Kandy or Kochi?

Neither is a beach destination, but only Kochi has the sea within reach. Kandy is three hours from any coast, its lake is ornamental and its rivers are unsafe, so swimming means a hotel pool looking over the hills.

Kochi's waterfront at Fort Kochi is for evening walks past the fishing nets rather than swimming. Cherai, on Vypeen island about an hour north, is a long, palm-backed beach with warm water and a lagoon behind it. Plan it for November to March, because monsoon surf makes the sea unsafe in the middle of the year.

Kochi is the place to eat well. Kerala cooking is built on coconut, curry leaf and pepper, and it is at its best with seafood, such as pearl spot fried in a banana-leaf wrap. Add the Syrian Christian and Muslim kitchens and you get a range Kandy can't match, from the catch cooked by the fishing nets to the meals halls of Ernakulam.

Kandy's strength is honest rice and curry, plus hoppers and kottu from plain eating houses near the clock tower, with tea tastings in the hills. It is good everyday food, but there are few ambitious restaurants, so many visitors end up eating at their hotel.

Both have a strong historic core, but of different kinds. Kandy centres on one great working shrine, the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, inside a royal city on the UNESCO list. The drumming, the pilgrims in white and the setting by the lake make it an experience of living faith rather than a round of museums.

Kochi spreads its history across Fort Kochi and Mattancherry: St Francis Church, the tiled Paradesi Synagogue, the murals of the Mattancherry Palace and the merchant houses of the spice trade. It is a many-faith port to explore slowly over two or three days, while Kandy is a deeper set of sights covered in a day.

Both are early-night places, but Kochi gives you slightly more. Hotel bars and a few licensed lounges in Ernakulam offer somewhere for a drink, and in Fort Kochi the evening stretches to a sunset walk and a long dinner.

Kandy is quieter still. It is a sacred town where the streets by the lake empty after dinner, and a drink on a hotel terrace above the hills is about as far as it goes. Save any real night out for Colombo or the coast.

Kandy has the stronger outdoors, with green hills all round the town. Udawatta Kele forest is a walk from the temple, Peradeniya's botanic gardens are a short ride away, and the Knuckles Range offers serious cloud-forest hiking past villages and waterfalls.

Kochi's landscape is flat and full of water. Kayaks and country boats wind through the Kumbalangi canals, herons gather in the Mangalavanam mangroves and birdwatchers head to Thattekad. Mountain trekking around Munnar is four hours away, and the heat and the long monsoon cut more outdoor plans short than in the hills.

From Kandy, the famous sights are within reach. The painted caves of Dambulla, the rock fortress at Sigiriya and a circuit of medieval temples at Embekke and Lankatilaka make it the natural gateway to the Cultural Triangle. Tea factories and the elephants at Pinnawala are gentler outings.

From Kochi, the best day out is the backwaters from Alappuzha. The ancient Muziris port sites and the temple town of Thrissur are quieter alternatives. They are rewarding but far less celebrated. Roads are slow around both cities, so expect a hired driver and an early start.

Neither city is built for children, though both welcome them warmly. The difference is in the outings. Kandy has the lawns, monkeys and fruit bats of Peradeniya, elephant visits and the scenic train into the tea country, but its centre is cramped and the temple asks for quiet.

In Kochi, the outings are on the water: ferry crossings, backwater boats and the fishing nets being hauled in, plus a large amusement and water park on the city's edge. The constant heat is harder on small children, so in either place a hotel with a pool does much of the work.

Kochi is the easier city to get around. Fort Kochi is flat and compact enough to walk or cycle. Ferries and the water metro turn the harbour crossing to Ernakulam into part of the day, and a metro line runs through the commercial centre.

Kandy's centre is small too, but walking is hard work. Traffic squeezes through a narrow valley, pavements are broken and many hotels sit up steep climbs, so tuk-tuks fill the gap. Its great asset is the railway, including the famous line through the tea country to Ella.

Kochi gives shoppers more to browse. The old Jew Town warehouses in Mattancherry are full of antique dealers, and spice merchants still sell pepper and cardamom by the sack. Kerala handloom such as kasavu cloth is worth buying, and a large mall covers international brands.

Kandy sticks to local products: tea from the hill estates, spices, batik, lacquerware and carved masks. The fixed-price government craft shop is the safest place to buy. Be wary of gem showrooms that drivers steer you towards, since they earn a commission.

Both are cheap for most visitors. Family-run guesthouses or homestays, local meals and rickshaw rides cost very little in either city, so the difference is in what pushes the budget up.

In Kandy, the main costs are the much higher entry fees for foreigners at the temple, the gardens and the ancient sites to the north, plus a car and driver for day trips. In Kochi, most sights are free or nearly so, and the big costs are ones you can choose to skip: heritage hotels, private houseboats and residential Ayurveda.

Each city stages one classical form every evening for visitors, and Kochi's makes the fuller night out. At the Kathakali theatres in Fort Kochi you can watch the performers apply their green-and-red make-up before the show. The same stages often add Mohiniyattam dance and Kalaripayattu martial art, and temple drumming fills the festival season.

Kandy's evenings of Kandyan dance, with drummers and fire walkers, are a shorter programme. The town does have one great annual spectacle, the Esala Perahera in July or August, when elephants, dancers and torch bearers parade through the streets.

Kochi is the stronger choice for rest and treatment. Kerala is the home of Ayurveda, and here it ranges from small clinics to doctor-led courses lasting one to three weeks, with shirodhara widely offered. Fort Kochi's shaded lanes and evenings by the water are calming in themselves.

Kandy has Ayurveda too, in town and at hillside retreats that add yoga and views over the tea estates. The town itself is noisy, though, so calm is found out on the hills. For real stillness, both cities send you out of the centre: into the hills from Kandy, and to the backwater resorts from Kochi.