Canberra or Noosa?

This is no contest. Canberra is inland and its coast at Batemans Bay is two hours away over the mountains. Swimming near the city means river spots without lifeguards, such as Casuarina Sands and Kambah Pool, or a lake that algae often closes after hot spells.

Noosa is built around its beaches. Main Beach faces north behind the headland, so the waves are small and the flags are patrolled, and the open sands of Sunshine, Marcus and Peregian lie just to the south for stronger swimmers. The water stays warm enough to swim in all year.

Both eat well for their size, and in both weekend brunch is a ritual, but their strengths differ. Canberra spreads its best tables across Braddon, Kingston, Manuka and the Asian kitchens of Dickson's Woolley Street. Its real advantage is wine: the cellar doors around Murrumbateman, under forty minutes away, pour cool-climate shiraz-viognier and riesling.

Noosa's cooking is about seafood such as Moreton Bay bugs, prawns and reef fish, eaten by the water on Hastings Street or the Noosaville riverfront at sunset. Its range is narrower and there is little cheap food, while Canberra has more variety in cuisines.

This is Canberra's strongest suit and Noosa's weakest. In Canberra, the Parliamentary Triangle groups Parliament House, the National Gallery, the Portrait Gallery and the National Library close together, the War Memorial and the National Museum are nearby, and Griffin's planned city is a sight in its own right from Mount Ainslie.

Noosa is a late twentieth-century resort with no historic quarter and no major museum. The small regional gallery at Tewantin is about all there is, so a day of culture from Noosa means two hours' travel to Brisbane.

Neither is a place for a big night, but Canberra has more to go out for. Lonsdale Street in Braddon and the laneways of Civic hold cocktail bars, small breweries and pubs, and in term time students keep a few late venues busy at weekends.

In Noosa, an evening means a long dinner and a drink with a view on Hastings Street or the surf club deck, and the town is mostly asleep before midnight.

The sea is what Canberra's bush lacks, and it is where Noosa pulls ahead. The capital's outdoors are still real. Kangaroos graze the reserves at dusk, walking and mountain-bike trails cross Black Mountain and Mount Ainslie, and forty minutes away Namadgi's granite summits above 1,800m offer long hikes and snow on the tops in winter.

Noosa's national park starts at the end of Hastings Street. Koalas sit in the trees above the coastal track, dolphins and turtles are seen offshore, humpback whales pass in winter, and the point breaks draw longboarders whenever the swell comes up. North of the river, the Everglades are best explored by canoe through quiet tea-tree channels, and the Cooloola sand coast runs on beyond them.

Neither has one great excursion, so the difference is in character. Day trips from Canberra mean country towns and wine: Braidwood's gold-rush streets, Bungendore's galleries, Goulburn's Victorian buildings and the cellar doors of the Yass Valley.

From Noosa the outings head into the hinterland. There is the Eumundi market, the ridge-top villages of Montville and Maleny looking across to the Glass House Mountains, and Brisbane two hours to the south for a city day. The wilder sand coasts of Cooloola and K'gari are trips for landscape rather than towns.

Both are safe, calm and easy with children, but the days look different. In Canberra the attractions are museums and animals: Questacon can fill a whole day, the National Zoo and Aquarium is in the city, and Tidbinbilla offers kangaroos and koalas on short walks.

Noosa's days are built around water: a sheltered, patrolled beach, river shallows calm enough for toddlers and paddleboards on the river, with Australia Zoo an hour's drive away. Canberra has no beach, and Noosa has no attractions built for children in town.

Both work best with a car, but for different reasons. Canberra is spread out by design. The light rail and buses cover the city but run less often in the evenings and at weekends, and the off-road cycle paths around the lake make a bike the most pleasant way between the institutions.

Noosa's resort core is compact. Hastings Street, Main Beach and the park entrance are a few minutes apart on a boardwalk, and a river ferry offers a slow, gentle ride along the water. Beyond that, the Everglades and the hinterland need a car or a tour.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Noosa offers slightly more enjoyable browsing. Hastings Street is a short run of boutiques selling resort wear, swimwear and linen, and the long-established Eumundi market inland is a proper outing for ceramics, leather and crafts.

Canberra's shopping is more practical. There is the Canberra Centre for chains, a few independent shops in Braddon, the Sunday Old Bus Depot Markets in Kingston, and the national gallery shops for Aboriginal art prints.

Canberra is the cheaper of the two, mostly because its great national institutions charge nothing at the door. You can spend days at Parliament House, the War Memorial, the National Gallery and the National Museum without paying entry, and hotel rooms often fall in price at weekends when political and business travellers go home. Meals, drinks, taxis and a hire car still cost what they do elsewhere in Australia.

Noosa is priced as a premium resort. Rates climb sharply over summer and the school vacations, and there is little cheap food. A self-catering apartment in Noosaville or Sunshine Beach and a visit outside peak periods help, and the beaches and park walks cost nothing.

Canberra has the more regular stage life. The Canberra Theatre Centre takes touring plays, dance and musicals, the Canberra Symphony Orchestra plays a season, partly in Llewellyn Hall, and the National Folk Festival fills the city at Easter.

Noosa has a small community theatre and the short Noosa Alive festival. Beyond that, live music means acoustic sets in bars, and for opera or an orchestra you have to go to Brisbane.

Noosa is the place for this. Days fall into a rhythm of swims, walks and long breakfasts, day spas and resort spas are plentiful, yoga is part of local life, and retreats in the hinterland run multi-day programmes.

Canberra is restful in a quieter way. It is an uncrowded, green city with calm mornings by the lake and early evenings, but it has only a few day spas and nothing to build a wellness trip around.