and leheriya, mojari slippers, lacquerwork and big warehouses of antique furniture that will ship home.

Varanasi has one prize, Banarasi silk brocade, bought from the weavers' quarters or the silk houses around Godowlia. Beyond that it has mostly devotional goods.

Both are very cheap. Varanasi stretches a budget a little further because its main sights, the ghats and the aarti, are free. In Jodhpur the big temptation is a night in a converted palace. In Varanasi it is a length of silk, and haggling over it is normal.

Varanasi is one of the great homes of Hindustani classical music, with its own traditions of vocal music, tabla and dance. It has recitals in music schools, all-night concerts at the Sankat Mochan festival in spring, the Dhrupad Mela on Tulsi Ghat and the month-long Ramlila at Ramnagar. Even the nightly aarti is staged performance.

Jodhpur's music is Manganiyar and Langa desert folk, played on hotel terraces and in the fort, peaking at the autumn folk festival at Mehrangarh. It is a pleasure, but there is far less of it.

Both cities are tiring outside their quiet corners, so rest has to be planned into the day. Jodhpur's calm comes from shaded palace courtyards, gardens and hotel spas. Varanasi's comes from yoga and meditation teachers around Assi Ghat and dawn from a slow boat, which many find moving, though the city as a whole is emotionally draining.