Byron Bay or Cairns?

This is Byron Bay's strongest suit. Because the town faces north across its bay, it gets surf at Main Beach and Clarkes, a sheltered point break at The Pass, the small morning-sun cove of Wategos, and long empty stretches at Tallow and Belongil, all close to the centre. The rips are real, but there are flags to swim between.

Cairns has a waterfront with no beach. In town you swim in the free lagoon pool. The palm-backed beaches from Machans to Palm Cove start about 20 minutes north, and from roughly November to May you swim there inside stinger nets in a wetsuit. Its best swimming is out at Green and Fitzroy islands, an hour away by boat.

Byron Bay eats better, though neither is a destination for food. Its strength is morning café culture and the hinterland's macadamias, avocados and grass-fed beef. Farmers' markets show the produce off, and a few ambitious restaurants on farms and in Bangalow take it further.

Cairns is more casual and more tropical. Coral trout, mud crab and prawns come off the coast, Rusty's Markets has rambutans and lychees you won't find further south, and the centre has plenty of cheap Asian food. Fine dining is thin, and the Night Markets food court is aimed at tour groups rather than people who care about food.

Neither is a culture trip, but Cairns has more to fill a rainy day. The Cairns Art Gallery is strong on Torres Strait Island art, and there is a small museum on the gold-rush port and sugar, some timber Queenslanders and Art Deco shopfronts, and an aquarium. Byron Bay's sights come down to the Cape Byron lighthouse. Its deepest heritage, the Arakwal Bumberlin people's bond with the cape, is something you meet on a guided walk rather than in a building.

The two are about even, but the evenings feel different. Byron Bay's night starts with sunset drinks and moves to big beer gardens near Main Beach and a few cocktail bars. It stays barefoot and relaxed, and most of it is done not long after midnight.

Cairns is rowdier and more of a party. Hostel crowds, dive crews and seasonal workers fill the blocks around Shields Street, with drinks specials and a couple of clubs open until the early hours. Plenty of visitors skip all of it to be up for the morning reef boat.

Byron Bay has fine nature, but Cairns sits where the Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropics rainforest meet. Day boats run to outer reefs such as Moore and Norman for coral gardens, giant clams and reef sharks. On land there is Barron Gorge, the Crystal Cascades swimming holes, platypus creeks on the Tablelands, and the Daintree running down to the reef at Cape Tribulation, with rafting on the Tully as well.

Byron's version is gentler and closer to hand. You can walk the Cape Byron track and watch for humpbacks from June to November, snorkel with turtles and grey nurse sharks at Julian Rocks, and drive about an hour to the waterfalls of Nightcap and the Border Ranges.

The outings are equally modest in both places, but they differ in kind. From Byron Bay you visit towns: Bangalow's heritage main street and markets, Nimbin's leftover 1970s counterculture, the gallery at Murwillumbah, and the Gold Coast's theme parks about an hour away.

From Cairns the trips are more about the journey and the scenery. You ride the Kuranda Scenic Railway up through tunnels and come back down over the canopy by cableway, take a boat to Green or Fitzroy Island, or drive to Port Douglas or the ruined jungle castle at Paronella Park.

Cairns has a slight edge with children, mainly because it gets around the problem of sea swimming. The lifeguarded Esplanade Lagoon has shallow edges, and the reef pontoons have underwater observatories and semi-submersibles for children too young to snorkel. Crocodile parks, koala sanctuaries and the Kuranda train add variety.

Byron Bay is about beach days: gentler water at The Pass and Wategos, rock pools, and dolphins and whales from the lighthouse walk. It has little built for children, the surf rips need watching, and the theme parks are an hour's drive away.

Both are small and flat in the middle and both need a car further out, so there is little between them. Byron Bay suits a bicycle along the coastal paths, though summer beach parking is tight and the hinterland has almost no buses. In Cairns the hotels, Esplanade and reef terminal are a short walk apart, and tours collect you from your accommodation, which covers more of a typical stay. Wet-season heat makes walking at midday hard work there.

Byron Bay is much better for shopping because it has a look of its own. The centre is full of local linen and swimwear labels, homewares and surfwear. A few minutes out, the Arts and Industry Estate has designers and makers, and the artisan markets sell handmade goods.

Cairns shopping is mostly tour desks, dive gear and souvenir opals or crocodile leather. What's worth buying there is Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art from the Cape York region, along with local honey and coffee from Rusty's Markets.

Cairns is the cheaper base. It has plenty of hostels and apartment hotels at reasonable rates outside school breaks, and eating out costs about what it does elsewhere in Australia. The catch is that reef trips, dives and rainforest tours are expensive, and you will want several of them.

In Byron Bay the bed is the big cost. Accommodation is among the dearest of any Australian beach town and climbs again on festival weekends, and cafés charge resort prices. On the other hand, the beaches, the cape walk and the waterfalls cost nothing.

Neither is a place for opera or orchestras, but Byron Bay's live scene gives you a bit more reason to go out. Original local songwriters and touring roots and surf-rock acts play the beer gardens, buskers work the main streets, and the long-running writers' festival brings talks and readings. Cairns relies on touring shows at its Performing Arts Centre and gigs in the old wartime fuel tanks at Tanks Arts Centre. Its standout is Indigenous dance and music.

Byron Bay is far ahead here because wellness is part of the town's identity. Yoga studios run classes all day, and there are day spas, breathwork and sound healing, plus residential retreats in the hinterland hills. It is calmest in the quiet winter months.

In Cairns, relaxing means leaving the centre, where noisy backpacker blocks and early reef starts get in the way. The Palm Cove resorts have spas using native botanicals. In town you get the lagoon pool, a dusk walk along the boardwalk, and a cheap massage at the Night Markets.