Trinidad, Cuba or Varadero?

This is Varadero's whole reason for being. Almost 20km of unbroken pale sand runs along the northern shore of the Hicacos Peninsula, directly in front of the hotels. You can choose between the public stretches at the town end, which Cuban families share at weekends, and the quieter, roomier sand further east towards the empty coves at the tip. Winter cold fronts can bring red-flag days.

Trinidad's beach is a trip out of town. Playa Ancon, about 15 minutes away, is a fine strip of sand on calm Caribbean water with good snorkelling off the reef, and La Boca offers a more local alternative. That is the full choice, so most visitors use it for an afternoon between days in the old town.

Neither is a place to travel for food. Both serve the same Cuban staples of rice and beans, roast pork and lobster, and the menus are limited by what supplies can be found. Trinidad does it with more charm: paladares in colonial houses and on rooftop terraces, dinners cooked at your casa particular, and the canchanchara, rum with honey and lime in a clay cup.

In Varadero most meals are eaten in resort buffets and restaurants, which are reliable but forgettable, with only a handful of private restaurants in town. The best things there are simple ones: a daiquiri, fresh fruit and strong Cuban coffee.

The gap here is the widest on the page. Trinidad is itself the sight. It is a sugar-era town listed by UNESCO, with the Plaza Mayor framed by planters' mansions, the Museo Romantico, the view over the rooftops from the tower of the Palacio Cantero and the San Francisco bell tower, and two or three days spent wandering its streets are well used.

Varadero is a resort strip, and a few hours cover what it has: the Du Pont family's Xanadu Mansion on its headland, a small museum of the resort's early days and pre-Columbian drawings in the Cueva de Ambrosio. For real Cuban history, visitors there head off the peninsula.

Curiously, both towns have a disco inside a natural cave. Trinidad's evenings are the more sociable, though. Everyone gathers on the stone steps beside the Plaza Mayor, where locals and travellers drink and dance salsa together under the sky, and courtyard bars nearby fill up after dinner. The pattern repeats each night, but it is a genuine town scene.

In Varadero, most evenings stay inside the resorts, with lobby bars and animation shows. If you go out, you will find a few open-air bars and salsa clubs along the central avenue, livelier at weekends when Cubans arrive from nearby towns, and most nights end well before dawn.

Trinidad has the mountains on its doorstep. The Escambray rises behind the town, and Topes de Collantes, under an hour's drive away, has forest trails to the pool at Salto del Caburni and further cascades at El Nicho and Guanayara. Add horse rides across the Valle de los Ingenios and the reef off Ancon, and the mix of hills and sea is hard to match.

Varadero is a low, flat strip of scrub and mangrove. On land it offers the short trails and caves of the Varahicacos reserve and the Cueva de Saturno cenote, so time outdoors there means the water: catamarans to the offshore cays, diving on wrecks and kitesurfing in the winter winds.

Trinidad has the better day trips, and the first starts at the edge of town. The Valle de los Ingenios is part of the same UNESCO listing as the town, and its ruined sugar mills, planters' houses and the Manaca Iznaga tower are reached by road or on the old steam-era train when it runs. Three very different towns are within about two hours: Cienfuegos with its neoclassical centre on the bay, Sancti Spiritus with its quiet colonial core and old stone bridge, and Santa Clara with its Che Guevara memorial. You need a shared taxi, a hired car or a tour to reach them.

Varadero's day trips depend mostly on one long day out to Havana, two hours west, for Old Havana, the Malecón and the classic cars. Matanzas, with its bridges, nineteenth-century theatre and old French pharmacy, and quiet Cárdenas are closer, but they are smaller outings. Trinidad and Cienfuegos are too far to manage comfortably from the peninsula in a day.

Varadero is the easier choice with small children. The water right off the sand is shallow and usually calm, many resorts have kids' clubs and children's pools, and the all-inclusive format means no hunting for meals. For a break from the beach there are the dolphin centre, glass-bottom boats and rowing boats on the lake in Josone Park.

Trinidad is friendly to children but harder work. Ancon's shallow water and the horse rides suit them, but the cobbles defeat pushchairs, the heat is draining and power cuts switch off the fans. In both places, bring your own medicines and familiar foods.

Trinidad is slightly easier on foot because everything in its old town is close together. Many lanes are closed to cars, although the cobbles are rough and the streets slope. Getting anywhere beyond the town means taxis, bikes or tours, as there is no public transport to rely on.

Varadero stretches about 20km along a single road. Its town-end grid is easy to walk, but moving between the spread-out hotels means the open-top tourist bus, coco-taxis or a hired bike on the flat roads. Leaving the peninsula needs a transfer or a car with a driver.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Trinidad has crafts with real roots. Its tradition of hand embroidery and crochet fills the open-air market lanes with tablecloths and blouses, family potteries still work at the wheel, and small galleries sell local paintings.

Varadero's craft stalls along the main avenue are more generic, with carvings and Che Guevara T-shirts, and the small mall in the hotel zone covers beach essentials. In both, buy rum and cigars from the official shops.

For independent travellers, Trinidad works out cheaper. A room in a casa particular costs little and often includes breakfast, and the music in the squares is free or close to it. The bill rises with paladar meals, taxis and tours, and you will need cash, as cards are often refused.

How much Varadero costs depends on how you travel. All-inclusive packages here are among the cheaper ways to get a white-sand Caribbean beach, but roaming on your own means paying visitor prices for taxis, excursions and private restaurants, which pushes the cost up.

Trinidad's music is the real thing. Bands play son and salsa nightly at the Casa de la Musica, older musicians sing traditional trova at the Casa de la Trova, and the Palenque de los Congos Reales stages Afro-Cuban drumming and rumba rooted in the town's slave history. It is all one tradition, though, with no theatre, concert hall or opera.

Varadero's music is more casual and more staged: trios in hotel lobbies, good bands in the dance clubs and feathered cabaret shows in the resorts. For ballet or serious concerts, people make the trip to Havana.

For rest, Varadero has the advantage. The larger resorts have spas, some with open-air cabins by the sea, and the eastern end of the peninsula offers long, quiet days with nothing to organise. Standards vary, and neither town has any bathing or spa tradition.

Trinidad's calm is the slow pace of a small town, with shaded courtyards and rocking chairs on doorsteps. It is broken by roosters at dawn, horse carts on the cobbles and music until late, and the only massages are in a few resort hotels at Ancon.