Sao Paulo or Rio de Janeiro?

Rio's beaches are the centre of daily life. Copacabana, Ipanema, Leblon and Arpoador are within walking distance of where most visitors stay, and further west Prainha and Grumari have surf and cleaner water. You can swim before breakfast and be back on the sand after lunch.

Sao Paulo has no beach of its own. Santos and Guarujá are an hour or more down the Serra do Mar, and the water there is just as warm, but the Santos city beaches are wide and urban, and the prettier north coast needs a weekend. From Sao Paulo the beach is a day out. In Rio it is where you spend the day.

Sao Paulo is the far better place to eat. Japanese, Italian and Lebanese immigrants shaped its cooking, so a few days can take in noodle shops in Liberdade, cantina pizza in Bixiga, kibbeh at a counter and the mortadella sandwich at the Mercado Municipal. Jardins and Pinheiros have some of the most ambitious kitchens in South America.

Rio eats casually and pleasantly: shared plates in a tiled boteco, feijoada on Saturday, açaí from a Zona Sul juice bar, coconut water on the sand. Here food fits around the beach day. It is not a reason to come.

Rio's sights have the edge, mostly because they come with a view: Christ the Redeemer on Corcovado and the cable car to Sugarloaf. The old centre adds the gilded São Bento monastery and the Real Gabinete Português de Leitura, and Lapa has the tiled Selarón steps. They fill a few full days.

Sao Paulo is better for art and modern architecture. MASP, with its paintings on glass easels, and the Pinacoteca, with the best collection of Brazilian art, are stronger museums than Rio's. Niemeyer's pavilions in Ibirapuera and Lina Bo Bardi's SESC Pompeia appeal to anyone interested in design. What Sao Paulo lacks is famous landmarks and much colonial heritage.

In both cities nights start late, on the pavement, with draught beer and caipirinhas, but Sao Paulo's nightlife is bigger and goes on longer. The crowded corners of Vila Madalena, grittier Baixo Augusta and the clubs of Pinheiros lead on to an electronic music scene with an international name and one of Latin America's largest LGBTQ+ scenes. Thursdays are already busy.

Rio's nights are more of a street party: crowds under the Lapa Arches, tables spread across the pavements of Botafogo, smarter cocktail bars in Leblon and, in the weeks before Carnival, the blocos that take over whole neighbourhoods.

In Rio, serious nature starts inside the city. Tijuca National Park covers the mountains between the districts, short climbs up Dois Irmãos or Pedra da Gávea end above the beaches, hang-gliders land at São Conrado and surfers ride the waves at Arpoador. About two hours inland, the Serra dos Órgãos has multi-day hiking.

In Sao Paulo, a green day out usually means Ibirapuera Park. The Atlantic Forest of the Serra do Mar and the old railway village of Paranapiacaba are an hour or two away, but traffic means every trip out of the city needs an early start.

Neither city is a great base for day trips, and the best place near both, Paraty, needs an overnight stay. Rio's outings are about history and views: the imperial mountain town of Petrópolis in cooler air, or the ferry across the bay to Niterói for Niemeyer's art museum on its cliff.

Sao Paulo's are gentler and more rural: the old coffee exchange in Santos, the weekend craft market at Embu das Artes, the wineries of São Roque and the flower town of Holambra. From either city, traffic on the way out takes a big share of the day.

Both cities are hard work with small children, for similar reasons: heat, traffic and the need to watch your belongings. They differ in what fills the days. In Rio that is the beach, with calmer water at Leme and Praia Vermelha, along with the Sugarloaf cable car, the Corcovado railway and AquaRio.

Sao Paulo makes up for having no beach with the hands-on Catavento science museum, a zoo with a drive-through safari and the playgrounds of Ibirapuera. Its theme and water parks near Vinhedo, about an hour away, give it something Rio does not have.

Neither city is easy to get around, and each is awkward in its own way. Rio is a long strip squeezed between mountains and sea, so distances are bigger than they look on a map. The metro follows the most useful line, from the centre through Botafogo, Copacabana and Ipanema to Leblon, and the flat seafront promenade is pleasant on foot. Off that corridor it gets harder. Santa Teresa, the Tijuca forest, the western beaches and many of the viewpoints need a taxi or ride-hailing, the buses are confusing, traffic through the tunnels is slow, and most visitors ride rather than walk between districts after dark.

Sao Paulo's problem is its sheer size. The metro is clean and links Paulista, Liberdade, the old centre, Luz and Pinheiros, but the network is small for a city this big, the rush-hour traffic is notoriously heavy, and ride-hailing fills the gaps. Jardins, Pinheiros and Vila Madalena are walkable on their own, and Avenida Paulista closes to cars on Sundays, but hilly streets and long distances mean walking from one sight to the next rarely works.

Sao Paulo is the clear choice for shopping. Rua Oscar Freire and the streets of Jardins have Brazilian labels and international brands, the upmarket malls are lavish, Rua 25 de Março is a chaotic wholesale bazaar, and Pinheiros adds independent design shops and galleries.

Rio mostly shops for the beach: swimwear, linen and flip-flops from the boutiques of Ipanema and Leblon, the Sunday hippie fair, and Carnival costumes in the Saara streets downtown.

For visitors from Europe or North America, both cities are cheap day to day, with low-cost lunches, boteco beers and ride-hailing, and both get expensive at the top end. Where the money goes differs.

In Rio the beaches and trails are free, and the big cost is a room near the sand, which rises steeply around Carnival and New Year. In Sao Paulo free museum days help, and most of the money goes on the stylish hotels of Jardins and the well-known restaurants.

Sao Paulo has more to go to, and more variety. The state symphony orchestra plays in Sala São Paulo, a former railway station known for its acoustics, the SESC centres run low-cost concerts and dance across the city, and jazz clubs, MPB and the all-night Virada Cultural add more.

Rio's strength is samba itself: rodas in squares and courtyards, choro in the old houses of Lapa, bossa nova in the districts where it was born, and samba school rehearsals in the months before Carnival. For formal performances there is mainly the Theatro Municipal.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, and in both, rest means a hotel spa or finding your own quiet. In Rio that is easier to find: an evening walk on the promenade or around the lagoon, yoga on the sand, or the cooler hills of Santa Teresa.

Sao Paulo's calm is more indoors, with day spas and beauty salons in Jardins and Itaim, a few Japanese-style relaxation spots and slow Sundays under the trees of Ibirapuera.