Oaxaca or Cancun?

Here the gap is as wide as it gets. Cancun has some 22km of pale coral sand along the Hotel Zone. The northern arm has calm bay water for small swimmers, the eastern shore has open-Caribbean surf, and Playa Norte on Isla Mujeres is a ferry ride away.

Oaxaca sits high in a mountain valley, and in town swimming means a hotel pool. Its Pacific beaches at Puerto Escondido, Mazunte and Huatulco are a separate leg of the journey, which is why many visitors add a few days on the coast at the end.

Cancun eats well only once you leave the beach strip. Downtown taco stands, Mercado 28 and Yucatecan dishes such as cochinita pibil and sopa de lima are worth the bus ride, while the Hotel Zone runs mostly on buffets and international menus.

Oaxaca is a reason to travel in itself. Its moles, charcoal-crisped tlayudas, the grill aisle of Mercado 20 de Noviembre, village mezcal and morning hot chocolate are part of daily life, and chef-led tasting menus built on local maize take it further. Both cities cook regional Mexican food, but Oaxaca's kitchen has far more depth.

Cancun was built as a resort from the 1970s. Apart from the Maya Museum, with the San Miguelito ruins in its grounds, its history lies elsewhere.

Oaxaca's UNESCO-listed centre of pale green stone, the gilded interior of Santo Domingo, the Tomb 7 gold in the Museo de las Culturas and the printmaking tradition behind its galleries fill two or three full days. Monte Albán is only twenty minutes away.

For a big night out, Cancun wins easily. The Party Center at the bend of the Hotel Zone has huge clubs with shows and open bars, and the crowds stay until four or five in the morning, though nearly every venue aims at the same vacation crowd.

Oaxaca's evenings are slower and more personal. Think mezcal tasting bars in the centre and Jalatlaco, rooftop terraces facing the domes of Santo Domingo and the odd salsa night. It is the place for good drinks after a long dinner, not for serious clubbing.

Both have a strong outdoor side, but of opposite kinds. Cancun's is all water: reef snorkelling and diving off Puerto Morelos and Isla Mujeres, the MUSA sculptures, cenotes inland, whale sharks in summer and kayaking through the lagoon's mangroves. There is no hiking to speak of.

Oaxaca's outdoors is on foot and in the hills. The Sierra Norte villages run trails and cabins through pine-oak and cloud forest, the mineral cliffs of Hierve el Agua make an easy half-day, and the valley floor suits mountain biking among the agave fields.

Both make good bases, but the distances differ. From Cancun, the big Maya sites of Chichen Itza, Coba and Ek Balam each take two hours or more by road, while Isla Mujeres, Playa del Carmen and Tulum are the easier outings along the coast.

Oaxaca's excursions are smaller and closer, most of them within an hour in the Central Valleys. They include the Tule cypress, Teotitlán's weavers, Mitla's stone fretwork and the mezcal distilleries of Matatlán, with the remote monasteries of the Mixteca Alta for a longer day. Cancun has the grander sites, and Oaxaca lets you fit more stops into a day.

Cancun is far easier with children. Kids' clubs, shallow pools, the gentle bay beaches, an aquarium and the eco-parks down the coast fill a week without effort, though the summer heat and the eastern currents need watching.

Oaxaca welcomes children warmly, and older ones enjoy painting alebrijes or joining a chocolate-making session. With no zoo or theme park, unshaded ruins and cobbles that defeat pushchairs, though, younger children may tire of it.

Cancun is spread along one long boulevard, where walking is hot and the pavements are patchy. Buses along Boulevard Kukulcan are frequent and the ADO coaches are reliable, but most outings still mean a tour, a taxi or a hire car on the peninsula's straight roads.

Oaxaca is the easier city to move about in, because its centre is compact. Most sights lie within a twenty-minute walk of the zócalo on a simple grid, and cheap taxis and colectivos cover the valley villages.

Cancun's shopping is mainly in air-conditioned malls, with international labels and duty-free along the Hotel Zone. Mercado 28 sells crafts, but the same stock repeats from stall to stall.

Oaxaca is much the better place to buy something worth keeping. Cooperative galleries around the Macedonio Alcalá sell handwoven textiles, black pottery and alebrijes, and in the villages where these things are made you can often buy from the maker. The weekly markets at Tlacolula and Ocotlán are a pleasure to wander.

Cancun's Hotel Zone is priced for foreign visitors, and resort meals, drinks in the Party Center and tours add up fast. Staying and eating downtown narrows the gap considerably.

Oaxaca stretches a budget much further. Market meals, family-run fondas, colectivos and simple guesthouses cost little. Only the boutique hotels, the tasting menus and the festival weeks push prices up.

Cancun's live entertainment is staged for visitors. It means dinner shows with mariachi, resort entertainment and big evening spectacles at the eco-parks.

Neither city is a place for opera or orchestras, but Oaxaca has the more genuine performance life. The Guelaguetza each July brings dancers from across the state to a hillside auditorium, and the Day of the Dead fills the streets with music. Through the rest of the year there are concerts at the Teatro Macedonio Alcalá and marimba players in the zócalo.

The two are about level for unwinding, but the rest they offer is quite different. In Cancun you buy it from a resort. The large beach hotels run full spa circuits with the Caribbean in view, and an all-inclusive week asks nothing of you. The catch is the strip itself, which stays busy and loud late into the night, so anyone wanting real peace does better at its quiet southern tip or across the water on Isla Mujeres.

Oaxaca has less luxury and more stillness. Here the temazcal is a ritual still kept in Zapotec and Mixtec villages and led by a healer, not just an item on a spa menu, and joining one in the valley feels nothing like a hotel treatment. The town does the rest, with its unhurried rhythm, cool patios behind the colonial walls and the leafy lanes of Jalatlaco. It has no large thermal baths, though, and festival weeks bring fireworks and crowds.