Lima or Santiago?

Lima at least has a coast on its doorstep. Below the Miraflores cliffs lie grey pebble beaches better for surfing than swimming, and the sandy coves of Punta Hermosa and San Bartolo make a good summer outing about an hour south.

Santiago is inland, and its nearest resort towns are a long day's round trip, with even colder water. For most visitors, swimming there means a hotel pool or the public pools on Cerro San Cristóbal.

Lima is one of the reasons people fly to South America. Its cooking blends coastal, Andean and Amazonian produce with Chinese, Japanese and African influences, so a single day can take in tiradito at lunch, a chifa dinner and picarones from a street cart. At the top end are some of the most celebrated restaurants in the Americas.

Santiago eats more simply: empanadas de pino, pastel de choclo, completos and excellent shellfish at the Mercado Central. Its strength is in the glass, with Carmenère and coastal whites from valleys just outside town. Beyond Lastarria, Barrio Italia and Bellavista, the choice narrows quickly.

Lima has more to fill several days. The UNESCO-listed viceregal centre keeps its carved wooden balconies and the catacombs of San Francisco. The Larco Museum and MALI are first-rate, and adobe pyramids such as Huaca Pucllana rise among the modern apartment blocks.

Santiago lost much of its colonial fabric to earthquakes, so its appeal is narrower. The highlights are the Precolombino museum, La Moneda with its memory of 1973, and the sobering Museum of Memory and Human Rights. Most visitors see the essentials in two or three days.

Both cities go out late and fill up at weekends, so the difference is in style. Lima's nights centre on Barranco's old mansions, with a dressy crowd dancing to salsa and cumbia until dawn, and taxis home are the norm. Santiago is looser and more spread out. Bellavista is loud with students and LGBTQ+ clubs, while Lastarria and Barrio Italia suit a slower evening over Chilean wine.

Here Santiago is far ahead. Peaks over 5,000m close off the city's avenues, and Cerro Manquehue offers a real hike within the city. The Cajón del Maipo has rafting, horse riding and glacier trails, and in winter the slopes of Valle Nevado and La Parva are close enough for a day's skiing.

Lima's outdoor life faces the sea instead. You can walk or cycle the clifftop malecón, paraglide from its parks, surf, or swim with sea lions off the Palomino Islands. Inland are bare brown hills, and the Andes are too far for a day out.

Santiago has two excellent kinds of day out. One is the steep, painted hills and funiculars of Valparaíso, easily combined with Viña del Mar. The other is the wine estates of the Maipo and Casablanca valleys.

Lima's choice is much thinner. The adobe sanctuary of Pachacamac and the old port of Callao fill a morning each. Caral, Paracas and the Ica vineyards are worth seeing, but they are too far for anything less than an overnight stay.

Children are welcome in restaurants in both cities, but Santiago gives them more to do. There is the funicular and zoo on Cerro San Cristóbal, the Mirador science museum, the fairground in Parque O'Higgins and the lagoons of Parque Bicentenario, all linked by a pushchair-friendly metro.

Lima has fewer sure hits. Parque de las Leyendas pairs a zoo with ruins, and the fountains of the Circuito Mágico del Agua light up in the evenings. Heavy traffic means families do best keeping each day to one district.

Santiago is the far easier city to move around. A clean, legible metro runs Line 1 straight from the Centro through Providencia to Las Condes, with one card for trains and buses, and the central districts are pleasant to walk.

In Lima, visitors walk the clifftop path between Miraflores and Barranco and otherwise rely on ride-hailing. That is cheap, but short distances can take an hour at rush hour. The Metropolitano bus lane to the historic centre is the one reliable shortcut.

Neither city is a shopping destination in itself, but they reward different buyers. Lima is the place for baby alpaca knitwear and for the craft markets on Avenida Petit Thouars, which gather textiles, silver and retablos from the whole country. Santiago leans towards big eastern malls and the luxury labels of Alonso de Córdova. Its best souvenirs are copper, lapis lazuli and Mapuche silver from the workshops of Pueblito Los Dominicos.

Lima stretches a budget further. Neighbourhood set lunches, street snacks, taxis and mid-range hotels in Miraflores all cost little, as long as you stay away from the famous tasting menus.

Santiago is closer to southern European prices in the districts where visitors stay. Market food, local wine and the metro are good value, but mountain and winery tours add up quickly, and so does skiing.

The two are evenly matched but offer different evenings. Lima's best night out is a peña in Barranco, with música criolla and Afro-Peruvian cajón and an audience that gets up to dance. Santiago is stronger on formal stages: the 19th-century Teatro Municipal has its own opera, ballet and orchestra, and the Santiago a Mil festival takes over the city's theatres and streets each January.

Lima has no bathing tradition at all. Relaxation there means hotel spas, a few day spas in Miraflores and an early yoga session or walk in the clifftop parks above the Pacific, and the horns and traffic are never far away.

Santiago is just as hectic within its limits, but it has somewhere to escape to. Up the Cajón del Maipo there are hot springs, from the basic pools of Baños Morales to the open-air ones at Valle de Colina. Termas de Colina has terraced thermal pools on the city's northern edge.