Cairns or Sydney?

Cairns has warmer water, but Sydney is far better for actual beach days. Cairns has no beach in town. You swim in the Esplanade lagoon or drive north to the palm-backed coves around Trinity Beach and Palm Cove. From about November to May you swim inside stinger nets in a wetsuit, and crocodiles mean you always need some caution. The best swimming is out at Green and Fitzroy islands.

Sydney's beaches start inside the city. The surf beaches run from Bondi to Coogee, Manly is a ferry ride across the harbour, and the calm harbour coves such as Balmoral and Nielsen Park suit gentler swimming. The sea is cooler than in Cairns, and the open beaches have real surf, so you swim between the flags.

Sydney is a destination for eating, while Cairns is simply a pleasant place to eat. In Cairns the highlights are local produce: coral trout, mud crab and prawns, rambutans and mangoes at Rusty's Markets, and coffee and cheese from the Tablelands. Fine dining is scarce.

Sydney matches that seafood with the Pyrmont fish market and its oysters. It then adds whole suburbs built around immigrant cooking, from Cabramatta's Vietnamese food to Lakemba's Lebanese, along with chef-led restaurants in Surry Hills and a strong coffee and brunch culture. It costs considerably more.

Neither city has a dense historic centre, but Sydney has far more to see. Cairns is a 20th-century tropical town. Its interest lies in the Cairns Art Gallery's Torres Strait Island collection, a small museum on its gold and sugar past, and some timber Queenslander houses.

Sydney has two world-famous landmarks in the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, which you can climb. The Rocks keeps the colony's oldest streets, and Hyde Park Barracks is on the World Heritage list. Indigenous art is a strength in both cities, but the Art Gallery of New South Wales shows it on a much larger scale.

Sydney gives you a far wider choice of evenings out. Cairns has more noise than choice. Its going-out scene is one compact backpacker district a few blocks back from the Esplanade, and beyond it there is little except a quiet drink on a marina terrace or at a Palm Cove resort bar. With reef boats leaving at dawn, a night here tends to be either a big one or an early one.

Sydney spreads its evenings across districts that each have their own mood. You can choose basement bars in the CBD, old sandstone pubs in The Rocks, the LGBTQ scene along Oxford Street in Darlinghurst, or summer rooftops and beer gardens that get going in daylight. Its strength is bars rather than dancing, and the city winds down well before dawn, but you could go somewhere different every night of a week.

This is where Cairns comes out ahead. It sits where two World Heritage areas meet. Boats leave the marina daily for coral moorings at Moore and Norman Reefs, and inland you find Barron Gorge, the crater lakes of the Tablelands, platypus creeks and the Daintree rainforest. Cassowaries, crocodile cruises and rafting on the Tully add even more.

Sydney's nature is outstanding for a big city, but it is a different kind. It is mostly sandstone cliffs and bushland: the Bondi to Coogee walk, the Royal National Park's coastal trails, whale-watching at the harbour heads and the Blue Mountains about two hours west. You can easily mix it with city days, but it has nothing to match the reef.

Both cities have only a short list of day trips, and in both most of what you visit is landscape. Cairns is better for scenic outings. You can ride the 1880s railway up to Kuranda and return by cableway over the rainforest, visit the ruined castle at Paronella Park, take a boat day to the islands or go up the coast to resort-style Port Douglas.

Sydney's day trips lean towards wine and old towns. Options include cellar doors in the Hunter Valley, the Federation-era streets of Katoomba and Leura, the gardens of Bowral and colonial Berrima, and Parramatta's early buildings. Some, such as Newcastle and Wollongong, are reachable by train, though a car still helps.

Both cities are easy with children, though Sydney offers more variety. Cairns works well for outdoorsy families. The free lifeguarded lagoon solves swimming in town, Green Island has glass-bottomed boats, and the reef pontoons have semi-submersibles for children too young to snorkel. Wet-season heat and stinger suits are the drawbacks.

Sydney adds the big days out that Cairns lacks. You can take the ferry to Taronga Zoo, see the dinosaurs at the Australian Museum, ride the 1930s fairground at Luna Park and swim at netted harbour beaches with calm water.

Sydney is far easier to get around without a car. One tap-on card covers trains, metro, light rail, buses and ferries, and the ferry from Circular Quay to Manly or Taronga is a pleasure in itself. The eastern beaches still need a bus.

In Cairns the hotels, Esplanade and reef terminal are a short flat walk apart, and tours collect you from your accommodation. Buses to the northern beaches are infrequent, though, and there is no rail beyond the Kuranda line. Most visitors therefore hire a car for the Tablelands and the Daintree.

Sydney is a real shopping city, while in Cairns shopping is mostly souvenirs. Cairns's centre is mainly dive gear, opals and crocodile leather. The best things to take home are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art from Cape York and the crafts at the Kuranda market.

Sydney has the Victorian arcades of the Queen Victoria Building and the Strand, flagship stores around Pitt Street Mall, and local fashion along Paddington's Oxford Street. It is especially good for Australian swimwear and resortwear, and has weekend markets in Glebe and The Rocks.

Cairns is the cheaper base, but neither is a budget destination. In Cairns, hostels and apartment hotels keep rooms affordable, and the lagoon and markets are free. However, the reef boats, dives, rainforest tours and car hire that you came for add up quickly.

In Sydney the bed is the big expense, especially near the harbour and beaches in summer, and restaurants are dear too. On the other hand, the coastal walks, beaches and main galleries are free, and fare caps keep transport costs reasonable.

Cairns hosts shows, while Sydney makes its own. In Cairns an evening out at the theatre depends on what the touring circuit brings that month to the arts centre beside Munro Martin Parklands, or to the old fuel tanks at Edge Hill. The parklands' open-air stage is a pleasant dry-season night, and live music elsewhere mostly means cover bands in backpacker pubs. The performances you would struggle to see elsewhere are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dance and song at the regional festivals.

Sydney has the permanent companies that Cairns has none of: Opera Australia, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Theatre Company and the Australian Chamber Orchestra. That means a week here can take in opera, orchestral and chamber music, contemporary dance from Sydney Dance Company and a big musical on George Street, all of it planned well ahead. For original bands rather than covers, the small venues of Newtown and Enmore have far more going on than anything in the far north.

Sydney has a bathing culture of its own, which Cairns lacks. Its sea-fed ocean pools at Bronte, Clovelly and Coogee, with Wylie's and McIver's Ladies Baths among them, make a dawn swim part of the day. Korean-style bathhouses add steam rooms.

Rest in Cairns means moving out to Palm Cove, where resort spas under the melaleuca trees use native botanicals. The town centre is no place for calm, given the noisy backpacker streets and early reef starts.