Muscat or Stone Town?

Muscat has the better swimming, and some of it is in the city. Qurum gives a long stretch of urban sand, and the coves at Qantab, Al Bustan and Yiti have clear water just south of the centre. Boats run out to the Daymaniyat Islands for coral snorkelling. The catch is summer, when the heat pushes beach time to early mornings and evenings.

Stone Town's own shore is a working waterfront of dhows and jetties, so swimming starts with a boat ride to the Nakupenda sandbank or the islets of Changuu and Bawe. The white-sand beaches Zanzibar is known for, at Nungwi, Kendwa and Paje, are an hour or more away by road.

Stone Town eats better, and much of it is on the street. Swahili cooking is heavy with clove and cardamom, the Forodhani Gardens fill with seafood grills and Zanzibar pizza every evening, and the mornings start with urojo soup and bitter coffee from corner vendors. Away from the stalls, many restaurant menus are the same.

In Muscat, Omani food such as shuwa and majboos is surprisingly hard to find outside a few traditional floor-seated places. Day-to-day eating is in the cheap Keralan, Pakistani and Lebanese canteens of Ruwi and Mutrah. Both share a taste for sticky halwa, a sign of the old Omani link with Zanzibar, and in both towns alcohol is mostly limited to hotels.

In Stone Town the whole old town is the sight. It is a UNESCO-listed maze of coral-stone houses and brass-studded doors, with the Old Fort, the Palace Museum and the cathedral on the site of East Africa's last open slave market all within a short walk. The museums are modest, but the streets do most of the work.

Muscat's sights are fewer and spread out along the coast. The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque is grander than anything on Zanzibar, and the National Museum tells Oman's story well. Old Muscat's forts can only be seen from outside, though, and the Mutrah corniche is a pleasant stroll rather than a district you can lose yourself in.

Neither place is for a big night out, though Stone Town has slightly more of an evening ritual. You watch the sunset with a drink on a rooftop or a seafront terrace, then eat at the night market. Anyone after a party goes north to the beach bars of Nungwi or Kendwa.

In Muscat, going out means a hotel lounge or one of a few hotel nightclubs, busiest with expatriates on Thursday and Friday nights. Local evenings are sober ones: families on the Mutrah corniche and shisha cafés.

Muscat has much more scenery. The dark Hajar mountains drop straight into the sea behind the city, Wadi Shab and the Bimmah sinkhole are on the coast road, and the terraced gardens of Jebel Akhdar are two hours inland. At sea there are spinner dolphins and turtles in the Daymaniyat reserve, but hiking is only safe from October to April.

Zanzibar is low and flat, so outdoor time means dhow sailing, reef snorkelling at Mnemba and watching red colobus monkeys in Jozani Forest. Kitesurfing on the east coast is the one thing Muscat lacks, and walkers will find little to do.

From Muscat you can drive into the interior to see Oman's history: Nizwa's round fort and Friday livestock market, the mud-brick fort at Bahla, painted Jabrin Castle and the hanging village of Misfat al Abriyeen. Down the coast, Sur still builds wooden dhows. You need a car or a driver for all of it.

Stone Town's outings stay on one small island: a half-day spice farm tour, the giant tortoises on Prison Island, the ruined sultans' palaces at Maruhubi and Mtoni, and the slave chambers at Mangapwani. There is no other town worth the trip, so a stay runs out of excursions much sooner.

Muscat is the more practical choice with children. It is safe and unhurried, Qurum park is where local families spend their evenings, and the big mall in Seeb has an aquarium tunnel and a snow park for the hottest hours. Expect a lot of time in the car, and plan for winter.

Stone Town has lovely moments for children, such as tortoises on Changuu, colobus monkeys and the Forodhani food stalls. The old town itself is hard going, though: narrow lanes shared with motorbikes, paving that defeats pushchairs, and malaria and food hygiene to manage. Families usually relax once they reach a beach hotel.

Stone Town is easier on foot. The old town takes about twenty minutes to cross, and walking is the only way through it. It is a real labyrinth with persistent touts, but the seafront always puts you right. Beyond it, taxis and hired drivers do the work, because the dala-dalas are hard for newcomers to use.

Muscat has no centre to walk. It is a chain of districts about 50km long joined by highways, with buses of little use for sightseeing. A hire car is the norm and easy on good roads, but on foot you are limited to the Mutrah corniche and the cove of Old Muscat.

The shopping is evenly matched, and in both places it is about markets rather than fashion. Muscat's Mutrah Souq is calm and scented with frankincense, and it is the place for silver, khanjar daggers and perfume oils. Beyond it there are suburban malls of international chains.

Stone Town's Darajani market and the curio lanes around Gizenga Street offer cloves and vanilla, kanga cloth, carved chests and Tingatinga paintings. There is more bargaining and more repetition from shop to shop than in Mutrah.

Stone Town is the cheaper stay overall. Night-market meals, dala-dalas and simple guesthouses cost little, though boutique hotels in merchant houses, rooftop dining and organised sandbank or spice tours are priced for foreigners. Agree taxi fares before you set off.

Muscat is cheap to eat in, thanks to its South Asian canteens, and fuel is inexpensive. The rooms are what make it costly: the beach resorts are priced like the pricier Mediterranean coasts, and a hire car or taxis are close to unavoidable. Hotel rates do drop in the hot summer months.

Muscat has the Royal Opera House, a proper stage that brings touring opera, ballet, orchestras and Arab music stars through the autumn-to-spring season. It is worth checking its programme against your dates. Beyond the opera house there is very little.

Stone Town's performances are more local and less predictable. Taarab clubs rehearse and play without a fixed schedule, so ask around. The town comes alive for the Sauti za Busara music festival and the film festival, and the rest of the year it is mostly hotel dinner shows.

Muscat is the more restful place. The city is low-rise and uncrowded, and the large resort spas in the coves south of the centre offer hammam rituals and frankincense treatments with long, quiet pool days. The warm springs at Nakhal and Rustaq are a simple local alternative inland.

Stone Town's slow pace suits long afternoons on a shaded rooftop, and boutique hotels offer massages using clove and coconut oil. The Hamamni baths are only a monument, though, and the heat, motorbikes and touts in the lanes mean most people go to the coast for real rest.