Santiago or Buenos Aires?

Neither city is a beach destination. The only real difference is how far you have to go for the sea. In Buenos Aires the Rio de la Plata runs along the Costanera, but it is too silty and polluted to swim in, and the Atlantic resorts such as Mar del Plata mean spending several days away.

Santiago is inland, but Viña del Mar and the central coast are a day out, about two hours each way. The Pacific there stays cold, so most people only paddle. In both cities a summer swim usually means a pool: a hotel or club pool in Buenos Aires, or the big public pools on the Parque Metropolitano in Santiago.

Buenos Aires eats better, mainly because its two traditions run so deep. There are the wood-fired parrillas serving every cut of beef with Malbec, and there is an Italian inheritance of pizza, fresh pasta and ice cream. Add grand coffee houses such as Café Tortoni, where nobody minds you lingering, and Palermo's ambitious modern kitchens.

Santiago's strength is seafood from the Pacific. You can eat conger eel soup, sea urchins and machas clams at the Mercado Central and around La Vega, along with pastel de choclo and pisco sours, and its Carmenère and coastal whites hold their own. In both cities the choice narrows once you leave the local staples, but Buenos Aires has more depth within its own cooking.

Buenos Aires gives you far more to see. The whole centre is a sight, from Avenida de Mayo between the Casa Rosada and Congress to the marble mausoleums of Recoleta Cemetery, and the museums include the Bellas Artes and MALBA. San Telmo and La Boca add older, rougher streets, enough for a week of walking.

In Santiago the sights cluster around the Plaza de Armas and La Moneda, and earthquakes have destroyed much of the colonial city. What remains is strong but compact: the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino, the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, and Neruda's house La Chascona.

This is where Buenos Aires pulls furthest ahead. Clubs open around two and run past sunrise, and Palermo Soho and Hollywood hide cocktail bars behind unmarked doors. Electronic music is taken seriously, and the tango milongas give you nights you won't find anywhere else. Weeknights stay lively too.

Santiago keeps late hours as well, but its scene is smaller and more local, and most of the energy goes into the weekend. Bellavista is the loud district for student bars and LGBTQ+ clubs, while Lastarria and Barrio Italia suit a calmer evening of wine and pisco.

Santiago wins this easily. The Andes rise above 5,000m right behind the city. Cerro San Cristóbal and Cerro Manquehue give you real hikes in town, and the Cajón del Maipo has rafting, horse riding and the trail to the hanging glacier of El Morado. From June to September you can ski at Valle Nevado or La Parva and be back for dinner. The catches are winter smog that can hide the peaks and few buses to the trailheads.

Buenos Aires sits on flat pampas beside a vast river. Outdoors there means the lakes and cycling loops of the Bosques de Palermo, birdwatching in the Reserva Ecológica, or a launch or kayak trip through the Paraná Delta beyond Tigre. It is pleasant and gentle, but there is nothing to climb.

Santiago has the better range of days out. Valparaíso, with its funiculars, painted hills and Neruda's La Sebastiana, is the classic trip, and you can fit Viña del Mar into the same day. Wine estates in the Maipo and Casablanca valleys are also within easy reach.

From Buenos Aires, the best day out is a ferry across the river to Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay, a cobbled UNESCO old town. Tigre, the gaucho town of San Antonio de Areco and the basilica at Luján fill other days, but beyond them the pampas offer little variety.

Both cities are warm towards children, and in both you will see families eating late. Santiago is slightly easier. It has the Parque Metropolitano, with its funicular, cable car, zoo and summer pools, the large Museo Interactivo Mirador, and a metro that works with a pushchair on most lines.

Buenos Aires has the Palermo parks, with pedal boats and the planetarium, and the Museo de los Niños. But its bigger attractions, such as Temaikèn, are an hour out of town, and broken pavements and very late dinners make the days harder with small children.

Santiago is a little easier to get around. Its modern metro Line 1 runs along the route most visitors use, from the Centro through Providencia to Las Condes, and these districts link up on foot along leafy avenues.

Buenos Aires has an easy, flat grid and the historic Subte. But its neighbourhoods are far apart and the metro misses La Boca, so you end up using colectivo buses or taxis more. Each city has one card for buses and trains, and both have heavy traffic.

Buenos Aires has more things you won't find at home. There are leather jackets, bags and shoes from the workshops around Villa Crespo, independent designers in Palermo Soho, and the Sunday antiques fair along Calle Defensa in San Telmo. Galerías Pacífico adds a grand arcade under painted domes.

Shopping in Santiago is mostly about big malls with international chains in the eastern districts, with luxury labels in Vitacura. The best stops are Barrio Italia for independent design and Pueblito Los Dominicos for copper, lapis lazuli and Mapuche silver.

The two cost about the same overall, but what is cheap differs. In Buenos Aires the bargains are parrillas, pizzerias, wine and very cheap public transport, while Palermo and Puerto Madero charge much like Europe. The currency's long history of sharp swings also makes costs hard to predict from one trip to the next.

Santiago is more predictable. It costs about as much as a mid-range southern European city, with good-value set lunches and cheap or free museums. What adds up there are the extras: mountain and winery tours, and above all skiing.

Buenos Aires is the stronger city for performance. The Teatro Colón is one of the world's great opera houses, Avenida Corrientes is lined with playhouses, the independent theatre scene is huge, and tango is everywhere, from polished shows to neighbourhood milongas with live orchestras.

Santiago has the Teatro Municipal, with its own opera, ballet and orchestra, and the GAM cultural centre. It is at its best in January during the Santiago a Mil festival, and cueca fills the streets at the Fiestas Patrias in September. In both cities most theatre is in Spanish.

Neither capital is restful, but Santiago gives you an easy escape. Termas de Colina on the northern edge of the city has terraced thermal pools, and the Cajón del Maipo has simple hot springs at Baños Morales. In town, Parque Forestal and the gardens of Cerro San Cristóbal offer shade.

Buenos Aires has no bathing tradition, and Argentina's thermal springs are in distant provinces. Relaxing there means a hotel spa, a long sobremesa after a meal or the quiet of a Sunday morning.