These are two of the best cities in South America - but which one's for you?

Which Latin legend is for you - the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires with tango at every turn or the Brazilian bombshell, Rio de Janeiro, with sultry beaches? Our experts help you decide.

By Mal Chenu

Hola! And welcome to the battle between South America's two great cities. Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires both boast more colourful lures than a tackle box, all bursting with Latin American appetites and ardour.

Whether you are inspired to visit the former when your baby smiles at you or the latter by someone beseeching you not to cry for her, the superior la vida buena is to be found in Buenos Aires.

The residents of Buenos Aires - aka Portenos (port city person) - will welcome you warmly and within an hour you'll probably be invited to dance the tango with a gaucho at an asado, the Argentinian iteration of a barbecue, where the steaks are juicy and the Malbec is as smooth and beloved as Lionel Messi's left boot.

BA is known as the "Paris of South America", a richly deserved sobriquet based on its architecture, dining, nightlife, passion and general joie de vivre. The product of not just French but Spanish, Italian, British and just about every other European influence, BA is a potpourri of eclectic fascinations, especially architecturally.

Start with a ride along Avenida 9 de Julio, the city's main thoroughfare named for Argentina's Independence Day on July 9, 1816. The avenue runs from the Rio de la Plata waterfront into the CBD past Plaza de la Republica and its famous Obelisk, the Ministry of Public Works Building with its enormous steel portraits of Eva Peron and the architectural masterpiece Teatro Colon.

Teatro Colon is just one of BA's 280 theatres, which is perhaps more than any other city on the planet. And this is just the overture for the cultural main event, with myriad museums, galleries, cathedrals, orchestras, singers, dancers, festivals, folk art and street art. Even bookshops are high art here, including the spectacular El Ateneo Grand Splendid, set under a fresco-painted dome in an old ornate theatre.

BA boasts dozens of landscaped gardens, parks and public squares, replete with baroque fountains and statues, as well as amazing antiques and fashion shopping, especially in San Telmo and Palermo Soho. Craft markets are everywhere and you can souvenir traditional silverware, gourds, boleadoras (stone balls on a chord used for catching cattle), alpargatas (rope-soled shoes) and leather goods made from the skin of the capybara, the world's largest rodent.

Each of BA's major neighbourhoods has its own appeal and is famous for something. Tour any of Palermo, Recoleta, Puerto Madero, Belgrano, San Telmo, La Boca, Monserrat or Caballito and your local guide will fervently explain why it is the best. While Amy may want to be the girl from Ipanema and spend her holiday with a giant Jesus judging her every move, give me the city of the sexy, sinful tango any day.

By Amy Cooper

While it may take two to tango, only one city can bossa this South American stand-off. Clue: it's the one with the giant Jesus. Nowhere parties like Rio de Janeiro. The Brazilian bombshell's dazzling, dancing, drumming, delirious deluge of 24/7 boa energia - good vibes - is a worldwide symbol for joy.

Carnaval is the crescendo to Rio's permanent state of partying enabled year-round by the sun's sexy lustre. Buenos Aires has winter and autumn; in Rio it's endless summer. While Mal-adonna is driving 240 kilometres from Buenos Aires to its nearest beach with Evita on repeat, I'll be cruising Rio's 30-plus city centre praias, diving into Rio's incomparable beach culture.

Street life, nightlife and social life all flow onto the sands amid the vendors selling coconut water and caipirinhas, the music and mingling. At the most famous of Rio's beaches, Copacabana and Ipanema, lifeguard stations demarcate various beach tribes - surfers, hippies, artists - while every sunset viewed from Arpoador earns applause so enthusiastic you half expect Christ the Redeemer to take a bow. There he stands, atop it all on Corcovado Mountain, arms outstretched in welcome, a 31-metre holy host. Climb up to his feet amid the Tijuca National Park, the world's first urban forest, and you'll share a divine view of Rio's full splendour. You will feel so #blessed, you might burst into song. Don't cry for me Argentina. I'm going to Rio, my-oh-me-oh.