Cairns or Whitsundays?

Whitehaven settles it: 7km of white silica sand beside the swirling channels of Hill Inlet, with no buildings in sight and dozens of quiet island coves around it. Cairns has no beach on its own waterfront, only mudflats and the lagoon pool. Its best sand is the string of northern beaches from Machans to Ellis Beach, which are pleasant but mean swimming inside stinger nets for much of the year.

Both mainland towns swim in a lagoon, both have the same stinger season and crocodile warnings, and in both the finest water is offshore. The difference is that the Whitsundays' island beaches are the reason to go, while Green and Fitzroy islands are a nice day out from Cairns.

Neither is a place to travel for food, but Cairns gives you more to work with. Rusty's Markets is piled with mangoes and rambutans, the Tablelands supply coffee, cheese and fruit wines, and the centre has cheap Asian cooking alongside the seafood terraces on the Esplanade.

The Whitsundays serve the same prawns and reef fish in Airlie Beach's casual bistros and on resort menus on Hamilton and Hayman, some of them polished. The choice is small, though, and a week of it starts to repeat.

Cairns has a modest day's worth: the Cairns Art Gallery's Far North Queensland and Torres Strait collections, the small museum on the town's gold-rush port and sugar history, and Aboriginal art galleries around town. The Whitsundays have almost nothing of the kind beyond Ngaro rock art along the Ngaro Sea Trail and small displays in Proserpine and Bowen, so on a rainy day there is little to fall back on.

Both are backpacker towns after dark, with pub bars, cheap drinks nights and a couple of late venues. Cairns spreads its going-out across several blocks around Shields Street and the Esplanade, with marina bars and waterfront cocktail terraces for a quieter drink.

Airlie Beach packs the same young crowd into one short main street, which is busiest when the sailing trips come back. On the islands, as at Palm Cove, the evening ends early at a resort bar.

Both are outstanding, but Cairns gives you more variety. Its day boats go straight to outer reefs such as Moore and Norman, and behind the town lies the Wet Tropics rainforest: Barron Gorge, Crystal Cascades, the crater lakes of the Tablelands and the Daintree running down to the reef at Cape Tribulation, with rafting, cassowaries and platypus as well.

The Whitsundays are stronger on the water itself. There are 74 islands, most of them national park, in sheltered channels that are ideal for chartering a yacht or joining a two- or three-night sail, and humpback whales pass from July to September. The outer reef is further off, a full day's boat ride or a seaplane flight over Heart Reef.

Cairns has the better outings beyond pure nature. You can take the Kuranda Scenic Railway up past the Barron Gorge and ride the cableway back. Port Douglas is an hour up the coast, and Paronella Park's ruined castle and the Tablelands villages give you a handful of real places to visit.

From the Whitsundays almost every day out is a boat to a beach or a reef. For a change of scene there is little more than the ferry to Hamilton's marina village or Daydream Island and the drive to Bowen.

Cairns is the easier base with children because so much is close together: the lifeguarded Esplanade Lagoon and playgrounds, crocodile and koala parks, the aquarium and the train to Kuranda. Green Island's glass-bottomed boats and the outer reef pontoons with semi-submersibles let even young children see the coral.

The Whitsundays work best if you settle on one resort island. Hamilton has kids' clubs, koalas and golf buggies, and children love Daydream's coral lagoon. Whitehaven and the reef, though, mean long boat days that suit older children more than toddlers.

Both are manageable, in different ways. In Cairns the centre, the marina and the Esplanade are a flat walk apart and tours collect you from your hotel, but the northern beaches, the Tablelands and the Daintree call for a hire car.

In the Whitsundays the car matters less and the boat timetable more. Ferries link Airlie Beach with Hamilton and Daydream, Hamilton gets around by buggy and shuttle, and reaching Whitehaven or the reef depends on booked departures and the weather. Hamilton's own airport also lets you skip the mainland altogether.

Cairns has more to browse, though not much. There are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art galleries with work from Cape York, craft markets at Kuranda and Port Douglas, and local honey and coffee at Rusty's. The Whitsundays offer swimwear, surf gear and souvenirs in Airlie Beach and the Hamilton marina, plus a weekend craft market on the foreshore, and little else.

Neither is cheap, but a budget goes further in Cairns. It has plenty of hostels and apartment hotels, the lagoon, waterfront and markets are free, and most of the cost comes from the reef and rainforest tours you choose to take.

The Whitsundays cost more on top of that. Sailing trips and scenic flights are the whole point of going, the resorts on Hayman and Hamilton are priced as luxury escapes, and even an ordinary meal on the islands costs more. A cheap stay is only really possible in Airlie Beach's hostels and campgrounds.

Cairns at least has proper venues. The Cairns Performing Arts Centre hosts touring shows, Munro Martin Parklands has open-air evenings in the dry season, Tanks Arts Centre puts on gigs in old wartime fuel tanks, and cultural centres show Indigenous dance. The Whitsundays have pub cover bands, an annual music festival on the Airlie Beach foreshore and the odd event on Hamilton, with no theatre or concert hall at all.

The Whitsundays are the better place to switch off. A quiet island resort on Hamilton or Hayman, with spas facing the sea or set in the bush, or a night on a yacht in a still anchorage, is restful in itself. Only Airlie Beach is noisy.

In Cairns you get the same calm only by leaving town for the resort spas of Palm Cove under the melaleucas, or for Port Douglas. In the centre, early reef departures and the backpacker blocks make rest harder, though a dusk walk along the Esplanade boardwalk helps.