Nairobi or Windhoek?

Neither city works for a beach trip. Both sit on high inland plateaus, and swimming in either means a hotel pool.

The difference is in how you would add a coast. From Nairobi it is a short flight or a long train ride to the warm Indian Ocean. From Windhoek it is four hours across the desert to Swakopmund, where the cold Atlantic rarely invites a swim.

Nairobi has more range at the table. Beyond nyama choma and ugali there is the cooking of its long-settled South Asian community, plenty of Ethiopian restaurants, Swahili dishes with coconut from the coast, and fresh Kenyan coffee in the cafés of Westlands and Kilimani.

Windhoek's cooking draws on two narrower traditions: game meat such as oryx and kudu, and German bakeries and beer halls. Grilled kapana eaten standing in Katutura is the most memorable meal, but for a longer stay the choice soon runs thin.

Both are young colonial-era capitals that most visitors see in a day or two, so neither gives much reason to stay for its sights. What differs is the focus. Nairobi's strength is human origins and Kenyan peoples, with the early fossils at the National Museum and the Out of Africa farmhouse at the Karen Blixen Museum.

Windhoek has more of a townscape, with the sandstone Christuskirche, the Tintenpalast and the white Alte Feste together on one ridge. The Independence Memorial Museum tells the story of the Herero and Nama genocide and the liberation struggle with unusual frankness.

Nairobi has the far bigger night out. Westlands rooftop bars and clubs play Afrobeats, gengetone and bongo flava until dawn from Thursday on, and Kilimani has quieter cocktail bars for an easier evening.

In Windhoek a night out usually means a long dinner and a beer garden, with only a handful of clubs at weekends and the Katutura shebeens best visited with a local. The two share one rule: it is not safe to walk between venues after dark, so you take a car door to door.

Nairobi has wildlife few cities can match. Its national park starts at the southern edge of the city, so a dawn game drive is a real safari, and Karura Forest and the Ngong Hills give walks without leaving town. Within two hours you can reach Hell's Gate, the hippos of Lake Naivasha and the crater rim of Longonot.

Windhoek's surroundings are gentler: thornbush highland, granite koppies and hiking among zebra and oryx at Daan Viljoen. Namibia's famous dunes and Etosha's wildlife need an overnight trip, while Nairobi's best scenery fits into a day.

Neither city is a good base for days out, but Nairobi has a little more to offer. You can spend a half-day among the Limuru tea estates or see the hand axes lying where they were found at Olorgesailie in the Rift Valley.

From Windhoek, the woodcarvers' market at Okahandja and the springs at Gross Barmen are about the limit. Everything else Namibia is known for, including Swakopmund, belongs on a road trip with overnight stops.

Nairobi gives children experiences they will remember: feeding Rothschild's giraffes from a raised platform, watching baby elephants roll in the mud and seeing lions on a short morning drive. The price is long journeys in traffic and few pavements, so staying in Karen or Langata helps.

Windhoek has no zoo, aquarium or theme park, and a farm game drive is the main event for children. It is calmer and easy to manage with a hire car, but families mostly pass through on the way to Etosha.

Both cities are hard to get around without a car, and in both the small centre is walkable by day while walking after dark is a bad idea. Nairobi's difficulty is congestion: its sights are spread across the suburbs, short trips can take an hour at rush hour and the matatu routes are hard to work out, so you rely on ride-hailing.

Windhoek's roads are quieter, but there is no bus service a visitor can use and the shared taxis run informal routes. Most people hire a car, which they need anyway for the drive beyond the city.

Both cities are for craft shopping rather than fashion, and Nairobi has more to see. The Maasai Market moves around the city and is full of beadwork, soapstone and kiondo baskets, and Karen workshops let you watch glass being blown. Kenyan coffee and tea make easy gifts to take home.

Windhoek gathers its crafts in one place, the Namibia Craft Centre in the old brewery, with Herero dolls, ostrich-shell jewellery and leather goods. Semi-precious stones and karakul wool are local specialities, and its malls are mainly useful for stocking up before a road trip.

The two cost about the same and follow a similar pattern: local food and drink are cheap, and the visitor's bill rises with lodging and wildlife. In Nairobi, the expense is secure international hotels and the higher park fees for non-residents, plus a vehicle and driver for game drives.

Windhoek's suburban guest houses are better value than Nairobi's business hotels. What costs money there is car hire and the internationally priced lodges and safaris of the wider Namibian trip.

Nairobi has a real live music scene, with benga, rumba and jazz bands in clubs and garden venues at weekends. At Bomas of Kenya, troupes perform dances from Kenya's many communities, and there are spoken-word and comedy nights as well.

Windhoek depends mostly on the National Theatre of Namibia and occasional student concerts, and shambo and Namibian kwaito turn up only now and then. Neither city has much opera or classical music, so in both it pays to check the listings.

Neither has a spa tradition, and treatments in both mean hotel spas. The difference is in the setting. In Nairobi, calm is something you have to look for, away from the noise in the garden hotels and veranda breakfasts of Karen and Langata.

Windhoek is quiet as a whole, a small low-rise capital with clear, cool winter nights. It also has thermal pools at Gross Barmen within an hour's drive, which Nairobi cannot offer.