Punta Cana or San Juan?

Punta Cana has the better beaches. Its pale sand runs almost unbroken along the island's eastern tip, offshore reefs keep most of it calm, and you can walk it for miles between hotels. It also has variety: polished Juanillo, wilder Macao with surf, and catamarans out to Saona.

San Juan's city beaches are good, with Isla Verde the longest and most sheltered and Escambrón a calm bay near the old town. Parts of Condado and the coast towards Piñones have heavy waves and currents, though, so you keep to the lifeguarded balnearios, or drive out to Luquillo for the classic beach day.

San Juan is far ahead here. Mofongo, roast pork and alcapurrias at the Piñones kiosks, the market square of La Placita and the roadside pork stalls of Guavate make eating out a reason to visit, and Santurce and Condado add chef-led restaurants.

In Punta Cana most meals are resort buffets and themed dining rooms, with lobster grills in Bávaro and at Cap Cana for a change. Real Dominican food, such as la bandera, sancocho and mangú, is found at the comedores and roadside stands used by local workers, and you have to go looking for it.

There is barely a contest. Punta Cana grew up as a resort coast from the 1970s and has no old town, historic buildings or museums, so anyone curious about the past has to leave it.

San Juan has walled Old San Juan, with El Morro and San Cristóbal, the cathedral holding Ponce de León's tomb and the Church of San José, all part of a UNESCO site you can cover on foot. The island art at the Museo de Arte in Santurce and the murals around it round out two or three good days.

San Juan has the stronger nights out, and locals are part of them. From Thursday to Saturday crowds drink in the street around La Placita, Calle San Sebastián mixes dive bars with salsa and reggaeton dance floors, and Condado and Isla Verde add casinos and hotel clubs.

Punta Cana's evenings mostly stay inside the resort, with a lobby bar, a show and a disco that winds down around midnight. Bávaro supplies the big nights, with party-show clubs, a club in a limestone cave and colmados playing bachata, all reached by taxi.

San Juan has the richer outdoors, mainly because El Yunque is under an hour away, with rainforest trails, waterfalls and lookout towers. Add Fajardo's bioluminescent lagoon by kayak, the Piñones mangroves and the north coast's winter surf.

Punta Cana's land is flat scrub and coconut groves, so its best outdoor days are on the water: reef diving, the starfish pool off Saona, kitesurfing at Cabeza de Toro and marlin fishing. On land there are short lagoon trails in the Indigenous Eyes reserve and the Hoyo Azul sinkhole, but no hills.

San Juan gives you more worthwhile places to go. Ponce's plaza and fine art museum are an hour and a half away over the mountains, Cataño's rum distillery is a short ferry hop, and Loíza is the place for bomba and Afro-Puerto Rican culture. Culebra and Vieques are worth an overnight stay.

From Punta Cana the nearby choices are the pilgrimage basilica at Higüey, the Mediterranean-style village of Altos de Chavón and Bayahibe for the Saona boats. Its best excursion, Santo Domingo's Zona Colonial, means a long day with about two and a half hours on the road each way.

Punta Cana is easier with children because the resorts do the work, with kids' clubs, splash parks, family suites and food all day, on gently shelving beaches at Bávaro and Juanillo. Zip-line parks and Saona catamarans fill the days out.

San Juan gives children more to discover, such as the tunnels and cannons of El Morro and El Yunque's short trails, and English and familiar US standards make it simple to manage. There is less built for children, though, and the steep cobbles and midday heat need planning. Neither city has a big zoo or theme park.

Neither is easy without wheels, but San Juan takes less effort. Old San Juan can be walked, hills and cobbles aside, and Condado and Isla Verde are a short taxi or ride-hail away, even though the rail line misses them.

Punta Cana has no centre at all. The resorts sit behind gates along the coast and the roads have few pavements, so apart from walking the sand you depend on hotel taxis, transfers, guaguas or tour pickups.

San Juan offers more choice. There is Plaza Las Américas, one of the Caribbean's largest malls, a run of designer boutiques on Ashford Avenue, and carved santos, vejigante masks and guayaberas in the old town.

In Punta Cana shopping means the craft stalls on Bávaro beach, where you haggle for larimar, amber, cigars and faceless dolls, and a couple of open-air malls. Larimar, found only on this island, is the souvenir worth taking home.

Neither is cheap, but Punta Cana can work out slightly cheaper because an all-inclusive package booked with flights covers most of the bill. What adds up are taxis, boat trips and beachfront restaurants.

San Juan is priced like a mid-sized US mainland city, with tips and taxes on top and car hire adding up fast. Kiosks and roadside stalls keep meals cheap, and summer and autumn rooms cost less.

San Juan has a real performing arts scene. Salsa bands pack dance floors, there are open bomba sessions, the symphony orchestra plays at the Centro de Bellas Artes and the long-running Casals Festival brings classical music.

Punta Cana has no theatre or concert hall. You get resort shows, glossy acrobatic spectacles in Bávaro, and merengue and bachata bands at beach bars, which are genuinely worth hearing.

Neither has a bathing tradition of its own, so in both it comes down to resort spas. Punta Cana does it better, with hydrotherapy circuits, cacao and coconut treatments, massages under palm shelters on Bávaro beach and nothing pulling you away.

The hotel spas of Condado and Isla Verde are comparable, but the city around them is loud with traffic and music. For real quiet in San Juan you head out to the countryside or the small islands.