Medellin or Cartagena?

This is the widest gap between the two. Cartagena's sea is warm all year. The city strands at Bocagrande are murky and crowded with vendors, but the clear water of the Rosario Islands and Barú is about an hour away by boat, close enough to go swimming day after day.

Medellín is an inland mountain city with no sea at all. Swimming there means a hotel pool, a finca in the hills or the Guatapé reservoir. Travellers who want sand usually fly to the coast for a separate leg of the trip, often to Cartagena itself.

Both cities eat well without being places to visit for the food alone, and the flavours are quite different. Cartagena cooks like a Caribbean port: fried fish with coconut rice, ceviche from street carts, coconut sweets at the Portal de los Dulces, and polished restaurants in restored colonial houses.

Medellín's paisa food is heavier mountain fare, such as bandeja paisa and sancocho. Its strengths are tropical fruit and the region's own coffee, served in a serious café culture. El Poblado and Provenza also give it a wider spread of international kitchens than Cartagena has outside its walls.

In Cartagena the town itself is the main sight. The UNESCO-listed walled city has painted colonial houses, ramparts you can walk along and the great fortress of San Felipe, with the Inquisition palace and the churches on the way round. The museums are modest, but the streets make up for it.

Medellín has little colonial building left, and its interest lies in more recent history. Botero's works fill the Museo de Antioquia, the Casa de la Memoria deals with the years of violence, and Comuna 13 has its outdoor escalators and murals. It is absorbing, but it does not match a walk through Cartagena's old town.

Both cities go out late, but Medellín has the edge for a trip built around nights. Its scene is bigger and spread across several districts, from the reggaeton clubs and rooftop bars of Parque Lleras and Provenza to the cheaper salsa bars on La 70 and the old tango bars downtown.

Cartagena's nights are more compact and more on the street. People drink and drum on the Plaza de la Trinidad in Getsemaní, there is champeta and there are rooftop bars over the domes, and party boats and chivas are a local speciality. It is fun, but the circuit is small, and touts come with it.

Medellín has the outdoors on its doorstep. Steep green mountains wall in the valley, a cable car runs up to the pine and cloud forest of Parque Arví, and paragliders take off from San Félix. The lakes and the granite rock of El Peñol are about two hours away.

Cartagena's nature is mostly in the water. There is snorkelling and diving over the Corales del Rosario reefs, canoeing in the mangroves, and kitesurfing in the dry-season winds. Inland the land is flat, hot and farmed, and the Totumo mud volcano is the main outing.

Medellín is far better placed for days out. Guatapé with its painted zócalo houses and the El Peñol rock, colonial Santa Fe de Antioquia, the ceramics town of Carmen de Viboral and the nearby coffee farms each make a different day.

From Cartagena, the island trips are really beach days. The main cultural outing is San Basilio de Palenque, the village founded by escaped enslaved Africans, while Mompox and Santa Marta are too far for a day and need a night away.

Medellín is the easier city with children. Parque Explora's interactive science museum and aquarium sit beside the planetarium and botanical garden in the north, the cable cars are a treat, and the mild weather spares children the heat. Steep streets and heavy traffic are the drawbacks.

Cartagena offers island beaches with calm, warm water and the National Aviary on the way to Playa Blanca, but little else made for children. The humid heat and long boat rides tire small children quickly, so a hotel pool and a slow pace are what make it work.

Cartagena's visitor quarter fits into a small pocket. The walled city, San Diego and Getsemaní are a few minutes apart on foot, and cheap taxis cover Bocagrande and the rest. What slows you down is the midday heat on narrow, uneven pavements.

Medellín stretches along a long valley and relies on its clean, well-kept metro, which links with Metrocable gondolas up the hillsides and a tram line to the east. Taxis and ride-hailing apps fill the gaps between neighbourhoods, but steep slopes and peak-hour traffic slow journeys down, and the airport is about forty-five minutes away on the plateau.

Cartagena is the place to buy Colombian crafts and emeralds. The vaults of Las Bóvedas, built into the walls, sell Wayuu bags, sombreros vueltiaos and hammocks. Emerald jewellers trade around the Plaza de Bolívar, and Colombian designers inside the walls sell linen and swimwear made for the heat.

Medellín is the country's textile centre, so what you take home is clothing, swimwear and leather from local labels. These are mostly sold in El Poblado's air-conditioned malls and Provenza's boutiques, and the crowded wholesale maze of El Hueco is there for bargains.

Medellín is clearly the cheaper stay. Mid-range hotels and apartments are inexpensive, set lunches, metro rides and taxis cost little, and staying in Laureles keeps even nights out modest.

Cartagena is Colombia's most expensive city. Boutique hotels inside the walls charge close to European rates, especially at Christmas, New Year and Easter. Getsemaní guesthouses and street food keep costs down, but agree prices with hawkers and boat operators before you set off.

Formal stages are thin in both cities, so the difference is in the kind of music. Cartagena's highlight is its January classical music festival in churches and courtyards, along with the ornate Teatro Adolfo Mejía. The rest of the year it is cumbia dancers and drummers in the plazas and salsa bands in Getsemaní.

Medellín has more going on through the year, with the philharmonic at the Teatro Metropolitano, theatre and dance at the Pablo Tobón Uribe, and a long local loyalty to tango. In August the Feria de las Flores fills the streets with music.

Cartagena is the more restful choice, mainly because of its islands, where a few nights pass slowly in hammocks to the rhythm of the tide. In town, the colonial-house hotels have plunge pools and shaded courtyards and massages are cheap, though the streets themselves are hot and noisy.

Medellín is a city for energy rather than rest, loud with motorbikes and music. Its spas and yoga studios are in El Poblado and Laureles, and real calm means heading out to a finca or eco-lodge in the cool hills of Santa Elena.