Punta Cana or Varadero?

These are two of the finest beach coasts in the Caribbean, and neither comes second. The difference is in their shape. Punta Cana spreads around 50km of sand across several distinct beaches: sociable Bávaro, polished Juanillo and the wilder, surf-washed Macao, with catamarans out to Saona. Some summers bring sargassum, which the resorts clear each morning.

Varadero is a single unbroken strip of powdery sand along a 20km peninsula. It is shared with Cuban families at the town end and grows quieter and emptier towards the tip. Here the hazard is winter cold fronts, which can bring red-flag days.

Neither is a place to travel for the food, but Punta Cana gives you more to eat away from the buffet. There are lobster grills at Bávaro and the Cap Cana marina, and above all roadside comedores serving la bandera, sancocho and mangú for anyone curious about Dominican cooking.

Varadero's private restaurants can turn out a fine ropa vieja or grilled lobster, but the choice is narrow and depends on what ingredients turn up. Its pleasures are in the glass: a daiquiri or mojito made with Cuban rum.

Both are resort coasts with little heritage, though Varadero has slightly more to look at. The Du Pont family's Xanadu Mansion on its headland, the small museum in a wooden summer house and the pre-Columbian drawings in the Cueva de Ambrosio fill a pleasant few hours. Punta Cana, built from the 1970s, has nothing comparable, and any interest in history means leaving it for the day.

Punta Cana offers the bigger night out. Bávaro's party-show clubs with acrobats and confetti, and colmados playing bachata and reggaeton, keep going late, though you need taxis between scattered venues.

Varadero's scene is smaller and earlier, and more Cuban in feel. Locals dance salsa with real skill in a handful of clubs around the town's central avenue, and Cuban visitors liven up the weekends. Both towns, oddly, have a disco inside a limestone cave.

Both are flat, and most outdoor time on either is spent on the water. Punta Cana has a little more to offer. The boat ride through Parque Nacional del Este to Saona and its starfish pool is a memorable day, Cabeza de Toro is set up for kitesurfing, and the Cap Cana cliffs hide the blue sinkhole of Hoyo Azul.

Varadero answers with wreck dives, cays offshore, the cactus-and-cave trails of Varahicacos and the Cueva de Saturno cenote. Birdwatchers have the Zapata wetlands within a long day.

Varadero is much better placed for getting off the beach. Havana's old town and Malecón are about two hours away. Matanzas, with its bridges, theatre and old French pharmacy, is under an hour, and colonial Cárdenas is closer still.

From Punta Cana, Higüey's basilica and the stone village of Altos de Chavón are pleasant but slighter. Santo Domingo's Zona Colonial is the real prize, but it means a long organised day of about two and a half hours each way.

Both have calm, shallow water right off the sand, but Punta Cana is the easier choice with children. More of its resorts are built around kids, with splash parks and family suites, and adventure parks and Saona boat trips give them days out.

In Varadero the welcome for children is warm and the sea gentle. Beyond the dolphin centre and the rowing boats in Josone Park there is little aimed at them, though, and parents need to pack medicines, nappies and special foods because supplies are unreliable.

Varadero is easier to move around. Its town end is a grid of numbered streets you can walk, and an open-top bus runs the length of the peninsula, with bikes, scooters and coco-taxis for shorter hops.

Punta Cana has no centre at all. Gated resorts sit along fast roads with few pavements, so outside a walk along the sand, nearly every move is a taxi, a transfer or a tour pickup, or a guagua if you are adventurous.

Punta Cana has more worth bringing home. There is larimar, the blue stone found only on this island, plus amber, vanilla and cacao from the haggling stalls on Bávaro beach, and open-air malls for resort fashion.

Varadero's craft markets sell carvings, crochet and Che T-shirts, and the real buys are rum and cigars from official shops. Even everyday items can be hard to find.

Varadero tends to be the cheaper way to get a white-sand all-inclusive, and a stay-put visitor spends little beyond the package. In both places costs rise once you head out on your own, because taxis, excursions and restaurants are priced for foreigners.

Punta Cana's packages run from modest to lavish, and Cap Cana sits firmly at the top end. Thrifty travellers can still use local comedores, guaguas and the small apartment hotels of Los Corales.

Neither has a theatre or concert hall, but music is woven more deeply into Varadero's evenings. Son and salsa trios play in hotel lobbies and on terraces, and the club bands are often very good, with Havana close enough for ballet or serious Cuban music. Punta Cana's live merengue and bachata at beach bars are genuine. The rest is glossy resort spectacle and tribute acts.

Punta Cana is the surer choice if spa time is part of the plan. The larger resorts treat the spa as a proper facility, with water circuits and steam rooms as well as massage, and the standard holds steady from one hotel to the next, so a booking is unlikely to disappoint, even if few stand out. Real quiet takes more care here, because so many hotels on this coast cater to families or to parties.

In Varadero a treatment is more of a gamble, since what is offered and how well it is stocked depends on the hotel. What it gives in return is the unwinding itself: slow, warm days with nothing to arrange, which suit a visitor who wants a book and a sunbed more than a massage menu. Neither coast has hot springs or a bathing tradition of its own.