Los Cabos or Nuevo Vallarta?

Both are true beach destinations, but they offer different kinds of sea. Los Cabos has clear water, with snorkelling coves such as Chileno Bay and the long, calm swimming beach at Medano. The Pacific side of the cape is powerful and unswimmable, though, so you have to choose your beach carefully.

Nuevo Vallarta is one long, soft, golden strand with a gentle slope and warmer water. It is easier for everyday swimming but less clear, and it can be murky near the river mouth after storms.

Los Cabos gives you more to eat outside the hotel. San José del Cabo has taco stands, family kitchens and garden restaurants on farms in the hills, though the grills around the Cabo San Lucas marina are more about volume than cooking.

In Nuevo Vallarta, most meals are taken inside the resort. The real Nayarit coastal cooking, such as pescado zarandeado grilled over wood, means a planned evening out in Bucerias or Puerto Vallarta.

Neither is a culture destination, but Los Cabos at least has something on the doorstep. San José del Cabo has its plaza, its mission church and a gallery district with an evening art walk in season. Nuevo Vallarta is a planned resort enclave with no historic fabric at all, so cobbled streets and the crowned church of Puerto Vallarta are always a separate outing.

Here they are far apart. Cabo San Lucas is a real party town, with big bars and dance clubs behind the marina running into the early hours and beach bars on Medano getting going by the afternoon. It is loud more than varied, and quieter San José del Cabo is the escape from it.

In Nuevo Vallarta, evenings mean lobby bars and poolside shows. A proper night out, including the well-known gay scene of the Zona Romantica, takes a taxi ride south to Puerto Vallarta.

Both live off the sea and both get winter whales, so the difference is in the setting. Los Cabos has deep-water marlin fishing, the sea lions at Land's End and the living coral reef of Cabo Pulmo, set against cactus desert and the hiking trails of the Sierra de la Laguna.

Nuevo Vallarta's Banderas Bay is greener. Humpbacks calve inside the bay, the Marietas Islands offer snorkelling among seabirds, turtles nest on the beaches, and inland there are mangroves with crocodiles and jungle foothills with zip-lines.

Nuevo Vallarta has more within easy reach. Puerto Vallarta's old town is about half an hour away, a chain of small towns runs north through Bucerias, Sayulita and San Pancho, and further afield are the boat-only village of Yelapa and the mountain silver village of San Sebastian del Oeste.

From Los Cabos, the outings are fewer and further. Adobe-walled Todos Santos is about an hour away and La Paz about two, with mostly open desert in between.

Nuevo Vallarta is the simpler family choice. The enclave is quiet and partly gated, the beach is gentle, and there are child-friendly outings such as releasing turtle hatchlings, the water parks and a dolphin centre.

Los Cabos can work well from a corridor resort with a kids' club and a calm cove like Santa Maria Bay. Outside that, though, there is little built for children, and both the Pacific surf and the noise of the marina at night are worth steering clear of.

Los Cabos has two centres you can actually walk, the old streets of San José del Cabo and the marina area of Cabo San Lucas. They are linked by a 30km corridor, though, so most hotels are a taxi, shuttle or hire car away from either, and the airport is well north of San José.

Nuevo Vallarta wins on arrival, with the airport only about twenty minutes away and cheap, frequent buses on the highway. Beyond the beach, however, almost nothing is within walking distance of its long boulevard of resorts, and reaching that bus stop can mean a hot walk.

Los Cabos has a little more. There are duty-free malls by the marina, and the galleries and design shops of San José del Cabo's old centre are the better browse. Nuevo Vallarta itself sells mostly swimwear and sun cream, and the Huichol beadwork and yarn paintings worth taking home are found in Bucerias or Puerto Vallarta's river market.

Neither is cheap, but Los Cabos is the harder one on the wallet. Corridor hotels charge international luxury prices and taxis are expensive, so savings mean heading to San José's taco stands and the local buses.

Nuevo Vallarta is more forgiving. All-inclusive packages make the cost predictable, and just outside the enclave, buses, taxis and seafood in Bucerias are inexpensive.

Neither place is for theatre or concerts. Los Cabos offers little beyond cover bands, mariachi and resort dinner shows. Nuevo Vallarta has a slight edge, with a permanent acrobatic dinner theatre at one of its big resorts and the cabaret and drag stages of Puerto Vallarta a short ride away.

In Los Cabos, where you sleep decides how restful the stay is. The luxury corridor spas, with treatment rooms facing the sea, are the draw, while the noise of Cabo San Lucas is something to keep well away from.

Nuevo Vallarta is slow by nature, a quiet enclave with no town to pull you out of the pool, and its larger resorts add hydrotherapy circuits. Beach yoga and the temazcal sweat lodge are easy to find in both.