Kochi or Pondicherry?

Neither city is a beach town, and both have a seafront you walk along rather than swim from. Kochi's answer is a single good beach: Cherai on Vypeen island, about an hour north, a long palm-backed stretch with a lagoon behind it. It is calm enough to swim from November to March but dangerous through the monsoon.

Pondicherry has more sand close at hand. Serenity Beach and the Auroville shore are a short scooter ride away, and you reach Paradise Beach by boat through the backwaters. The Bay of Bengal surf is strong all year, though, so a beach day there mostly means paddling and watching the sunset.

Kochi is the better place to eat. Kerala cooking, with coconut, curry leaf and pepper, has its own character, from appam at breakfast to pearl spot grilled in banana leaf. Syrian Christian and Malabar Muslim kitchens add beef fry, duck roast and biryani, and at the fishing nets you can have the day's catch cooked for you.

Pondicherry's appeal is the mix: Tamil banana-leaf meals and filter coffee, French bakeries, and Creole dishes from old Franco-Tamil families. A few days covers it. It is much easier to order wine or beer here, while in Kochi drinking mostly means hotel bars or a toddy shop.

Kochi has more to see. In Fort Kochi and Mattancherry you can see St Francis Church, where Vasco da Gama was first buried, the Paradesi Synagogue with its Chinese tiles, and the murals of the Mattancherry Palace. The royal collections at the Hill Palace and the Biennale years add to that.

Pondicherry's main sight is the town itself: the ochre villas of the French Quarter set against the pillared verandas of the Tamil Quarter across the canal. Its landmarks, including the Sacred Heart basilica, the Ashram samadhi and the temple elephant at Manakula Vinayagar, are pleasant to visit but modest.

Both towns go quiet early and neither has clubs, but Pondicherry has more life after dark. Cheaper alcohol supports rooftop lounges in the French Quarter and beach shacks towards Serenity Beach, and weekend visitors from Chennai and Bangalore add a crowd. In Kochi a drink means a hotel bar or one of a few licensed lounges in Ernakulam, and most evenings end after dinner by the water.

Water shapes the landscape around Kochi. You can paddle through village canals and past paddy fields, watch herons in the Mangalavanam mangroves, look for birds in the forests at Thattekad and visit the Athirappilly falls, with the tea hills of Munnar further off.

Pondicherry sits on a flat coastal plain with no hills, so the outdoors there is gentler: winter flamingos on Ousteri Lake, rowing in the Pichavaram mangroves and cycling through Auroville's replanted forest. What it has that Kochi lacks is the sea as a playground, with surf schools and diving on offshore reefs and wrecks.

Pondicherry is much the better base for day trips. Within about two hours you can reach the Pallava carvings and Shore Temple at Mahabalipuram, the Nataraja temple at Chidambaram with its daily ritual, the hilltop walls of Gingee Fort and the pilgrimage town of Tiruvannamalai.

Kochi's outings are gentler: a houseboat or ferry day from Alappuzha, the Roman-era port remains of Muziris, and the temple town of Thrissur. They have character, but they are not on the same scale. From either city, expect slow roads and a hired driver.

Both are calm, low-key places for children, with heat as the main problem in each. Kochi has more boats to offer, with ferry crossings, the fishing nets being hauled in and backwater rides, plus an amusement and water park on its eastern edge. Pondicherry has its seafront, which closes to traffic in the evening, the toy train in the Botanical Garden and the boat to Paradise Beach. It suits older children who are happy with a slow pace.

The two are much alike overall but work in different ways. Kochi is split by its harbour, so ferries and the water metro become part of your day, and a metro line runs through Ernakulam. You still need rickshaws for most things, and the airport is a long drive away.

Pondicherry has no rail transit at all, but its sights are mostly in one small, flat French Quarter that is easy on foot or by bicycle. Many visitors hire a scooter for the beaches and Auroville.

Both are good for gifts rather than fashion, and what you bring home differs. Kochi has antiques in the Jew Town warehouses, sacks of pepper and cardamom from the spice traders, and kasavu handloom, plus a large mall for international brands. Pondicherry is the place for block-printed cotton, linen and sandals in its Indo-French boutiques, and for handmade paper and incense from the Ashram workshops and pottery from Auroville.

Both are very cheap, with Kochi a little cheaper still. In Kochi, homestays, banana-leaf meals and ferry rides cost little, and you only spend much on extras such as a heritage hotel, a private houseboat or a residential Ayurveda course. Alcohol is expensive there, which keeps evenings cheap simply because you drink less.

In Pondicherry, drinks cost less, but staying in the French Quarter costs more, especially at weekends and in winter. Staying in the Tamil Quarter or near the beaches keeps it inexpensive.

Kochi offers one sure thing: Kathakali every evening in small Fort Kochi theatres. You can arrive early to watch the make-up being applied, and the same stages often show Mohiniyattam and Kalaripayattu. It is not a broad arts scene, but you can count on it.

In Pondicherry you have to look for performances. Bharatanatyam recitals, Carnatic concerts, events at the French cultural centre and evenings in Auroville's halls happen now and then, so it is worth asking locally.

Kochi is the place for treatment. Ayurveda is practised there as medicine, with doctor-led programmes of shirodhara and oil massage that can run for one to three weeks, and the monsoon is traditionally thought the best time for them. Noisy Ernakulam is a drawback, and many visitors move on to a backwater resort to finish.

Pondicherry is better for practice than for treatment. You can meditate in the Ashram courtyard, take yoga and breathwork courses at Auroville and stay in forest guesthouses, and its quiet French Quarter streets help you slow down.