Tulum or Cancun?

Both coasts are excellent, but Cancun's is the stronger beach. Its 22km of cool, powdery sand runs along both arms of the Hotel Zone, so you can choose between sheltered bay water on the north side and Caribbean surf on the east. When sargassum washes up, the bay side is an easy fallback.

Tulum's shore is wilder and more beautiful in places, with palms, low dunes and the ruins above the sand, but it is a few kilometres from town and has no sheltered side of its own. The closest calm water is the turtle bay at Akumal.

Tulum eats a little better. The open-fire restaurants on its jungle strip are more ambitious than Cancun's resort buffets and steakhouses, even if the setting sometimes matters more than the plate, and the taco stands and fondas in town are close by. In Cancun, the good food is downtown, at Mercado 28 and the stalls around Parque de las Palapas, and you have to make a point of going there. Both serve the same Yucatecan dishes, so cochinita pibil and sopa de lima are easy to find in either.

Neither is a culture destination, but Tulum has the more memorable sight. Its walled Maya port stands on the cliff above the sea and fills a fine early morning. Cancun was built as a resort from the 1970s, and its best sight is indoors: the Maya Museum, with the small San Miguelito ruins in its grounds. Visitors serious about the Maya use either place as a base for the great inland sites.

Cancun goes harder and later. The huge clubs in the Party Center put on acrobats, confetti drops and open-bar nights that run until dawn for much of the year, though almost every venue aims at the same crowd. For a cheaper local drink, residents go to the bars around Avenida Tulum downtown.

Tulum's night scene is smaller and more particular. It is built around electronic music, with DJ sets in jungle clearings, beach clubs that run into the night and full-moon parties, and it is busiest in winter. Away from those big events it comes down to a few mezcal bars on the main avenue.

Tulum has more of the outdoors on its doorstep. Gran Cenote, Dos Ojos and many smaller pools are a short ride away, and they are among the world's best places for cavern snorkelling and cave diving. Just to the south, Sian Ka'an's lagoons and Maya-built channels hold dolphins, turtles and wading birds, and the flat roads make it easy to cycle to most of it.

Cancun's outdoors is mostly on the water. You can snorkel the reef off Isla Mujeres and Puerto Morelos, swim over the underwater sculptures of MUSA and take a whale shark trip between June and September. Kayaks and paddleboards explore the mangrove channels of the Nichupte lagoon, and kitesurfers use the windier shore. Its cenotes, though, mean a trip inland rather than a short ride down the road.

Both make good bases for day trips, but in different directions. From Tulum the Maya interior is closer. Coba's forest pyramid is under an hour away, Muyil is just down the road, and Chichen Itza with Valladolid is a manageable day. Bacalar's lagoon is within reach for a long day.

Cancun is the better base for islands. Isla Mujeres is a short ferry ride across the bay, and Holbox is close enough for an overnight. The big ruins mean longer drives from here, with Chichen Itza about two and a half hours away.

Cancun asks less of parents. Its big hotels are designed with children in mind from the moment you check in, the bay side gives small swimmers gentle water, and the aquarium is an easy way to spend an afternoon out of the sun. The main things to watch are the currents along the eastern shore.

Tulum's attractions for children are at least as good, and some are closer: turtles at Akumal, cenotes with wooden steps into calm pools, and Xel-Ha and Xcaret just up the coast. The difficulty is where you stay. Most of the town's accommodation is aimed at couples and retreat guests, and mosquitoes and the seaweed season need some thought before you book.

Getting around is equally awkward in both, but in different ways. Cancun is laid out along one boulevard with frequent buses to downtown, and ADO coaches run down the coast, although walking any distance in the heat is tiring. Tulum has a compact centre where bicycles do most of the work, but beyond the town there are only colectivo vans, costly taxis and a Tren Maya station outside the centre. In both, a hire car or tours are the realistic way to reach the ruins and cenotes.

Cancun's shopping means malls and a souvenir market, and Tulum's means a strip of linen-and-macramé boutiques. Cancun's air-conditioned centres along the Hotel Zone carry international fashion, luxury labels and duty-free goods. Downtown, Mercado 28 is where to haggle for hammocks, silver and huipiles, though one stall's stock looks much like the next.

Tulum has no malls and no proper market. Its shaded beach-road boutiques sell woven bags, palm baskets and natural-dyed homewares in one upmarket style, small and pricey, while the shops on the main avenue in town sell embroidered huipiles, hammocks and silver for less.

Cancun is easier on the wallet. The Hotel Zone is expensive, but downtown is a different world of cheap tacos, local buses and small hotels, and an all-inclusive package fixes the cost of a stay in advance.

Tulum is among the priciest places in Mexico. Beach-road hotels, beach clubs, taxis and party tickets all cost more, and every cenote charges its own entry. A budget stay is possible only from a guesthouse in town with a hired bicycle for the ride to the sea.

Neither has a stage worth planning around, and the difference is only in what fills the evenings. Cancun leans towards staged entertainment, with folkloric dinner shows, mariachi, resort entertainment and occasional music in the downtown squares. In Tulum, live music means bar bands and acoustic sets on the main avenue, or the sax and drums that play over DJ nights.

Here Tulum is far ahead. Yoga shalas, retreat hotels, open-air spas, sound baths and breathwork are part of daily life along the jungle strip, and the southern beach road is slow and barefoot, provided you stay well away from the party venues.

Cancun's version is resort-based but polished, with hydrotherapy circuits and ocean-view treatment rooms in the big hotels. Both offer the temazcal sweat lodge. For real quiet near Cancun, people head to the far south of the strip, to Puerto Morelos or to Isla Mujeres.