Puebla or Puerto Escondido?

Puebla has no beach at all. It sits on a plateau above 2,000m, hours from the Gulf coast, and swimming means a hotel pool or a spring-fed balneario.

Puerto Escondido is built around the sand, but it pays to pick your spot. Zicatela is for watching surfers, not swimming. The sheltered coves of Carrizalillo, Puerto Angelito and Manzanillo have calm, clear water for snorkelling, and the villages of Mazunte and Zipolite add more coves about an hour along the coast.

Puebla pulls clearly ahead here. Mole poblano and chiles en nogada were born in this city, and the everyday food is distinctive enough to plan your days around: cemitas, chalupas, tacos árabes and convent sweets from the Calle de los Dulces.

Puerto Escondido eats well but simply: fish grilled a la talla, ceviche at the beach palapas, Oaxacan tlayudas in the market, and pizza and poke bowls in the surf districts. It makes for a pleasant week of beach meals rather than a reason to travel.

Puebla is worth visiting for its sights alone. The UNESCO-listed centre with its Talavera house fronts, the gilded Capilla del Rosario, the Biblioteca Palafoxiana and the Museo Amparo fill two or three unhurried days.

Puerto Escondido has almost none of this. A walk along El Adoquin to the lighthouse, the fishing beach and the town's festivals are the culture on offer. For churches and museums you have to go inland to Oaxaca city.

Neither offers a big night out, but evenings feel quite different in each. Puebla's revolve around mezcal bars, cantinas and rooftop terraces facing the cathedral, while the student crowd and the small clubs are out in Cholula and Angelópolis.

Puerto Escondido goes out barefoot. People start at the sunset bars on Zicatela, then move on to reggaeton and electronic parties at La Punta, which run late in the winter high season and thin out once the rains arrive.

Puerto Escondido's outdoors are livelier and closer at hand. The surf runs from beginner breaks to Zicatela's heavy barrels, boats go out to see dolphins and passing whales, the Manialtepec lagoon glows with bioluminescence and the mangroves of Chacahua are within reach.

Puebla offers mountains instead. The snowy peaks of Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl fill the skyline on clear winter mornings, and La Malinche is a serious day hike to a summit above 4,400m. Almost every outing needs a car, a tour or an early bus.

Puebla makes a strong base. Cholula's Great Pyramid is half an hour away and the tiled village churches of Tonantzintla and Acatepec are right beside it. Tlaxcala with the Cacaxtla murals, flower-growing Atlixco and even Mexico City can all be done in a day.

From Puerto Escondido, most outings mean more beach: Mazunte, Zipolite, the bays of Huatulco or the lagoon village of Chacahua. Oaxaca city and the mezcal valleys are too far for a day out and need a night away.

Puebla has a little more for children, above all the drive-through animal park at Africam Safari. There is also the observation wheel at Angelópolis and the tunnels inside Cholula's pyramid, though most of the centre is churches and museums aimed at adults.

Puerto Escondido's pleasures are simpler: paddling in the calm coves, turtle hatchling releases and gentle surf lessons for older children. The heat, the dangerous open beaches and the lack of anything built for children make it harder going with toddlers.

Both are walkable in parts and rely on taxis beyond them. In Puebla, walking is part of the pleasure. The historic centre is a flat colonial grid with nearly everything within twenty minutes of the zócalo, and taxis or ride-hailing cover the trips to Angelópolis and Cholula.

Puerto Escondido is split into hilly, hot pockets: the centre, Rinconada and Zicatela. Plentiful taxis and colectivo vans link them, and some visitors rent scooters for roads that are busy and uneven.

Puebla has a signature craft worth carrying home: Talavera pottery, bought from workshops where you can watch it being painted. Add onyx at El Parián, weekend antiques on the Callejón de los Sapos and the Angelópolis malls for international brands.

Puerto Escondido's shopping is what you would expect of a beach town. El Adoquin has embroidered blouses, alebrijes and hammocks, Zicatela has surf shops and swimwear, and a bottle of mezcal is the best thing to take home.

Puebla is the cheaper stay overall. Hotels in restored colonial houses near the zócalo, market lunches and inexpensive taxis keep costs low, and museum entry is modest.

Puerto Escondido can come close if you stick to street tacos, palapa lunches and simple guesthouses, and there are almost no paid sights. But Zicatela and La Punta cater to a foreign crowd, and their design hotels, villas and restaurants, along with the Mexican vacation weeks at Christmas and Easter, quickly raise the bill.

Neither is a place to travel to for performance, but Puebla at least gives you something to book. The historic Teatro Principal stages plays and concerts, the university's cultural complex hosts dance and orchestral evenings, and folk dance fills the streets around the 5 de Mayo anniversary.

Puerto Escondido has bar bands, DJs and the occasional son jarocho night in Zicatela and La Punta. The November festival brings music and traditional dances, but there is no theatre or concert hall.

Unwinding comes easily in Puerto Escondido. There are open-air yoga studios and retreats in Zicatela and the hills behind it, with more in Mazunte, and temazcal ceremonies and cheap beach massages are easy to find. The only caution is to sleep away from La Punta's late nights.

In Puebla, relaxing means shaded courtyards, quiet plazas in the morning and long lunches, perhaps with a temazcal near Cholula or a dip in the sulphur pools at Agua Azul. Traffic outside the old centre breaks the calm.