Puerto Escondido or San Miguel de Allende?

Puerto Escondido is a beach town first and foremost. The Pacific stays warm all year. Zicatela's golden sand is for watching big surf, while the coves at Carrizalillo, Puerto Angelito and Manzanillo give calm, clear water for swimming and snorkelling.

San Miguel de Allende sits on the high plateau, many hours from any coast. The nearest it gets to swimming is a hotel pool or a soak in the hot springs.

San Miguel de Allende has the stronger table. It has courtyard and rooftop restaurants around the Jardín, chefs working with Bajío ingredients like nopal and mesquite, and wines from Guanajuato's high desert, with good street food at the Mercado Ignacio Ramírez.

Puerto Escondido is simpler and leans on the sea. The best meals are whole fish grilled a la talla, ceviche at the palapas and Oaxacan tlayudas and moles at the market. There is little to eat beyond these, apart from the pizza and poke cafés of the surf districts.

The gap here is wide. San Miguel's whole centre is the sight, with the pink spires of the Parroquia, the baroque Oratorio de San Felipe Neri, the Casa de Allende museum and the art schools and galleries that give the town its identity. Two unhurried days cover the main sights.

Puerto Escondido has a modest centre around El Adoquín, a small church and a lighthouse. Its culture is found in the fishing beach, the market and the festivals, not in buildings.

Puerto Escondido has a little more energy after dark. La Punta's open-air bars run reggaeton and electronic nights late into the high season, and Zicatela has sunset and mezcal bars along the sand.

San Miguel's evenings are more grown-up. You start with rooftop drinks as the Parroquia lights up, then move on to mezcal bars and cantinas, and the centre only stays out late at weekends. Neither town has a real club scene.

Puerto Escondido's outdoors is the ocean, and it offers far more. There is world-famous surf at Zicatela and gentler breaks for learners, as well as whales in winter and bioluminescence on the Manialtepec lagoon. The mangroves and crocodiles of Lagunas de Chacahua are about an hour and a half away.

San Miguel offers a quieter landscape of semi-arid highlands. Its options are the cactus trails of El Charco del Ingenio, horse riding, mountain biking and dawn balloon flights. These are good for a morning out rather than whole days.

Day trips are one of San Miguel's great strengths. Guanajuato's painted ravine and Querétaro's aqueduct and convents are each about an hour away, and Atotonilco's muralled sanctuary is closer still. Dolores Hidalgo, Bernal, the pyramids at Cañada de la Virgen and the wine country are also within reach.

From Puerto Escondido the choices are almost all beach villages: Mazunte, Zipolite and San Agustinillo, Huatulco's bays or Chacahua. Oaxaca city is too far for a day out.

Puerto Escondido makes the easier family trip if what you want is simple beach days. The sheltered coves are safe for paddling, and turtle releases, dolphin trips and surf lessons please older children. The big open beaches are off-limits for swimming, though, and the heat is strong.

San Miguel is an adult town of galleries and rooftop bars. The cobbles defeat pushchairs, and younger children will soon run out of things to do, though the evening Jardín, the hot spring pools and the fiestas help.

San Miguel is a little easier, because everything is within a walk of the Jardín. That walk is steep, over uneven stones and at about 1,900m, so good shoes matter.

Puerto Escondido is spread over a few kilometres in separate pockets, so you take taxis or colectivo vans between the centre, Rinconada and Zicatela. In both towns, trips further afield need a driver or a tour.

San Miguel is far better for shopping, as long as you are after crafts and décor rather than fashion. The stepped Mercado de Artesanías sells tin lanterns, glass and silver, design shops carry talavera and carved furniture, and a former textile mill houses studios and antique dealers.

Puerto Escondido has stalls of embroidered blouses, alebrijes and hammocks on El Adoquín, plus surf shops. A bottle of mezcal is the best thing to take home.

Puerto Escondido is the cheaper of the two, with market meals, palapa lunches, taxis and simple guesthouses, and almost no paid sights. The design hotels and international restaurants of Zicatela and La Punta can still run up a bill.

San Miguel is one of Mexico's dearer towns. Boutique hotels in colonial houses and restaurants around the Jardín are aimed at foreign residents and weekenders. Street food, cantinas and the free pleasure of the streets keep it manageable.

San Miguel has much more to attend. The nineteenth-century Teatro Ángela Peralta hosts concerts and dance, chamber music and jazz festivals come round in their seasons, and mariachis play nightly on the Jardín.

In Puerto Escondido the music happens in the bars of Zicatela and La Punta, with bands, DJs and the odd son jarocho night, plus the November festival. There is no theatre or concert hall.

San Miguel has the edge, thanks largely to the hot mineral pools and domed grottoes towards Atotonilco. It also has day spas, temazcal and yoga in town, and the dry, mild climate makes it a pleasure to do nothing on a rooftop.

Puerto Escondido relaxes you in a different way, through the heat and the tides. Open-air yoga studios and retreats, temazcal ceremonies and cheap beach massages make up for the lack of thermal baths or spas, but light sleepers should avoid La Punta.