Leh or Pokhara?

Neither place is for swimming. In Leh the Indus and the high lakes are snowmelt-cold all year, so the water is for rafting and for looking at. Pokhara gives you a little more. Rowing out on Phewa Lake in a painted boat is a pleasant part of the day, Begnas Lake allows an occasional dip, and a hotel pool is easy to find in the warm months.

Both towns feed trekkers on similar mixed menus of pizza, Israeli plates and Indian dishes, so the difference is in the local cooking. In Leh it means Tibetan noodle soups, skyu stew, salty butter tea and the famous apricots, eaten in homestays and family kitchens. Pokhara's local food is Nepali: Thakali dal bhat with refills and buffalo sekuwa grilled over charcoal. It also has lakeside bakeries serving Nepali-grown coffee, which stay open all year rather than closing with the season.

Leh has far more to see in the town itself. The nine-storey palace, built in the manner of Lhasa's Potala, rises over a maze of mud-brick lanes and chortens, with the Namgyal Tsemo gompa on the ridge above. Sankar still has a working monastic life, and the Central Asian Museum explains the old trade routes. Allow a day or two for the town before heading out to the monasteries along the valley.

Pokhara is mostly a modern town. It has the island temple of Tal Barahi, the Peace Pagoda on the ridge, a few Newar shopfronts in the old bazaar, and the Mountain and Gurkha museums, with Gupteshwor Cave and Davis Falls taking up a further half day. Two days covers all of it, and none of it is a reason to come on its own.

Pokhara has an evening scene and Leh does not. Along Lakeside, trekkers celebrate a finished circuit in rooftop bars with cover bands and long happy hours, and there are a couple of small dance bars, though it winds down around midnight. In Leh, an evening usually means a late dinner on a rooftop and maybe a beer. The cold, the altitude and the dawn starts send everyone to bed early.

Both are among the great mountain bases, but the landscapes are very different. Leh is high, dry desert. Bare, multicoloured ridges surround the Indus valley, the road climbs over Khardung La, and there are rafting gorges, the Markha valley trek, the Nubra dunes and Pangong Tso. Visitors need several days to adjust to the altitude before doing anything hard.

Pokhara is green and much lower, with the white Annapurna peaks and Machhapuchhre standing right above the lake. The outdoor days here are about paragliding off Sarangkot, kayaking on the lake and short treks to Poon Hill or Australian Camp. The catch is the monsoon, which can hide the mountains for days.

This is where Leh is far ahead. Thiksey and Shey are under half an hour away, Hemis about an hour. A longer day to the west takes in Likir, Basgo's ruined citadel and the painted temples of Alchi. Almost every trip is to a monastery or a palace, but they are of outstanding quality.

From Pokhara, the slow roads leave little within easy reach. Bandipur, the car-free Newar hill town about two hours away, is the one real day trip. Gurung villages such as Ghandruk are better seen on a trek.

Pokhara is the far safer bet with children. Lakeside has little traffic, boats to row and local people who are warm towards children. Older children can manage the caves, the waterfall, the pagoda walk and tandem paragliding if they meet the age and weight limits.

Leh is hard on young children. Altitude sickness is a real risk after the flight in, and nearly every outing is a long mountain drive. It only really works with tough teenagers who want to trek or raft.

Leh is the harder of the two to get around, because of the thin air and the distances. The Main Bazaar, the old town and Changspa are close together, but every slope is tiring at this height. Beyond town, buses are sparse and slow, so it falls to the fixed-fare taxi union, shared jeeps or a hired motorbike to cover long mountain drives, and some of those passes close in winter.

Pokhara is easier. Lakeside is flat, guesthouses and boat jetties are a short walk apart, and the shore road is good for cycling. Getting to Sarangkot, the caves or the trailheads still means a taxi, a rented scooter or a driver on rough roads, but the trips are short by Ladakhi standards.

The craft stock is much the same in both: pashmina, thangkas, singing bowls and prayer flags. Leh's Main Bazaar adds turquoise and coral jewellery and Ladakhi women selling dried apricots on the street. Pokhara is better for renting trekking gear cheaply for one trek, and its Tibetan settlements let you watch carpets being made in the workshops.

Both are inexpensive, but Pokhara costs less overall. Guesthouses with mountain views, dal bhat lunches, taxis and boat hire all cost very little. The main expenses are paragliding, guided treks and Annapurna permits.

Rooms and meals in Leh are cheap too. Transport is what pushes the cost up: union taxi fares, hired cars for every day out and permits for the outer valleys, plus higher hotel prices in the short summer season.

Neither town has a theatre or a concert season, but the performances they do have are very different. Leh's are religious. The masked cham dances in monastery courtyards, especially at the summer Hemis festival and around Losar, are worth planning a trip around. In Pokhara you will find cover bands in the bars and Gurung and Magar dance dinner shows put on for visitors, which are pleasant but staged.

Pokhara is much better for rest. It is slow after Kathmandu, with yoga and meditation retreats on the quiet far shore, Nepali and Ayurvedic massage for tired legs, and afternoons on the water. The nearest hot springs, though, are a long way out on the trails.

Leh suits a more contemplative visitor. It offers meditation courses at Buddhist centres and consultations with amchi practitioners of Tibetan medicine. The thin, dry air and broken sleep of the first days make it hard to relax.