Manaus or Salvador?

Salvador is a real beach city and Manaus is not. In Manaus you swim in the dark water of the Rio Negro, at Ponta Negra or on the sandbanks around Tupé that appear only when the river is low, and the water is not always clean.

Salvador has the sea on two sides. Sheltered bay coves such as Porto da Barra are good for easy swimming, and the Atlantic shore grows cleaner and wilder towards Stella Maris and Flamengo. The reef pools at Praia do Forte add a full beach day an hour to the north.

Each city cooks food found nowhere else in Brazil, but from very different sources. Manaus cooks from the river and the forest: tambaqui ribs, pirarucu, tacacá with jambu leaves that make the lips tingle, and fruits such as cupuaçu and camu-camu at the Adolpho Lisboa market.

Salvador's Bahian cooking, built on dendê oil, coconut milk and West African tradition, gives you more variety over a week of meals. Acarajé is sold by baianas on the squares, and you can share a clay pot of moqueca at a beach shack. Neither city has much fine dining or international food.

Salvador has far more to see. The Pelourinho is a whole UNESCO-listed colonial quarter of baroque churches, with the gilded São Francisco as its highlight. Beyond it are the Mercado Modelo, the Bonfim church on its hill and an Afro-Brazilian heritage that runs through the whole city.

Manaus has one great set piece, the Teatro Amazonas, with a cluster of rubber-boom buildings and small museums around it. It fills a day or two between river trips, while Salvador's old town alone takes several days.

In both cities a night out means plastic tables on the pavement and cold beer, but Salvador has more going on and more of it in one place. Rio Vermelho stays busy well past midnight, Barra draws a younger crowd by the beach and the Pelourinho squares fill on Tuesday and weekend nights. Carnival is among the largest street parties anywhere.

Manaus is quieter and more spread out, with the Ponta Negra waterfront, bars in Adrianópolis and Vieiralves, and dance halls playing forró and boi-bumbá. Most visitors are about to head into the jungle or have just come back, so nights end early.

This is where Manaus stands apart. It is the gateway to the Amazon, with the Meeting of the Waters, pink river dolphins, flooded forest in the high-water months and the maze of the Anavilhanas islands upstream. A few nights at a lodge turn it into serious wildlife watching.

Salvador's nature is gentler and coastal: sailing on the Bay of All Saints, the dunes and dark lagoon of Abaeté, surfing to the north and humpback whales offshore from about July to October. For wilder country you have to go to the Chapada Diamantina, which takes several days.

Salvador has the better choice of days out. The baroque river town of Cachoeira is about two hours inland in the Recôncavo, Praia do Forte lies to the north and ferries cross to Itaparica and the islands of the bay.

From Manaus there are almost no towns to visit within easy reach. Apart from the waterfalls and caves around Presidente Figueiredo, time away from the city is best spent on the river.

Neither is an easy place for a family, though Salvador is the simpler of the two. The calm, shallow water at Porto da Barra suits young swimmers, the turtle centre at Praia do Forte and the bay islands work well for older children, and a beach hotel makes a practical base.

Manaus has animals children love, from river dolphins to the otters and manatees at the Bosque da Ciência. But the constant humidity, the mosquitoes and the long days on boats make it better suited to older children than to toddlers.

Manaus is a sprawl with only a scrap of walkable centre, while Salvador packs its old town onto two levels you can explore on foot. In Manaus the walking stops after a few blocks around the Teatro Amazonas and the market, and the heat, broken pavements and traffic make even those blocks hard work. With no metro or tram, Ponta Negra and the restaurant districts are a taxi ride away, and the river means an organised boat or a ferry from the port.

In Salvador the Pelourinho is steep and cobbled but compact. The Lacerda Elevator and a funicular take you down to the port, and Barra is an easy walk along the seafront. The two metro lines are mostly useful for the airport and the bus station, and you only need a car for the coast to the north.

In both cities crafts are the reason to shop rather than fashion, and in both the national brands are found in air-conditioned malls. Manaus has the more unusual pieces: indigenous basketry, seed jewellery, feather work and Amazon oils, plus the electronics shops of its free-trade zone.

Salvador has a little more to browse, centred on the Mercado Modelo and the Pelourinho: carved wood, lacework, berimbaus, drums and Bonfim ribbons. The São Joaquim market is better for wandering than for buying.

Day-to-day costs are low in both cities, with cheap street food and cheap taxis. The difference is what you come for. In Manaus the biggest costs are the river excursions and jungle lodges, which cost far more than staying in town.

In Salvador the main pleasures, the beaches and churches, cost little or nothing, and simple guesthouses in Barra and the Pelourinho keep the budget down. Carnival week is the one time it gets expensive.

The two cities offer very different kinds of performance. Manaus has the formal stage. The Teatro Amazonas puts on its philharmonic, ballet and an annual opera festival, and an evening inside that rubber-boom hall is a highlight. Boi-bumbá drumming fills the dance halls.

Salvador has more live performance through the week, almost all of it rhythm and dance. Bloco drum groups hold open rehearsals of samba-reggae in the Pelourinho and Liberdade, the Balé Folclórico da Bahia performs most evenings and capoeira breaks out in the squares. Opera is rare there, though, so Manaus is the better stop for the classical stage.

Neither city has a spa or bathing tradition, so how restful the trip is depends on where you stay. Salvador's unhurried pace helps: long lunches, a quiet guesthouse in Santo Antônio or a resort spa on the coast north of the city.

Manaus is hot, noisy and congested, and you only find calm by leaving it for a lodge on the river, with hammocks and the sounds of the forest.