Mexico City or San Miguel de Allende?

Neither has a beach. Both sit high on the central plateau, many hours from the sea, so the coast has to be a separate leg of the trip. The small difference is the water close by. In Mexico City swimming means a hotel pool or a sports centre, while San Miguel has warm spring-fed pools in the countryside, better for a long soak than for laps.

Mexico City is the far stronger place to eat. Breakfast tamales from carts, blue-corn quesadillas, al pastor late at night and counter lunches in markets such as Medellín and La Merced are only the start, with Roma, Condesa and Polanco adding cantinas, seafood bars and some of the most respected tasting menus in the Americas. The only drawback is that the best places are spread across a vast city.

San Miguel eats well for its size, with rooftop terraces facing the Parroquia, chefs working with Bajío nopal and mesquite, and Guanajuato wines on the lists. There are cheap gorditas, evening taco carts and the Mercado Ignacio Ramírez too. Much of it is aimed at foreign residents, though, and after a few days the menus begin to repeat.

In Mexico City the sights are on a different scale. The Templo Mayor's Aztec ruins sit beside the cathedral and the National Palace with its Rivera murals, and the National Museum of Anthropology is one of the world's great archaeological collections. Add the Frida Kahlo house in Coyoacán and the Bellas Artes murals, and a week is barely enough.

San Miguel's appeal is the whole town rather than any one building. The UNESCO-listed hillside of ochre façades and carved doorways rises to the pink spires of the Parroquia, with an unfinished Siqueiros mural and art schools nearby. There are no major museums, and two unhurried days cover the main sights.

Mexico City is the place for a real night out. In Roma and Condesa a night means walking between cocktail bars, mezcalerías and small dance floors, and later there are electronic clubs that go on until dawn, salsa and cumbia halls and the big LGBTQ scene of the Zona Rosa. Old Centro cantinas with free snacks give a more traditional evening.

San Miguel's evenings are gentler: a drink as the Parroquia lights up, then mezcal bars around the Jardín. Weekend visitors keep a few dance bars going late on Fridays and Saturdays, but midweek the town is mostly quiet soon after dinner.

For bigger landscapes, Mexico City is the stronger base. On its southern and western edges there is real hiking at altitude in the pine forests of Desierto de los Leones and on the slopes of Ajusco. About two hours out are the Paso de Cortés between the volcanoes Iztaccíhuatl and Popocatépetl, and the crater lakes of Nevado de Toluca, and in winter the monarch butterfly reserves make a long day. The catch is getting there: traffic takes up much of each outing, and the air can be poor in the dry season.

San Miguel's outdoors is smaller but much closer to hand. The cactus and mesquite of the Bajío begin at the edge of town, where the canyon trails of El Charco del Ingenio look over the Allende reservoir. A horse ride on a ranch or a dawn balloon flight over the valley fits easily into a morning, but there are no mountains, forests or water sports.

Both make excellent bases, and the difference is in what lies around them. From Mexico City the highlights are ancient and grand: the pyramids of Teotihuacan an hour away, Puebla's tiled centre and Cholula's great pyramid, and the silver town of Taxco. Escaping the city traffic means early starts.

From San Miguel the trips are shorter and mostly colonial: Guanajuato's ravine of painted houses, Querétaro's aqueduct, the murals of Atotonilco and the pottery of Dolores Hidalgo, plus the wine country and Bernal's monolith. Buses cover the cities, but the smaller places need a car or a driver.

Mexico City has much more for children. Chapultepec alone holds the zoo, boating lakes and the hands-on Papalote museum, and there is an aquarium, a roller-coaster park, trajinera boats at Xochimilco and lucha libre. The strain comes from the long rides and crowded trains.

San Miguel has little made for children, and its steep cobbles are hard going with a pushchair. Evenings on the Jardín, with balloon sellers and local families, are relaxed, and older children may enjoy the spring pools, a horse ride or the fiesta fireworks.

Both are manageable, in different ways. Mexico City is a set of walkable districts, the Centro, Roma, Condesa, Polanco and Coyoacán, spread far apart and linked by a cheap but crowded metro, the Metrobús and ride-hailing cars. Distances and traffic are the problem.

In San Miguel everything is a walk from the Jardín, but the walks are steep, the stones uneven and the altitude makes itself felt. Cheap taxis handle the climbs. The town has no airport, so arrival means a shuttle from Querétaro or León.

Crafts, fashion and flea markets in one city, things for the home in the other. In Mexico City, La Ciudadela gathers textiles, pottery and silver from all over the country, while the Lagunilla flea market and San Ángel's Saturday bazaar are good for long browsing. Avenida Presidente Masaryk and the grand department stores cover fashion, and Roma and Condesa add Mexican designers.

San Miguel's range is narrower but strong on décor: punched-tin lanterns and blown glass in the Mercado de Artesanías, fine furniture and tile shops, and a former textile mill full of studios and antique dealers. Anyone after big brands will find none.

Day to day, the capital costs noticeably less. Metro rides, street tacos and market lunches are cheap, and many museums are inexpensive or free on certain days. Only in Roma, Condesa and Polanco do hotels and restaurants approach European prices.

San Miguel ranks among the dearer places to visit in Mexico. Boutique hotels in colonial houses and restaurants around the Jardín charge with foreign residents and weekenders in mind, and rooms cost most at weekends and during festivals. Its churches and streets cost nothing to enjoy, though, and market food stays cheap.

A capital's formal season meets a small town's festival calendar here. In Mexico City the Palacio de Bellas Artes holds the national opera and symphony seasons and the Ballet Folklórico, which visitors enjoy without any Spanish, while Sala Nezahualcóyotl and the Auditorio Nacional add concerts. Lucha libre at Arena México and the mariachis of Plaza Garibaldi make livelier nights.

San Miguel has plenty of music for its size: the nineteenth-century Teatro Ángela Peralta, chamber and jazz festivals in their seasons, mariachis on the Jardín and the street dancing of the Alborada. Between festivals the formal programme is thin.

San Miguel is the place to slow down. The open-air pools and domed grottoes of the hot springs towards Atotonilco are fifteen minutes away, and town has yoga classes, massage studios and temazcal sweat lodges, all at the town's easy pace.

Mexico City offers good hotel spas and temazcal rituals in Polanco, Roma and Condesa, and quiet hours in Coyoacán's plazas. Noise and traffic set the tone, though, and for a real retreat people leave for Cuernavaca or Tepoztlán.