Puerto Vallarta or Zihuatanejo?

Both towns are first-rate for a beach vacation, but the beaches are different. Puerto Vallarta's coarse golden sand runs around a huge bay. In town, Playa Los Muertos is lively and lined with loungers. Further south, small coves under the mountains are reached by water taxi, and proper surf beaches are about an hour north.

Zihuatanejo's bay is deeper and more sheltered. Most days are spent on the pale crescent of Playa La Ropa or at Las Gatas, where an old stone reef keeps the water flat and clear. Its own town beach belongs to the fishing boats, and the open beaches at Ixtapa need care in the surf.

Puerto Vallarta is the better place to eat over a week, mainly because it offers more choice. Alongside the beach seafood it has an evening street-food scene, with taco carts on the corners of the centre and the Zona Romántica, and above that a tier of chef-run dining rooms in the hills for a special night. The weak spot is the Malecón and the hotel strips, where the food is safe and aimed at tourists, so the best meals are a few streets back.

Zihuatanejo has a narrower range and few places for a polished dinner, but it does simple things well. Fish comes off that morning's boats and is eaten at a palapa on the sand, and Thursday pozole and breakfasts at the municipal market give it a Guerrero home-cooking character of its own.

Neither town is a sightseeing destination, but Puerto Vallarta fills more of a spare afternoon. You can climb its red-tiled lanes to the crown-topped Guadalupe church, walk the sculpture-lined Malecón and look round the galleries and the small museum on the Cuale river island. Zihuatanejo has one useful archaeological museum on the Costa Grande coast. Otherwise its interest lies in the working fishermen's pier and the plain grid of whitewashed streets.

The two towns are very different after dark. Puerto Vallarta has open-fronted clubs facing the sea along the Malecón that get going after midnight. The Zona Romántica has rooftop and mezcal bars and one of Latin America's best-known gay scenes.

Zihuatanejo's evenings are mostly a sunset drink, dinner and a few small bars with a local or long-stay crowd. The only louder option is the beach bars and handful of clubs in Ixtapa up the coast, and even those are busy mainly in high season.

Puerto Vallarta has the more dramatic setting. Green jungle ridges of the Sierra Madre fall straight to the sea, and humpbacks calve in the bay itself in winter. Boats go out to Los Arcos and the Marietas Islands, and on land there are coastal trails, river canyons, mountain biking and surf to the north.

Zihuatanejo's hills are dry forest, so most outdoor time is spent on the water. You can snorkel or dive at Las Gatas, paddle the calm bay or go out after sailfish. Its best wildlife is in the lagoons: the spoonbills and herons at Barra de Potosí and the crocodiles near Playa Linda. There is little hiking.

Puerto Vallarta gives you far more reasons to spend a day away. Bucerías, Sayulita and San Pancho each have a different beach-village character. Yelapa can only be reached by boat, and the winding drive up to San Sebastián del Oeste brings cobbles, an old hacienda and coffee in the pines.

From Zihuatanejo the outings are smaller: a beach day at Troncones, lunch on the sand at Barra de Potosí, and the ball court at Xihuacan. Bigger places are simply too far to reach and come back the same day.

With children, Puerto Vallarta gives you more to do. Nuevo Vallarta has long, flat sands and family resorts with shallow pools and kids' clubs. Beyond the beach there are water parks, the small jungle zoo at Mismaloya and whale-watching boats in winter, and evening walks on the Malecón come with street performers and ice cream. The steep cobbled lanes are hard work with a pushchair, though.

Zihuatanejo is easier in a quieter way. The town is small, and small children can paddle in the calm water at La Ropa and Las Gatas. Once you have done the boat to Isla Ixtapa, spotted crocodiles in the lagoon and seen a turtle release, there is little else laid on for them.

Getting about takes some effort in both, for different reasons. Puerto Vallarta's walkable old centre is only a small part of a town that stretches a long way round the bay. Its buses are signed only on the windscreen, so most people use taxis or ride-hailing between districts. Zihuatanejo is smaller and simpler, with colectivos to La Ropa and Ixtapa and boats to Las Gatas. Steep roads with no pavements rule out walking from one beach to the next.

Puerto Vallarta has better things to take home, above all the Huichol yarn paintings and beadwork from the nearby mountains. There are also gallery streets, the Cuale river market and malls by the marina for practical needs. Zihuatanejo's artisans' market is enough for souvenirs. It sells Taxco silver and lacquerware from Olinalá, but there is little beyond it apart from a few resort-wear boutiques and a small plaza in Ixtapa.

Zihuatanejo is the cheaper of the two. A stay in town, with taquerías, market meals and buses, costs little, and prices only rise in the hillside boutique hotels and the big Ixtapa resorts. Puerto Vallarta can also be good value if you eat a few streets back from the water. But much more of the town, from the all-inclusives to the boat tours, is priced for foreign visitors.

On a winter evening in Puerto Vallarta you can see drag or a musical revue in the Zona Romántica's long-running cabaret scene, then go on to a bar for Latin jazz or an acoustic set. Mariachis play in the plazas, the Papantla flyers make their pole descent on the Malecón, and there are folkloric dance shows, though classical music and serious theatre are scarce.

Zihuatanejo has much less. Its main event is the yearly international guitar festival, with concerts on the beach and in the centre. The rest of the time, all you will find is a few restaurants with trova singers, bands or mariachis in high season.

For relaxation the two are much the same. Neither has a bathing tradition, both offer the temazcal sweat lodge, and the spas are mostly in hotels. Puerto Vallarta has more dedicated places, with yoga and retreat centres in the villages along the roadless south shore, but the Malecón is noisy at night. Zihuatanejo's calm comes from the town itself: there are no sights to hurry between and the evenings are early.