Cairns or Darwin?

Neither city has swimming straight off its town waterfront, but Cairns comes much closer to a beach vacation. Its northern beaches, from Trinity Beach to Palm Cove, are palm-backed sandy coves with patrolled stinger nets, and Green and Fitzroy islands have coral-sand swimming about an hour offshore.

Darwin's beaches at Mindil, Casuarina and East Point are lovely at sunset, but locals stay out of the sea all year because of crocodiles as well as jellyfish. Swimming there means the netted Waterfront lagoon and wave pool, or the waterholes of Litchfield.

Neither city is a place for serious eating, and they are about even, but the flavour differs. Cairns relies on what grows and is caught nearby: coral trout, mud crab, coffee and cheese from the Tablelands, and the tropical fruit piled up at Rusty's Markets.

Darwin's food looks north to Asia, and its best meals are eaten at the markets: laksa at Parap on a Saturday, or Indonesian and Sri Lankan dishes on the sand at Mindil in the dry season.

Darwin has more to see, mainly because its history is so particular. The Museum and Art Gallery at Fannie Bay pairs strong Aboriginal art with the Cyclone Tracy gallery, and the wartime oil tunnels and the gun emplacements at East Point bring the 1942 bombing close.

Cairns has a regional art gallery with fine Torres Strait Island work, a small museum on its gold and sugar past and a few Queenslander houses. Most visitors see it all in a day.

Both towns go out in much the same way, around a backpacker strip of big pub-style bars, and there is little to choose between them. The blocks around Shields Street in Cairns draw dive crews and hostel crowds and have a couple of clubs open until the early hours, though many visitors go to bed early because the reef boats leave in the morning.

Darwin's Mitchell Street has a similar mood. It fills at weekends and in the dry season, and beyond it there is hardly any club scene. The quieter choice is a sunset drink at the sailing club or on the waterfront.

Both cities are gateways to wild country, but Cairns has much more on offer. Two World Heritage areas meet there. Day boats reach the coral of Moore and Norman reefs, and on land Barron Gorge, the crater lakes of the Tablelands and the Daintree at Cape Tribulation are all within reach.

Darwin's outdoors is drier and more about watching wildlife: Litchfield's waterfalls and termite mounds, crocodile cruises on the Adelaide River and the birdlife of the wetlands. There is no reef to snorkel, and Kakadu needs an overnight trip.

Cairns has the better range of outings, even if none of them is grand. Going up to Kuranda on the Scenic Railway and coming back by cableway makes a classic day, and Port Douglas, Paronella Park and the Tablelands villages add variety.

From Darwin, nearly every outing goes into a national park. The only towns within reach are Adelaide River, with its war cemetery, and Batchelor. The Tiwi Islands and their art centres are the one outing with a cultural focus.

Cairns is the more rewarding place with children. The lifeguarded Esplanade Lagoon is right in town, and small children can see the reef from the glass-bottomed boats at Green Island and the underwater observatories on the outer pontoons.

Darwin has its own hits, especially seeing crocodiles up close, the jumping-crocodile cruises and the Waterfront wave pool. But the heat never lets up, the sea is off limits and most outings need a car.

Both centres are compact, but Cairns is easier for a visitor overall. Its hotels, the Esplanade and the reef terminal are a short flat walk apart, and most reef and rainforest tours collect you from your accommodation, so you can manage without a car for much of a stay.

In Darwin, the midday heat makes even short walks heavy going. Buses to Mindil and East Point are infrequent and none go to the national parks, so a hire car or tours are close to essential.

The Aboriginal art for sale in the two cities comes from different country. Cairns galleries sell paintings, prints and carvings from Cape York and the Torres Strait, and the craft markets at Kuranda and Port Douglas add handmade jewellery, wood and leather. Rusty's Markets is the place for local honey, coffee and fruit products to take home.

Darwin's galleries draw on Arnhem Land, the Tiwi Islands and the desert communities, with bark paintings and weavings among the work, and those linked to community art centres make sure the artists benefit. Beyond the art, the Mindil and Parap markets cover crafts and souvenirs, and the fashion offer is no better than in Cairns.

Both are expensive, though Cairns is a little easier on the wallet because it has plenty of hostels and apartment hotels. In each city most of the money goes on getting out of town: reef boats, dives and the Kuranda train in Cairns, car hire and park tours in Darwin.

The ways to save differ. In Cairns the lagoon and the waterfront are free. In Darwin the main museum is free, the markets are a cheap way to eat well, and rooms cost noticeably less in the wet season.

Cairns has a small programme spread across the year, while Darwin puts most of its energy into one event, the Darwin Festival each August. Cairns offers touring shows at its Performing Arts Centre, open-air evenings at Munro Martin Parklands in the dry season, gigs inside the old wartime fuel tanks of Tanks Arts Centre, and Indigenous dance at its cultural centres.

During the festival, Darwin has the stronger offer, with theatre, music, comedy and Aboriginal performance on outdoor stages across the city. The rest of the year it is no busier than Cairns, with touring acts at the Entertainment Centre and local theatre in the stone hall of Brown's Mart.

Cairns is the easier place to slow down, largely because of Palm Cove, where the resort day spas under the melaleuca trees use native botanicals. Port Douglas has more of the same, and a dusk walk along the Esplanade boardwalk helps too.

Darwin has a few hotel spas and the unhurried sunset gathering on the foreshore, and its best soak is the spring-fed pools at Berry Springs. For much of the year, though, its humidity is more tiring than restful.