Pokhara or Varanasi?

Neither city is a place to swim. Pokhara at least has a lake you can float on in a painted boat and, on its quieter shores or at Begnas Lake, an occasional dip, while the Ganges at Varanasi is polluted and fast-flowing and should be left to pilgrims. In both, a hotel pool is the only real option, and Varanasi has fewer of them.

Varanasi is the better city to eat in, provided you like vegetarian street food. Its mornings of kachori and jalebi, lassi in clay cups, tamatar chaat, winter malaiyo and rolled-to-order paan give a real reason to explore the lanes around Godowlia and the Chowk, even if alcohol is scarce and the range is narrow.

Pokhara's food is built around trekkers, with long international menus along Lakeside. The rewarding meals are Thakali dal bhat, momos and charcoal-grilled buffalo sekuwa in simpler places away from the lake, plus a slow bakery breakfast facing the mountains.

This is where Varanasi is in another league. The curve of more than eighty ghats, the cremations at Manikarnika, the old city's shrine-packed lanes leading to Kashi Vishwanath, and sights such as Ramnagar Fort and Bharat Kala Bhavan make it a place you could spend days simply watching.

Pokhara's sights are pleasant extras rather than reasons to come: the island temple of Tal Barahi, the World Peace Pagoda, the old bazaar and the International Mountain Museum fill a couple of days at most.

Pokhara has the livelier evenings. Lakeside's rooftop bars, cover bands and a couple of small dance bars give trekkers somewhere sociable to celebrate, though things wind down around midnight. Varanasi, as a holy city, barely drinks at all: evenings mean the aarti, a rooftop dinner, chai at Assi Ghat and an early night before the dawn boats.

Pokhara is one of the great mountain bases of the world. Machhapuchhre and the Annapurnas tower over Phewa Lake, Sarangkot draws sunrise watchers and paragliders, and Poon Hill, Ghandruk, Mardi Himal and Annapurna Base Camp all begin a short drive away.

Varanasi's outdoors is the river itself: a sunrise row along the ghats and a walk on the sandbank opposite. Beyond that lies flat farmland, with the Vindhya hills and Chandraprabha's waterfalls a couple of hours south.

Varanasi has the stronger outings, led by Sarnath, half an hour away, where the Buddha first preached and the Dhamek Stupa still stands. Chunar Fort above the Ganges and the fifteenth-century mosques of Jaunpur make further easy days.

From Pokhara, slow mountain roads limit the choice. Bandipur, a car-free Newar hill town about two hours away, is the one true day trip. The Gurung villages are better reached on a trek.

Pokhara is much the kinder place for children. The lakeshore has little traffic, boats are easy to hire, and older children enjoy the pagoda walk, the caves, the mountain museum and, when old enough, tandem paragliding. Teenagers who like the outdoors get the most from it.

Varanasi is very difficult with children, with crowded lanes, cows and open drains, cremations in full view and fierce summer heat. Families who go usually keep it to a dawn boat ride and Sarnath.

Pokhara is the simpler place to find your way around. Lakeside is compact and level, so daily life there runs on foot or by bicycle along the shore. A taxi, scooter or hired driver is only needed for set outings such as Sarangkot, the caves or the trailheads, and those roads are bumpy and slow.

Varanasi's best route is the river itself, a walk of several kilometres from ghat to ghat or the same view from a boat. Step back from the water and it gets much harder: the old city is a disorienting warren on foot, and the newer town is loud and congested. In Pokhara you hire a ride now and then, but in Varanasi almost every trip away from the ghats means agreeing a fare with a rickshaw or auto driver, or booking one through an app.

Varanasi has one of India's great crafts in Banarasi silk brocade, bought from weavers' workshops or the silk houses around Godowlia, along with brassware, wooden toys and musical instruments. Expect touts steering you to particular shops.

Pokhara's shopping is mainly practical: trekking gear to buy or rent along Lakeside, plus pashmina, singing bowls, thangkas and carpets from the Tibetan settlements on the edge of town.

Both are among the cheapest places anywhere to travel, so money goes a long way in either. What differs is where it goes: in Pokhara the bigger costs are paragliding, guided treks and Annapurna permits, while in Varanasi the main sights are free and the temptation is silk or a restored palace hotel on the river.

Varanasi is a true home of Hindustani classical music, with its own gharanas, intimate evening recitals and festivals such as the all-night Sankat Mochan Sangeet Samaroh and the Dhrupad Mela on Tulsi Ghat. The nightly aarti and the month-long Ramlila at Ramnagar add performance on a grand scale.

Pokhara offers little beyond Lakeside cover bands and dinner shows of Gurung and Magar dance staged for visitors.

Pokhara is the more restful stay. Slow mornings watching cloud lift off the Annapurnas, yoga and meditation retreats on the quiet hillsides and the far shore, and massage for sore trekking legs make it a natural place to unwind.

Varanasi has yoga, meditation and Ayurvedic massage around Assi Ghat, and dawn on the river can be deeply calming. The rest of the city is loud and emotionally intense, though, so rest is something you have to plan for.