La Paz or Sucre?

Swimming is off the menu in both. Bolivia is landlocked, and each city offers only a hotel or municipal pool. La Paz at least has Lake Titicaca about two hours away for boat trips and views, though the water is far too cold to swim in, so anyone who wants sand needs a separate leg on the Pacific coast.

La Paz has the wider table. The salteña breakfast, purple-corn api and corner anticucho grills are backed by the huge Rodríguez and Lanza markets, with their many potatoes and Yungas fruit, and a small group of restaurants in Sopocachi and the southern zone cook ambitious food with llama, quinoa and Amazonian fish.

Sucre eats on a smaller, more regional scale: spicy chorizo chuquisaqueño, mondongo and set lunches above the Mercado Central's juice counters. Its distinctive extra is chocolate, from the old makers around the main square. Beyond that the choice is thin, though at Sucre's lower altitude you are more likely to have an appetite from day one.

Sucre has the finer historic centre. Its whitewashed UNESCO-listed grid around Plaza 25 de Mayo is one of the best-preserved colonial towns in South America, and the Casa de la Libertad, the Recoleta and the Jalq'a and Tarabuco weavings at the Museo de Arte Indígena make a rich, compact set that fills two or three unhurried days.

La Paz has a much smaller colonial core in a chaotic city, but the carved mestizo baroque front of San Francisco, Calle Jaén and the ethnography museum are well worth seeing. Its real strength is living culture: the Witches' Market, cholitas in bowler hats, the cholet mansions of El Alto and the cable-car view over the whole bowl.

Neither is a party city, but La Paz has more choice. Sopocachi's small bars, craft beer and late cafés, the traveller bars near Sagárnaga and weekend clubs in the southern zone add up to several kinds of night. Cold air and altitude still send most visitors to bed early.

Sucre's night out is a student one: a few streets of bars and a couple of clubs near the plaza that fill on Fridays and Saturdays and go quiet midweek. More often the evening ends with a singani after dinner.

This is where La Paz pulls well ahead. The city fills a canyon under snowcapped Illimani, with the Cordillera Real's glaciers, Huayna Potosí, Chacaltaya and the Valle de la Luna all close by, and the Death Road ride drops from snowline to cloud forest in a day. The catch is that everything starts above 3,500m.

Sucre's country is drier and gentler: red and ochre hills, the striped bowl of the Maragua crater and Jalq'a villages in the Cordillera de los Frailes, best seen on guided treks of one to three days, with nights in community lodges on the longer routes. It is rewarding walking, but there are no high peaks or glaciers.

La Paz has the stronger single outing in Tiwanaku, a major pre-Inca site with the Gateway of the Sun, about an hour and a half across the Altiplano, plus El Alto's huge market on the doorstep. Titicaca, Isla del Sol and Coroico are better done with an overnight stay.

Sucre's best day out is Tarabuco's Sunday market, with Yampara textiles and dress, followed by short trips to the odd Castillo de La Glorieta and Yotala. Potosí, about three hours away, is better treated as the next stop.

Sucre is far easier with children. At about 2,800m rather than 4,000m on arrival, the altitude is much gentler. The centre is calm and compact, and Parque Cretácico, with life-size dinosaurs in front of a wall of real footprints, is a proper highlight. Basic medical care and uneven pavements still make it best for older children.

La Paz is hard going with young children: altitude sickness is a real risk, and the steep streets and fierce traffic leave little room for them. The cable cars and the Mallasa zoo are the main treats, and teenagers who cope with the height will enjoy the landscapes.

Sucre is the simpler city to get around. Nearly everything lies within a few blocks of the main square on a legible colonial grid, and taxis are cheap for the rest. Only the climb to the Recoleta tests the legs.

La Paz is sprawling and steep, with daily traffic jams and minibuses whose destinations are shouted from the door. It does have Mi Teleférico, a network of urban cable-car lines that is both the easiest way to cross the city and a sight in itself.

La Paz offers more to browse. The lanes around Sagárnaga and Linares are full of alpaca knitwear, textiles, silver and instruments, the Mercado Negro is a maze of everyday trade and El Alto's 16 de Julio fair sprawls over dozens of streets. Quality varies, so look carefully.

Sucre's shopping is narrower but focused: fine Jalq'a and Tarabuco weavings in fair-trade shops near the indigenous art museum, plus chocolate from the old makers. Neither city has any fashion or luxury shopping.

Both are among the cheapest cities on the continent, with very cheap market lunches, salteñas and taxis. In La Paz the bigger costs are guided adventures such as climbing Huayna Potosí or riding the Death Road, where a reputable operator is worth paying for. In Sucre, colonial guesthouses make long, slow stays very easy on the budget, which is why language students settle there for weeks.

Folkloric music leads in both, but La Paz offers more. Its peñas stage the morenada, caporales and diablada, the Teatro Municipal and National Symphony provide a modest programme, and the Gran Poder festival fills the streets with tens of thousands of costumed dancers and brass bands each year.

Sucre has dinner shows and weekend peñas on a smaller scale. The elegant Teatro Gran Mariscal hosts occasional symphony concerts, and the patron-saint festivities bring dancers onto the streets.

Neither has a spa culture, but Sucre is far more restful. Its mild climate, shaded colonial courtyards and the sunset view from the Recoleta arcade make it the place where travellers stop to recover after the Altiplano.

La Paz works against relaxation: noise, fumes, poor sleep at altitude and a restorative routine that amounts to coca tea and an early night. Leafy Sopocachi is the calmest base, and the Urmiri hot springs are about two hours away.