La Paz or Salta?

Neither city has a beach, and neither is worth choosing for swimming. Around La Paz the big water is Lake Titicaca, which is far too cold to swim in and best seen from a boat.

Salta's nearest equivalent is the Cabra Corral reservoir, about an hour away. It is warmer and gets some summer swimmers, but it is used mostly for boating. In both cities the realistic way to swim is a hotel pool.

The two cities share a highland cuisine, and both are proud of a juicy baked pastry: the salteña in La Paz and the empanada salteña in Salta. Salta eats a little better overall. Its humitas, tamales and locro are generous regional cooking, and Torrontés from the nearby valleys goes with them well.

La Paz is most interesting in its markets, with endless kinds of potato and fruit from the Yungas, and a few kitchens in Sopocachi cook ambitious food from Andean ingredients. Day-to-day food runs heavy and fried, though, and many visitors lose their appetite at this altitude for the first day or two.

The two are roughly level, but the experience is quite different. Salta is the better-preserved colonial city: the pink Cathedral, the arcaded Cabildo and the red-and-gold San Francisco church make the area around Plaza 9 de Julio easy to enjoy. Its Museum of High Mountain Archaeology, with the Inca children from Llullaillaco, is one of a kind.

La Paz has less colonial polish and much more going on in the streets. The carved façade of San Francisco and the small museums on Calle Jaén are worth seeing, but the real draw is daily life: the Witches' Market, the cholitas, and El Alto's cholet mansions seen from the cable cars.

Neither city is for serious clubbing, but Salta has a little more life after dark. Its Argentine timetable means dinner around ten, and at weekends Calle Balcarce fills with students and local groups until late.

In La Paz evenings end earlier. The cold, the altitude and the advice to take taxis after dark all keep nights short. Sopocachi's small cocktail and craft beer bars are the best of it, along with the traveller bars near Sagárnaga.

La Paz has the stronger landscapes, and they start right at the city's edge. Illimani rises above the southern suburbs, and the glaciers of the Cordillera Real and Huayna Potosí are within a day or two. The ride down the old Yungas road drops from snow to cloud forest in a single day. The price is altitude, since everything starts above 3,500m.

Salta's scenery is gentler and more spread out. Its highlights are the red rock of the Quebrada de las Conchas, the cactus slopes of Los Cardones and the cloud forest at San Lorenzo, but the best of it means long days on the road rather than a short trip from town.

Salta is the better base for touring. San Lorenzo and Jujuy are within two hours, and it is the starting point for Cafayate's wineries, the Quebrada de Humahuaca, Cachi and the Tren a las Nubes. Many of these are long days that start at dawn, though.

From La Paz there is one essential day trip, the pre-Inca ruins of Tiwanaku. After that, Copacabana, Isla del Sol, Coroico and Sorata are all far enough away to need an overnight stay.

Families will find Salta much easier. Its plazas fill with local families in the evening, children are welcome at late dinners, and the cable car up Cerro San Bernardo makes a simple outing. The long drives and high country are the parts to keep short.

La Paz is hard with young children. Arriving at about 4,000m carries real risk, and the streets are steep and the traffic heavy. The cable cars and the zoo at Mallasa are about all that is aimed at children, so it works mainly for hardy teenagers.

The two cities are about equally easy to get around, in very different ways. La Paz has Mi Teleférico, a network of cable cars over the rooftops that is a sight in itself. Away from the cable cars you are left with cheap taxis, shared minibuses, traffic jams and steep, breathless walks.

Salta's centre is a flat grid that is easy to cover on foot. The trouble starts when you leave town, because the valleys and gorges are poorly served by public transport, so most visitors join tours or hire a car for slow mountain roads.

For crafts, La Paz has more choice. The lanes around Sagárnaga and Linares are full of alpaca knitwear, weaving, silver and instruments, and El Alto's 16 de Julio fair stretches across dozens of streets. Quality varies a lot, so it pays to look closely.

Salta's offer is smaller and more focused. The red-and-black poncho salteño and leatherwork are the local specialities, and they are sold at the artisan market in an old colonial house. Bottles of Torrontés make easy souvenirs. Neither city is a place for fashion shopping.

La Paz is clearly cheaper. Meals, taxis, cable-car rides and comfortable hotels in Sopocachi cost very little. The main spending is on guided climbs or the Death Road ride, and that is no place to cut corners on the operator.

Salta is reasonable for daily life, but exploring the northwest is what costs money there. Tours, car hire and the high-altitude train take up a large share of most budgets.

Salta has the better live music, because it is one of the homes of Argentine folk. In its peñas, zambas and chacareras go on late, couples dance between the tables and musicians often join in. The mid-June Güemes vigil, with gaucho riders and singing under the stars, adds to it.

La Paz has its own folkloric peñas with panpipes, charangos and diablada dancers, and it puts on a huge street spectacle once a year at the Gran Poder festival. Otherwise its stages are fairly quiet.

Salta is the more restful city. It still stops for a long siesta, evenings are slow and spent in plaza cafés, and you can stay quietly at San Lorenzo or on a rural estancia, though its hot springs at Rosario de la Frontera are a long drive away.

La Paz works against relaxation. It is noisy, the air is full of fumes, and sleep is poor for the first few nights at altitude. Coca tea and an early bed are the usual cure, and the nearest thermal pools are at Urmiri, about two hours out.