Salta or Sucre?

Neither city is a place for the water, since both lie far inland in the Andes. Salta at least has the Cabra Corral reservoir about an hour south, though it is used more for boating than for bathing. In Sucre a hotel or municipal pool is the only option.

Each city has its own salteña, and the two are related but not the same. Salta's empanada salteña is a small, juicy baked pastry that every bakery argues over, and the city builds a fuller table around it. There are fresh-corn humitas and tamales, slow-cooked locro, goat and llama, with aromatic Torrontés from the high valleys to drink. The central market and the eateries around it feel the most local.

Sucre's salteña has a sweeter, soupier filling and is eaten standing up as a mid-morning snack. Beyond it the cooking is plainer and the range narrower: spicy chorizo chuquisaqueño, mondongo, and the set lunches and fresh juices of the Mercado Central. What Sucre adds is chocolate from long-established makers around the main square, and singani brandy takes the place of wine.

Both are colonial cities on a grid, but Sucre's whitewashed, UNESCO-listed centre is the more complete. The Casa de la Libertad holds the documents of Bolivia's independence, the Recoleta convent looks out over the red rooftops, and a museum shows Jalq'a and Tarabuco weaving. The dinosaur footprints at the Parque Cretácico add a sight of a quite different kind, and the whole set fills two or three unhurried days.

Salta's colonial core is smaller but striking, with the pink-and-cream cathedral, the arcaded Cabildo and the red-and-gold tower of San Francisco. Its one great sight is the archaeology museum holding the Inca children of Llullaillaco, and a day or two covers the city.

Salta has the longer night. Dinner begins around ten, and at weekends the strip of bars and dance clubs on Calle Balcarce near the old station stays full until late. Sucre's student bars and pubs near the main square give a modest Friday and Saturday night out, but midweek the town goes quiet early, and many evenings end with a singani after dinner.

Salta has the more varied and dramatic surroundings. There is cloud forest at San Lorenzo on the edge of town and the red rock canyon of the Quebrada de las Conchas. The road climbs over the Cuesta del Obispo to Los Cardones, there is rafting at Cabra Corral, and the salt flats of the puna lie further off.

Sucre's countryside is drier, a fold of red and ochre hills, and its main draw is the Cordillera de los Frailes. There, guided treks of a few days pass the Maragua crater, Jalq'a villages and open-air dinosaur tracks. The Siete Cascadas waterfalls make an easier half day.

Salta is the base for a whole region. Cafayate's bodegas, the adobe villages of the UNESCO-listed Quebrada de Humahuaca, colonial Cachi and the Tren a las Nubes all start from here. Most of them are dawn-to-dusk outings, though, and are often better with a night away.

From Sucre the choice is short. The Sunday market at Tarabuco is the classic trip, and La Glorieta palace and Yotala fill half days. Potosí, about three hours away, works better as the next stop on the route than as a return trip.

Neither city has much designed for children, and both are calm, compact and welcoming to families. Salta's treat is the cable car to the gardens and waterfalls on Cerro San Bernardo, and Sucre's is the life-size dinosaurs at the Parque Cretácico. In Sucre the altitude of about 2,800m tires small children for the first days, while in Salta the strain comes from the long mountain drives.

Sucre is the easier city to get about. Almost everything lies within a few blocks of the Plaza 25 de Mayo, taxis are cheap, and a tourist bus runs out to the dinosaur park. Only the steep climb to the Recoleta and the thin air slow you down.

Salta's flat centre is just as walkable, but the main reasons to come lie outside it. Only long-distance buses serve the valleys, so most visitors need a tour or a hire car on slow mountain roads, some of them gravel.

In both cities you shop for crafts rather than fashion. Salta's artisan market has the red-and-black poncho salteño, alpaca weaving, silver and leather, and bottles of Torrontés make easy gifts. Sucre's specialities are the dark Jalq'a and bright Tarabuco textiles sold in fair-trade shops, along with chocolate from its old makers.

Sucre is by far the cheaper of the two. Market meals, taxis and colonial guesthouses cost very little, and even its boutique hotels are modest by world standards, which is why language students stay for weeks.

Salta is inexpensive by Argentine measure for rooms, empanadas and city transport. The money goes on exploring the northwest: full-day tours, car hire and the high-altitude train take a large share of most budgets, and it is worth checking exchange rates before you go.

Salta is one of the heartlands of Argentine folk music. Its peñas on Calle Balcarce are a reason to visit in their own right, with zambas and chacareras, couples dancing between tables and musicians dropping in to play. The Güemes vigil in mid-June and the carnival season bring the music into the streets, and the provincial theatre hosts the symphony.

In Sucre the offer is mostly staged folklore: dinner shows of Bolivian dances, weekend charango and panpipe bands, and occasional concerts at the nineteenth-century Teatro Gran Mariscal.

Salta's calm lies mostly outside the city, while Sucre's is found in its centre. In Salta you slow down through the long siesta and the plaza cafés, or by staying out of town in the green hill village of San Lorenzo or on a rural estancia. Hot springs mean a long drive to the old thermal resort of Rosario de la Frontera.

Sucre needs no escape. Its mild sun, shaded colonial courtyards and the sunset view from the Recoleta arcade make the town itself the place to rest, and travellers coming down from the altiplano often stay a week or two. In both cities, spa treatments go little further than hotel facilities.