Nuevo Vallarta or Oaxaca?

Nuevo Vallarta has kilometres of soft golden sand that slope gently into a warm bay, and the sea is calm enough for children on most days. Sayulita's surf and the Punta Mita coves are within an hour if you want a change.

Oaxaca sits in a highland valley with mountains between it and the Pacific, so in the city swimming means a hotel pool. Visitors who want both usually add a few days at Puerto Escondido or Mazunte, several hours away, rather than trying to fit the sea into a city stay.

Food is one of the main reasons to go to Oaxaca. There are the moles, tlayudas crisped over charcoal, the smoky meat aisle of the Mercado 20 de Noviembre and mezcal from the valley distilleries, with chef-led tasting menus on top. You can eat very well without planning anything.

In Nuevo Vallarta most meals are eaten inside the resort. The coast has its own dishes, such as pescado zarandeado and aguachile with a glass of raicilla, but to find them you take a taxi to the seafood shacks of Bucerias or the restaurants of Puerto Vallarta.

The difference is as wide as it gets. Oaxaca's grid of green volcanic stone, the gilded interior of Santo Domingo, the Monte Albán gold in the former monastery beside it and the Tamayo and Textile museums fill two or three days. The Zapotec hilltop capital itself is twenty minutes away.

Nuevo Vallarta is a planned resort zone with no historic centre or museums of its own. The nearest cobbled streets and crowned parish church are in Puerto Vallarta, and getting there is an outing.

Neither is a clubbing city, but Oaxaca gives you an evening out on your doorstep, with mezcal tasting bars in the centre and Jalatlaco, drinks on rooftops above the domes and the odd salsa night at weekends. Nuevo Vallarta goes quiet around the resort bars by midnight. Its late nights, including the Zona Romantica gay scene, are a taxi ride south in Puerto Vallarta.

Nuevo Vallarta has the stronger outdoor draw, and almost all of it is on the water. Humpback whales calve in the bay from December to March, you can snorkel at the Marietas Islands and turtle hatchlings are released in summer and autumn. The Ameca mangroves and the surf at Punta Mita and Sayulita are close by.

Oaxaca's outdoors is on foot and in the mountains. In the Sierra Norte, the villages of the Pueblos Mancomunados run trails from village to village through cloud forest at up to about 3,000m, and the petrified falls of Hierve el Agua make a good half-day.

Oaxaca has the richer ring of outings because they carry history. There are Mitla's fretwork palace, the Tule cypress, the caves below Yagul, the weavers of Teotitlán and the lonely monasteries of the Mixteca Alta, and most are within an hour by cheap colectivo.

Nuevo Vallarta's trips are about towns and coast: Puerto Vallarta's old town half an hour south, Sayulita and San Pancho to the north, boat-only Yelapa and the old mining village of San Sebastian del Oeste in the hills. They make pleasant days out, but there are no ruins or colonial monuments within reach.

Nuevo Vallarta is the easier choice with children. The resorts have shallow pools, slides and kids' clubs, the beach shelves gently, and children remember outings such as whale watching and turtle releases at dusk. The summer heat limits time outside to mornings and evenings.

Oaxaca welcomes children warmly, and older ones enjoy painting alebrijes or making chocolate. Its main sights, though, are ruins with little shade and cobbled streets that are hard going with a pushchair.

Oaxaca's centre is compact enough to walk. Nearly everything is within twenty minutes of the zócalo along the pedestrian Macedonio Alcalá, and colectivos or a hired driver cover the valley villages.

Nuevo Vallarta stretches along a boulevard of resorts and golf courses, and little beyond the beach is within walking distance. Taxis, resort shuttles or a hire car do most of the work. Its one advantage is an airport about twenty minutes away.

Oaxaca is one of Mexico's great places to buy crafts. You can find handwoven rugs in Teotitlán, black barro negro pottery in San Bartolo Coyotepec, and carved alebrijes and embroidered huipiles in the galleries around the Alcalá, and the weekly markets at Tlacolula and Ocotlán are worth a visit.

Nuevo Vallarta's own shops sell mostly swimwear and souvenirs in a modest mall. The region's Huichol beadwork is worth buying, but the good selection is in Bucerias or at Puerto Vallarta's river market.

Oaxaca makes a budget go much further. Market tlayudas, lunches at family-run fondas, cheap taxis and modest entry to the ruins keep daily costs low. Only the boutique hotels, the tasting menus and the festival weeks push prices up.

Nuevo Vallarta is built around resorts and condominiums aimed at North American visitors, and everything inside the enclave is priced to match. An all-inclusive package makes the bill predictable, and tacos in Bucerias cost a fraction of a resort meal.

Neither has a strong year-round stage, but Oaxaca has the bigger occasions: the Guelaguetza dances each July and the processions and music of the Day of the Dead. Between festivals, the state band plays in the zócalo and the Teatro Macedonio Alcalá puts on concerts. In Nuevo Vallarta, performance means resort shows, mariachi dinners and one acrobatic dinner theatre, and the only step up is the cabaret and drag stages of Puerto Vallarta.

Both offer the temazcal sweat lodge, but in very different settings. In Nuevo Vallarta it is part of a resort spa with hydrotherapy circuits, beach yoga and massages under palapas, so the experience depends on your hotel, and the whole stay is built around doing nothing.

In Oaxaca you can join a temazcal ceremony led by a traditional healer in a valley village. The calm comes from the city's easy pace: shaded courtyards, slow mornings over hot chocolate and quiet gardens in Jalatlaco, though festival weeks bring fireworks and crowds.