Beirut or Jerusalem?

Neither city lets you walk down to the sand, but Beirut at least sits on the sea. Swimming there means the rocks of the Corniche, the public sand of Ramlet al-Baida with its unreliable water, or more often a paid beach club. The cleaner water is up and down the coast at Byblos, Batroun and Jiyeh.

Jerusalem has no shore at all. Tel Aviv's long sand beaches are about an hour away door to door by train. The Dead Sea offers a salty float from a rocky shore rather than a swim. Either one takes a full day rather than fitting into the routine.

Both cities share hummus, knafeh and cardamom coffee, but Beirut makes far more of the table. Its range runs from manakish breakfasts, Armenian grills in Bourj Hammoud, arak and Bekaa wine to polished dining rooms in Achrafieh, and long meals are the point of the day.

Jerusalem's best eating is concentrated in Mahane Yehuda and the hummus counters of the Old City, with Kurdish, Iraqi and Yemenite dishes adding range. Kosher rules mean a restaurant serves either meat or dairy, much of West Jerusalem closes for Shabbat, and there are fewer fine restaurants.

This is where Jerusalem wins decisively. The Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Dome of the Rock lie within about a square kilometre of walled city. There are Bronze Age excavations beneath them, and the Israel Museum and Yad Vashem beyond. That is enough for several full days.

War and rebuilding have broken up much of Beirut's history. The National Museum and the Sursock Museum are each worth a morning, and the restored Downtown and Gemmayzeh's stairways reward a walk, but two or three days cover the city.

Beirut is one of the region's great nights out, and Jerusalem does not compete. In Beirut, Mar Mikhael and Gemmayzeh fill with small bars until the early hours, clubs by the port and on summer rooftops run until dawn, and beach clubs hold day parties that go on into the night.

In Jerusalem, an evening means grills and bars in Mahane Yehuda after the stalls close, or pubs off Jaffa Road and in the German Colony. There are few clubs, Friday nights are quiet, and people who want a late night take the train to Tel Aviv.

Beirut has the mountains, and that is the big difference. Inside the city there is little more than Horsh Beirut and the Corniche, but within an hour you are in pine forest above 1,000m. In winter you can ski at Faraya and Mzaar, and the Jeita Grotto and paragliding over Jounieh Bay are close by. The Qadisha Valley and the cedar forests are further out.\n\nJerusalem's landscapes are gentler and drier. You can walk in the Judean Hills around Sataf and Ein Karem, follow the canyon of Wadi Qelt, or visit the oasis of Ein Gedi and climb to Masada at dawn. There are no ski slopes or high peaks, and in summer the desert is only for early mornings.

Both cities are excellent bases. The difference is in the kind of history you reach and how easily you reach it. From Beirut the draw is Phoenician and Roman: Byblos, the huge temples of Baalbek, Tyre and Sidon by the sea, and the palace at Beiteddine. Nearly all of them mean a hired car or a driver and heavy traffic.

From Jerusalem the trips lean biblical and Herodian: Bethlehem just south, Masada and Qumran above the Dead Sea, Caesarea and Acre on the coast, and Tel Aviv by fast train. Both cities have areas where you should check conditions or go with a guide.

Children are warmly welcomed in both cities, but Jerusalem gives them more to do and is easier to get about. The Biblical Zoo, the aquarium beside it and the Bloomfield Science Museum are made for families. Older children enjoy the ramparts and wading through Hezekiah's Tunnel, though a pushchair is useless in the stepped Old City lanes.

Beirut has the Corniche, beach-club pools and outings to Jeita and the Harissa cable car, but little else built for children. Broken pavements and aggressive drivers mean a taxi for most trips, and the city works best with older children who are happy with long meals.

Jerusalem is the simpler city to move through. The centre, Mahane Yehuda and the Old City are within walking distance of each other, the light rail runs out to Yad Vashem and a fast train goes to Tel Aviv. The one catch is that public transport stops for Shabbat.

Beirut has no metro or tram, and its buses are hard for a visitor to work out. Each district is easy on foot, but getting between them means ride-hailing or shared taxis in heavy traffic, and day trips need a car or a driver.

Beirut is the better city for fashion and design. Lebanese designers sell from boutiques in Gemmayzeh, Mar Mikhael and Saifi Village, the city is home to well-known couture houses, and Bourj Hammoud has jewellers and leather workers. What Beirut lacks is an old bazaar.

Jerusalem has exactly that in the Old City souq, with olive-wood carvings, embroidery, Armenian ceramics and bargaining, as well as Judaica and edible gifts from Mahane Yehuda. Beyond the brands along Mamilla there is little fashion.

Beirut is the cheaper of the two, though neither is a budget city. Restaurants, bars and hotels in its smarter districts cost close to Southern European levels, but street food, neighbourhood mezze and short taxi rides keep everyday spending low.

Jerusalem costs noticeably more. Hotels are expensive, especially in festival and pilgrimage seasons, and alcohol and sit-down meals are priced well above the Mediterranean norm. Free holy sites and cheap market lunches help, but a comfortable stay still adds up fast.

Both scenes are modest, but they differ in kind. Beirut's strengths are small venues for jazz, Arabic fusion and electronic music, cabarets that revive the old Arabic music-hall repertoire, and summer festivals among Baalbek's temples and in Beiteddine's palace courtyards.

Jerusalem's scene is more formal. It has the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Jerusalem Theatre, the Israel Festival and summer concerts in the Sultan's Pool below the walls, but most plays are in Hebrew and there is little live music.

The Dead Sea gives Jerusalem the edge here, and Beirut has nothing to match it. Beirut is louder and stays up later, and its hammams have almost disappeared. Calm there means a hotel spa, a sunset walk on the Corniche, or a night or two in a guesthouse in the Shouf villages.\n\nFrom Jerusalem, the Dead Sea is about an hour away, with spa resorts, mineral mud, sulphur pools and a float in the dense water. The city also has its own quiet: each Shabbat the streets of West Jerusalem empty of traffic, and the gardens on the Mount of Olives and in the Armenian and Christian compounds are calm.