Montego Bay or Varadero?

Both have calm, warm, clear water, but the shoreline is very different. Montego Bay's town beaches, led by Doctor's Cave on the Hip Strip, are short curves of sand between rocky or private stretches, and many visitors end up on their resort's own sand at Rose Hall or Ironshore.

Varadero is one long beach: about 20km of unbroken powdery sand along the peninsula's northern shore. It is busier with Cuban families at the town end and quieter towards the empty coves at the tip. To find anything like it from Montego Bay, you would have to drive an hour and a half to Negril.

Montego Bay eats far better. Jerk pork and chicken from roadside pits, patties, curry goat, ackee and saltfish, and fish from beach shacks give even resort guests good reasons to go out, though fine dining is scarce.

In Varadero, cooking depends on what ingredients can be found. Most meals are resort buffets, and a handful of private restaurants serve ropa vieja, roast pork and lobster. The pleasures here are in the glass, a daiquiri or mojito made with Cuban rum, more than on the plate.

Neither is a culture destination, but Montego Bay has more to see. The Rose Hall and Greenwood great houses tell the plantation story, and Sam Sharpe Square remembers the 1831 rebellion, with the old Cage lock-up beside it.

Varadero's sights are the Du Pont family's Xanadu Mansion on its headland, a small museum in a wooden summer house and the pre-Columbian cave drawings in the Varahicacos reserve. A few hours cover them all.

Montego Bay has the livelier evenings. The Hip Strip's open-air bars stay open into the small hours, and the weekend waterfront parties and street dances with dancehall sound systems are the real local scene, best visited with someone who knows them.

Varadero is quieter and more about dancing than late drinking. There are salsa clubs where locals dance with real skill, a disco inside a limestone cave, and nights that end well before dawn. In both places, many guests never leave the resort bar.

Montego Bay has the richer setting. Behind the reefs of the marine park, green hills offer bamboo rafting on the Martha Brae, zip lines and the hand-fed hummingbirds of Rocklands, and the karst of Cockpit Country has guided walks.

Varadero is flat, so outdoor days are spent on the water: catamarans to the offshore cays, diving on reefs and wrecks, and kitesurfing when the winter winds come. On land, the short trails of Varahicacos and the Saturno cenote are the main draws, and the Zapata wetlands make a long day out.

Both have a handful of good outings, but of different kinds. From Montego Bay, Georgian Falmouth is forty minutes away, and Negril's cliffs, Bob Marley's birthplace at Nine Mile and the Appleton rum estate are further out along slow, winding roads.

Varadero's outings centre on one big city. Havana, two hours west, makes a long but rewarding day, and Matanzas, with its theatre and old French pharmacy, is much closer. Montego Bay's trips lean towards beaches, rum and music history, while Varadero's lean towards colonial towns and Cuba's revolutionary past at the Bay of Pigs.

Montego Bay works for families who stay inside a good resort, with kids' clubs, splash pools and calm water within the reef, and children love the hummingbirds at Rocklands. Beyond the hotel, though, chaotic traffic, few pavements and persistent vendors keep most families close to base.

Varadero is easier with small children. The water is shallow and gentle along the whole beach, the all-inclusive format takes care of meals, and the rowing boats in Josone Park or the dolphin centre fill a day off the sand. Bring medicines, nappies and sun cream, as these are hard to find there.

Montego Bay's airport is right beside the Hip Strip, but the ease ends there. Resorts are spread for kilometres along the coast, pavements disappear and route taxis are hard for visitors to work out, so most people use tourist taxis and agree the fare first.

Varadero is simpler to get around. The town end is a walkable grid of numbered streets, an open-top tourist bus runs the length of the peninsula, and coco-taxis, carriages and rental bikes cover the flat roads. Leaving either place still means hiring a driver or joining a tour.

Shopping is a minor matter in both, but Montego Bay has a little more. You can haggle for carvings and paintings at the Harbour Street craft market, duty-free shops by the cruise port sell jewellery, watches and rum, and Blue Mountain coffee is the best thing to take home.

In Varadero, craft stalls on the main avenue and a small mall cover souvenirs and essentials, and everyday items can be scarce. The one purchase worth making is rum and cigars from the official shops.

A resort stay generally costs less in Varadero than in Montego Bay. On the Jamaican side, most beds are in large resorts aimed at North American visitors, and tourist taxis, excursions and Hip Strip menus carry visitor prices too. The way to spend less is to eat where locals do, at roadside jerk pits, patty bakeries and beach fish shacks, or to stay in a small guesthouse away from the coast.

Varadero's all-inclusive packages are one of the cheaper ways to get a white-sand Caribbean beach, so it comes out ahead for anyone who books one and stays on the peninsula. Once you leave the package behind, though, taxis, excursions and private restaurants are all priced for foreigners. For independent travellers who move around a lot, the gap between the two gets much smaller.

Neither has theatre or concert halls to speak of, so the difference is in the music itself. Montego Bay is reggae and dancehall country: Reggae Sumfest fills the town each summer, and cover bands play the Hip Strip the rest of the year.

Varadero's music is Cuban son and salsa, played by trios in hotel lobbies and by full bands in the dance clubs, often very well, along with feathered cabaret shows in the resorts. For ballet or more serious Cuban music, you need to go to Havana.

In both, relaxation comes from resort spas and slow beach days rather than any bathing tradition. Montego Bay's strength is its many adults-only resorts and massages on the sand, though the town around them is noisy.

Varadero's calm is at the quieter eastern end of the peninsula, where long days need no planning, but spa standards and supplies vary from hotel to hotel.