Puerto Plata or Varadero?

Both are beach destinations, but Varadero's sand is in a different class: one unbroken strip of powdery white along the whole peninsula, shallow and usually calm, with quieter stretches towards the eastern tip. You can walk out of almost any hotel and swim.

Puerto Plata's beaches are spread out and more varied. The town beach is for strolling, Playa Dorada and Cofresí carry the resorts, Sosúa's reef-sheltered bay is the place to snorkel, and Cabarete and Encuentro have surf rather than still water. Winter swells and seaweed can interrupt things here more often.

Neither is a place to travel for the food, but Puerto Plata gives you more reason to eat out. Fried fish with coconut rice, mofongo and sancocho are served in roadside comedores, and Sosúa and Cabarete have a wider spread of beachfront restaurants.

In Varadero most meals come from resort buffets, and the few private restaurants in town depend on whatever ingredients turn up. Its best moments are the simple ones, a daiquiri or mojito and a cup of strong Cuban coffee.

Puerto Plata offers a proper day of sightseeing: gingerbread-trimmed Victorian houses around Parque Independencia, the sixteenth-century Fortaleza San Felipe on the Malecón and the Amber Museum in its old mansion. It has the feel of a working town with a past.

Varadero is a resort strip, and you can see its sights in a morning: the Du Pont family's Xanadu Mansion on its headland, a small museum in a wooden summer house and cave drawings in the Varahicacos reserve. For Cuban history and architecture you have to leave the peninsula.

Both have small, cheerful scenes built around dancing, and in both many guests never leave the resort bars and shows. Puerto Plata has a little more spread: locals gathering at the seafront kiosks on the Malecón, merengue and bachata in small clubs, and the beach-bar strip in Cabarete for a bigger night.

Varadero's evenings centre on a few streets in town, where salsa clubs show off skilled local dancers and a disco sits inside a limestone cave. Nights there tend to finish earlier.

This is where Puerto Plata pulls well ahead. A mountain rises straight behind the town, with a cable car to a botanical garden and cloud forest at about 800m, and the Damajagua waterfalls, the Cabarete kitesurfing flats and the hill country inland give a week of varied outings.

Varadero's peninsula is low limestone scrub and mangrove, so outdoor time here mostly means the water: catamarans to the cays, diving on wrecks, deep-sea fishing. On land, the short Varahicacos trails and the Saturno cave pool are the highlights, with the Zapata wetlands a long day away.

Varadero has the better trump card. Havana lies about two hours west, and Old Havana makes one of the great day trips in the Caribbean. Matanzas, with its theatre and old French pharmacy, and the horse-cart streets of Cárdenas are much closer.

Puerto Plata's outings are pleasant rather than unmissable. You could cross the mountains to Santiago with its cigar heritage, see the ruins of Columbus's La Isabela, or take a boat to the Cayo Arena sandbars, but the colonial capital is out of range.

For families the two come out roughly even, and both rely on all-inclusive resorts with kids' clubs and pools. Varadero's advantage is the sea itself: shallow and gentle almost everywhere along the sand. The drawback is that medicines, nappies and special foods are hard to find there, so families should bring their own.

Puerto Plata has calm water only in places such as Sosúa, but it has more to keep older children busy, from the cable car to jumping through the Damajagua pools.

Getting around is similar in both, and neither is easy. In each place you can walk the old centre, but most travel means taxis, tours or a hired driver. What differs is the style. Puerto Plata runs on flagged-down guaguas and risky motoconchos along a busy coast road, with assertive driving.

Varadero is a single flat road down a narrow peninsula, served by an open-top tourist bus, coco-taxis and horse carriages, and easy to cover by rented bike.

Puerto Plata has more worth buying. Larimar, the sky-blue stone found only on this island, and local amber are sold across the centre alongside cigars, coffee and mamajuana. Varadero's craft markets on the main avenue sell carvings and crochet, and genuine rum and cigars from the official shops are the main things to take home. Even simple everyday items can be scarce there.

Step outside the hotel and Puerto Plata is the cheaper of the two. A comedor plate of rice, beans and meat, a guagua ride along the coast to Sosúa and a room in a simple guesthouse in town all cost little, and its all-inclusive packages give fair value for what they include.

Varadero's strength is the package itself, which undercuts many rival white-sand resorts. Once you roam on your own the advantage fades, because taxis, private restaurants and excursions there are priced for visitors and imported goods are dear, so an independent trip ends up closer to middling.

Neither has a theatre or concert season, but Varadero's music runs deeper. Son and salsa trios play in hotel lobbies, the bands in town are often excellent, and Havana's ballet and serious Cuban music are within reach.

Puerto Plata's music lives mostly in the street, with merengue and bachata from bars and car stereos, and its February carnival with costumed devils is the main event.

Puerto Plata is the harder place to switch off. The town is loud with motorbikes and music, so rest mostly means staying inside a resort, with massages on the beach under the palms or the yoga classes that Cabarete's surf crowd has brought.

Varadero does quiet better, especially in the calmer resorts towards the eastern end of the peninsula, where long, warm days pass with nothing to organise. Neither has a bathing tradition of its own, and in both the spa treatments come from hotel spas, which in Varadero vary in standard and supplies.