Playa del Carmen or Puebla?

The gap here could hardly be wider. Playa del Carmen has sand along its whole seafront, from the beach clubs north of the ferry pier to quieter Playacar and Punta Esmeralda, with warm water kept calm by the reef. Even better beaches lie at Xpu-Ha and Akumal and across the strait on Cozumel.

Puebla is high inland and several hours from the Gulf coast, so swimming means a hotel pool or a spring-fed balneario on the edge of the city. Anyone who wants the sea at all should choose Playa.

Puebla is a city worth travelling to for its food. Mole poblano and chiles en nogada began in its convent kitchens, and the street food is just as much its own: cemitas, chalupas and tacos árabes. Cheap fondas surround the centre and the Calle de los Dulces sells convent sweets.

Playa del Carmen eats well but more casually. The tourist menus on Quinta Avenida are uneven, while a few blocks inland you will find better al pastor, cochinita pibil and ceviche, and the Italian and Argentine community cooks good pizza and pasta. What Playa has that Puebla lacks is seafood eaten by the sea.

Puebla can fill days of sightseeing, Playa del Carmen barely an hour. Puebla has a colonial grid of red-brick and Talavera house fronts, a cathedral with towering spires, the gilded Capilla del Rosario, the Palafoxiana library and the Museo Amparo, making it one of Mexico's richest old towns.

Playa del Carmen grew from a fishing village into a resort, and in town it has only the small Xaman Ha ruins in Playacar, a white chapel facing the sea and a few galleries. Its history lies outside town, at the Maya sites on the coast and in the jungle.

Playa del Carmen is clearly the livelier place to go out. Calle 12 and the blocks where it meets Quinta Avenida are packed with bars and clubs playing reggaeton and EDM until late, beach clubs hold day parties and the rooftops fill up at sunset. The scene is loud and fairly uniform, and the strip has touts.

Evenings in Puebla are gentler: mezcal bars, cantinas and terraces looking at the cathedral, around the Callejón de los Sapos. For dancing, students go to the bars near the university in Cholula or to the clubs of Angelópolis.

Playa del Carmen has the more remarkable natural setting, though much of it is underwater. The Ruta de los Cenotes, the Mesoamerican Reef with Cozumel's dive walls, Akumal's turtles and the lagoons of Sian Ka'an make it a base for snorkelling and diving. The flat jungle offers no hiking.

Puebla is the opposite, with volcanoes rather than water. Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl stand on the skyline, and La Malinche and the Izta-Popo park offer serious walks at high altitude, though almost every outing needs a car or an early bus.

Both cities make good bases and are broadly level here, but the outings differ in kind. From Playa del Carmen they lead to Maya ruins and islands: Tulum on its sea cliff, Coba in the jungle, Cozumel by ferry and, on a long day, Chichen Itza and colonial Valladolid.

From Puebla the trips are shorter and more colonial. Cholula's huge pyramid is within half an hour, and nearby are the tiled village churches of Tonantzintla and Acatepec, Huejotzingo's convent, and Tlaxcala with the Cacaxtla murals. Mexico City makes a long but realistic day.

Children in Playa del Carmen can spend whole days at Xcaret, Xel-Ha and Xplor, floating down underground rivers, snorkelling in lagoons and riding zip lines. Back in town the sea inside the reef is warm and often calm, and shallow cenotes and Akumal's turtles make memorable outings. The main things to plan around are the strong sun and the sticky summer heat.

In Puebla there is less to fill the days. Its one big draw for children is the drive-through Africam Safari, with the Angelópolis wheel and the tunnels inside Cholula's pyramid as shorter outings. Most of its other sights are churches and museums, and traffic, narrow pavements and the altitude tire small legs.

Both centres are flat and easy to walk, but Playa del Carmen is simpler beyond its centre. Colectivo vans on Highway 307 drop you at beaches and cenotes, buses run to Tulum and the airport, ferries cross to Cozumel and the Tren Maya stops on the edge of town. Taxis are unmetered, so agree the fare first.

In Puebla the sights cluster within a short walk of the zócalo. Getting to Cholula, Angelópolis or Africam usually means a taxi or a ride-hailing app, because there is no metro and the local buses are hard for visitors to follow.

Puebla is the better place to buy something worth taking home. Talavera is the city's own craft, sold by workshops where you can watch it being painted. El Parián, the weekend antiques stalls on the Callejón de los Sapos and the boxed sweets add variety, and the Angelópolis malls carry the brands.

Shopping in Playa del Carmen happens along one long street, Quinta Avenida. It sells mostly beachwear, silver, tequila and souvenir crafts of mixed quality, with a few linen boutiques further north.

Puebla is much cheaper, even by Mexican standards. Street food, market lunches and taxis cost little, and a room in a restored colonial house near the zócalo is good value.

Playa del Carmen is priced for international visitors, and its resorts, beach clubs, eco-parks and dive trips cost close to what you would pay in the West. You can keep costs down by staying a few blocks back from the beach, eating at inland taco stands and taking colectivos, but you start from a higher level.

Neither city is worth the trip for performance, but Puebla has more to see. The Teatro Principal, one of the oldest theatres in the Americas, still stages plays and concerts, the university's cultural complex hosts dance and orchestral evenings, and the 5 de Mayo festivities bring folk dance into the streets.

In Playa del Carmen the choice is bar bands, fire dancers on the beach and the large evening spectacle at Xcaret.

With the beach setting an easy pace, unwinding comes more naturally in Playa del Carmen. Resort spas, massages by the sea, yoga studios in the quieter northern streets and temazcal ceremonies along the coast are easy to find, provided you sleep in Playacar or near the northern beaches rather than by the late-night strip.

Puebla has no bathing tradition of its own, and what it does offer is scattered: a few temazcal lodges around the city and Cholula, the sulphur-water pools at Agua Azul, and hot springs further out in the state that take most of a day. Rest there comes from the old town's own slow rhythm more than from any spa, and that calm fades quickly once you leave the centre for the busy roads beyond.