Marrakech or Muscat?

This is Muscat's clearest advantage. The Gulf of Oman is warm enough to swim in every month, Qurum has a long beach within the city, and the coves around Qantab and Yiti have clear water. Boats also run out to the Daymaniyat Islands for snorkelling over coral.

Marrakech sits inland on a dry plain, so swimming means a riad plunge pool or a hotel pool. The Atlantic at Essaouira is hours away, and the water there is cool and the wind strong. The reservoir at Lalla Takerkoust is a lakeside afternoon rather than a beach.

Marrakech is the better place to eat. Tagines, pastilla, harira and the clay-urn tanjia are easy to find, and the evening grill stalls on Jemaa el-Fna make dinner an event, even if riad menus start to repeat after a few days.

In Muscat, Omani dishes such as shuwa and majboos take some seeking out because few restaurants serve them. Everyday eating comes from the cheap and good Keralan, Pakistani and Lebanese canteens of Ruwi and Mutrah. In both cities a drink with dinner usually means a hotel or a licensed restaurant.

Marrakech has much more to see, and most of it is close together. The UNESCO-listed medina is a sight in itself. The Koutoubia, the Ben Youssef Madrasa, the Saadian Tombs and the Bahia and El Badi palaces are all within walking distance, and the Jardin Majorelle is just beyond the walls.

Muscat's great monument is the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque. It also has the cove of Old Muscat with its forts and the National Museum, and the merchants' houses along the Mutrah corniche. These lie far apart along the coast, so the city feels thinner on sights, though each needs only two or three days.

Neither city is made for a big night out, but Marrakech gives you more to do after dark. Jemaa el-Fna is busy with food stalls and music every evening, rooftop terraces serve a sunset cocktail, and Hivernage and Gueliz have lounge bars and a few clubs that stay open late.

Muscat is quieter still. Going out means a hotel bar, a poolside terrace or one of a few hotel nightclubs at the weekend. Most local evenings are spent walking the Mutrah corniche or in shisha cafés.

Both cities have mountains on the doorstep and plenty to do outside, but the landscapes are very different. From Marrakech you go up into the High Atlas for walks between villages from Imlil, the climb of Toubkal, the waterfalls of the Ourika valley and winter skiing at Oukaimeden. The stony Agafay desert, closer to the city, offers camel rides and dawn balloon flights.

In Muscat the mountains run straight into the sea. You can wade through the pools of Wadi Shab, walk the terraced rim of Jebel Akhdar, or take a boat out to see dolphins and dive with turtles around the Daymaniyat Islands. All of this belongs to the cooler months, because summer heat makes hiking there dangerous.

Muscat is the better base for days out. The interior's forts and oases are about an hour and a half away by road: Nizwa with its round fort and Friday livestock market, the mud-brick fort at Bahla, Jabrin Castle and the hanging village of Misfat al Abriyeen. Down the coast, Sur still builds dhows. All of it needs a car or a driver.

From Marrakech, the places most worth visiting, Essaouira and Ait Benhaddou, really need a night away. Closer in, the choice comes down to the village souks at Asni and Amizmiz and the Almohad mosque at Tinmel.

Muscat is much easier with children. It is clean, safe and unhurried, and days centre on hotel beaches, dolphin-watching boats and snorkelling in shallow water. Qurum's park, the children's science museum, and the aquarium and snow park at the mall in Seeb fill the hot hours, although the distances mean a lot of time in the car.

Marrakech asks more of families. The lanes are crowded and shared with motorbikes, sellers are persistent and little is built for children. A riad with a pool makes it manageable, and older children who enjoy markets and a bit of adventure get the most out of it.

Neither city is simple to get around, but Marrakech copes better without a car. The medina is walkable, if confusing, and petit taxis link it to Gueliz and the Majorelle garden, as long as you agree the fare before you set off.

Muscat is a 50km strip of separate districts joined by highways, and its buses are of little use for sightseeing. Most visitors hire a car or use taxis and ride-hailing apps. Walking is limited to the Mutrah corniche and Old Muscat.

Marrakech is the shopping city of the two. Its souks are organised trade by trade, from leather and babouches to carpets, lanterns and metalwork, Gueliz has design boutiques reworking Moroccan crafts, and Sidi Ghanem has makers' showrooms. Bargaining takes time, and the pressure from sellers can wear you down.

Muscat's Mutrah Souq is smaller and much gentler, and it is the place for frankincense, perfume oils and silver. Beyond the souq, shopping means suburban malls full of international chains.

Marrakech is the cheaper trip. Medina riads with real character, street food, taxis and entry to the sights all cost little. Luxury riads and alcohol are expensive, though, and in the souks what you pay depends on how patiently you bargain.

In Muscat, canteen meals and fuel are cheap, but rooms are the big cost. The beach resorts charge like an expensive Mediterranean coast, and a hire car or taxis add to the budget. Rates do fall in the hot summer months.

Muscat has the only real stage of the two. The Royal Opera House brings touring opera, ballet, orchestras, jazz and Arab music stars from autumn to spring, with performances spread through the season, so it is worth checking what falls during your stay.

Marrakech's performances are free and in the open air. Gnawa musicians, drummers and storytellers fill Jemaa el-Fna each evening, and the Popular Arts Festival brings folk troupes from across Morocco. There is no concert or theatre season, though, and most staged shows are dinner entertainment for tourists.

Marrakech has a bathing tradition that Muscat lacks. Every medina quarter has a public hammam for a black-soap scrub, the spa hammams go all the way up to marble luxury, and a riad courtyard with its fountain shuts out the noise of the lanes.

Muscat is the calmer city, uncrowded and slow. Wellness there means a resort spa on the southern coves, with frankincense treatments and long days by the pool. The warm springs at Nakhal and Rustaq are about an hour and a half inland.