Santiago or Vina del Mar?

Santiago has no beach. The nearest sand is on the coast about 120km away, and in the city a swim means a hotel pool or the crowded public pools on Cerro San Cristóbal.

Viña del Mar is where those city families go. It has a line of beaches from Caleta Abarca and Playa El Sol in the centre to Reñaca in the north. The water is just as cold as anywhere on this coast, so expect short dips. The difference is that here you can walk to the sand every summer morning.

Santiago offers much more choice. There are seafood counters in the Mercado Central and around La Vega, cheap weekday set lunches, modern kitchens in Lastarria, Barrio Italia and Bellavista, and a small group of restaurants cooking with Andean and Patagonian ingredients. Wine lists draw on valleys all around the city.

Viña del Mar's strengths are narrower: shellfish and cheese empanadas and fish restaurants along the road to Concón, with Casablanca whites to go with them. In the centre the food is standard resort fare, and many visitors go to Valparaíso to eat better.

Santiago has the substance: the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino, the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, and the government quarter around La Moneda and the Plaza de Armas, with two or three days of sightseeing in all.

Viña del Mar's sights date from its time as a garden city. They include the Palacio Vergara in Quinta Vergara, Wulff Castle on its rocky point and the Easter Island moai at the Fonck Museum. They make a pleasant afternoon, not a whole stay.

Santiago goes out all year. Bellavista has student bars and the main LGBTQ+ clubs, Lastarria and Barrio Italia are better for wine and cocktails, and weekends run until early morning. Viña del Mar mostly comes alive in January and February, when the clubs in Reñaca fill with young visitors from Santiago and the Art Deco casino adds an old-style resort evening. Out of season it goes quiet, and locals head to Valparaíso's bars.

Santiago sits right below the Andes. Peaks over 5,000m close off its avenues, rafting and the glacier trail in the Cajón del Maipo are a short drive away, and in winter you can ski for the day at Valle Nevado or La Parva. The downsides are winter smog and the lack of public transport to most trailheads.

Viña del Mar's outdoors is the coast. There are the high Concón dunes, sea lions and pelicans on the rocks towards Roca Oceánica, and surfing in a wetsuit. La Campana's palm forest is an hour inland, but the high mountains are too far for a day.

Both have good day trips, but they lead in different directions. From Santiago the best outings head out of the city: Valparaíso and Viña in one long day on the coast, Maipo Valley wine estates on the city's edge, and the pottery village of Pomaire for half a day.

Viña del Mar has Valparaíso fifteen minutes away by coastal metro, and Casablanca's tasting rooms are under an hour inland. It also turns the comparison around: Santiago's museums make a day trip from the coast.

Santiago has more to keep children busy. On Cerro San Cristóbal there is a funicular, a cable car and a zoo, and the city also has the hands-on Museo Interactivo Mirador, the amusement park in Parque O'Higgins and Buin Zoo. Hot afternoons and the size of the city wear small children out, so the eastern districts are the easiest base.

Viña del Mar is a simple beach stay. The calm water at Las Salinas, open lawns in Quinta Vergara and carriage rides on the avenues please young children, but there is no zoo, aquarium or theme park for rainy or restless days.

Santiago is the easier city to get around for its size. Metro Line 1 runs from the Centro through Providencia to Las Condes, and the districts between are pleasant to walk, although rush hour is crowded. Viña del Mar's flat grid centre is easy on foot, and the Merval runs to Valparaíso. Beyond that, Reñaca and Concón depend on buses and taxis on one coast road that is jammed in summer.

For anyone who plans to spend time in shops, the gap between the two is wide. Santiago covers most tastes. It has big malls such as Costanera and Parque Arauco, luxury labels and galleries on Alonso de Córdova, independent design and vintage shops in Barrio Italia, and copper and lapis workshops at Pueblito Los Dominicos.

Viña del Mar is practical: Avenida Valparaíso, a few chain malls and craft stalls by the flower clock. Anyone looking for design or antiques does better in Santiago or in Valparaíso's hills.

Overall costs are about the same, but they add up in different ways. In Santiago the cost depends on where you stay and what you book: the districts where most visitors stay cost more, and mountain or winery tours get expensive unless you share transport. In Viña del Mar the season matters most. Sea-view rooms are expensive in January, February and on long weekends, and much cheaper the rest of the year.

Formal performance in Chile is centred on Santiago's 19th-century Teatro Municipal, which has an opera season, its own ballet company and a philharmonic orchestra. The GAM centre stages contemporary dance and theatre, and every January the Santiago a Mil festival brings theatre to stages and streets across the city.

Viña del Mar also has a Teatro Municipal, but it puts on far less. The city's big event is the February Song Festival in the Quinta Vergara amphitheatre, where Latin pop stars play to a famously demanding crowd. For the rest of the year there is little opera or orchestral music.

Neither city is especially restful, and calm comes in different forms. From Santiago you drive out to it: the thermal pools at Termas de Colina, or the simple hot springs at Baños Morales and Valle de Colina high in the Cajón del Maipo. Viña del Mar has no springs, but out of season its long promenades, gardens and Pacific sunsets make unhurried days easy without leaving town.