Canberra or Sydney?

Canberra has no beach of its own. Summer swimming means river spots such as Casuarina Sands and Kambah Pool, which have no lifeguards, or a lake that algae often closes after hot weather. Real sea time means driving to Batemans Bay as a separate outing.

Sydney is one of the world's great beach cities. A chain of ocean beaches with lifeguards runs through the eastern suburbs, Manly and the Northern Beaches have proper surf, and sheltered harbour coves like Balmoral and Nielsen Park offer calm water and shade.

Canberra eats pleasantly but on a small scale. Brunch cafés in Braddon, Asian kitchens along Dickson's Woolley Street and the older strips of Kingston and Manuka cover most of it. Its real strength is the cool-climate shiraz-viognier and riesling made at cellar doors within forty minutes of the centre.

Sydney goes much deeper. Harbour seafood and oysters are the signature, and whole suburbs are given over to Vietnamese, Lebanese, Indian or Italian cooking. There is also a serious fine-dining tier in Surry Hills and Potts Point. Neither city has a cuisine of its own, but Sydney gives you far more to choose from.

The two are well matched, but they offer different things. Canberra is a city of national institutions: Parliament House, the Australian War Memorial, the National Gallery and the National Museum, all set within Griffin's planned landscape around the lake. There are almost no old streets, so a visit means going from museum to museum.

Sydney's interest lies more in landmarks and setting. The Opera House and the Harbour Bridge are best seen from a ferry, and The Rocks and the convict-era Hyde Park Barracks hold the colony's oldest fabric. Both cities show strong Aboriginal art, at the National Gallery and at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Sydney gives you a proper night out, while Canberra suits a quiet drink. In Canberra, most evenings are spent in the cocktail bars and small breweries of Braddon's Lonsdale Street and the Civic laneways, or on Kingston's quieter strip. Only a few late venues near the bus interchange fill with students at weekends, and the city goes very still midweek and outside term.

Sydney is also built around bars rather than clubs, but there are far more of them: hidden laneway bars in the CBD, harbourside pubs in The Rocks, Oxford Street's LGBTQ scene and later, more alternative nights in Newtown and Enmore.

Both cities have bush close at hand, but Sydney adds the sea. Its clifftop walk from Bondi to Coogee, the coastal trails of the Royal National Park, surfing, harbour kayaking and passing humpback whales give it far more variety. The Blue Mountains are also within reach.

Canberra's strength is height and quiet. Kangaroos graze on reserves inside the city, and the granite summits of Namadgi rise above 1,800m with rock-art sites and winter snow, which is real mountain country that Sydney lacks.

Sydney has slightly more within reach. The Hunter Valley's vineyards, the cliff-edge towns of Katoomba and Leura, colonial Parramatta, and Newcastle and Wollongong are all easy outings, and several can be reached by train.

From Canberra, the outings are small country towns: gold-rush Braidwood, the galleries of Bungendore, Goulburn's Victorian streets and the wine roads of Murrumbateman. Both cities share the Southern Highlands around Bowral and Berrima, and from either one a car makes most trips far easier.

Both are easy with children, and Sydney has a little more to fill the days. A ferry ride to Taronga Zoo, the aquarium and the ships at the Maritime Museum, the rides at Luna Park and netted harbour beaches make a varied week.

Canberra's highlight is Questacon, whose hands-on floors can take up most of a day. Add Tidbinbilla's kangaroos and koalas and the Arboretum playground, and the city is calm and uncrowded, though without a beach and best done with a car.

This is one of the clearest differences between the two. Canberra was laid out for the car. Civic, Braddon and the Parliamentary Triangle are each walkable but far apart, the single light rail line and buses thin out in the evenings, and the lakeside cycle paths are the most pleasant way to link them.

Sydney's trains, metro, light rail and buses run on one card, and the harbour ferries double as sightseeing. Bondi takes a bus and the suburbs sprawl, but a visitor based near Circular Quay rarely needs a car.

In Canberra, shopping is something to do on the side. There are the chains in the Canberra Centre, a few independent shops in Braddon, and the Old Bus Depot Markets in Kingston on Sunday mornings for local crafts. The national museum shops are good for Aboriginal art prints.

Sydney is a shopping destination in a way Canberra is not. It has flagship stores around Pitt Street Mall, Australian designers in the Victorian galleries of the Queen Victoria Building and the Strand Arcade, terrace boutiques in Paddington, and plenty of the swimwear and resort fashion the country is known for.

Neither is cheap, but Canberra is the gentler of the two. Hotel rooms often get cheaper at weekends once the political travellers leave, and almost every major institution is free to enter, though Questacon, the zoo and a hire car add up.

In Sydney, the harbour and beach hotels cost a great deal, especially in summer, and restaurant meals and drinks are expensive. The free coastal walks, beaches and galleries, together with the Asian food courts, help keep daily spending in check.

Sydney is the place to plan a trip around a performance. The Opera House has something on almost every night, and Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir, Bangarra and the Australian Chamber Orchestra give it real depth. In January, the Sydney Festival brings international work into the city.

Canberra has a steadier, smaller calendar of touring shows at the Canberra Theatre Centre and the symphony orchestra's season, and many big tours skip it. Its high point is the National Folk Festival at Easter.

Sydney has a bathing culture Canberra lacks. Sea-fed rock pools at Bondi, Bronte and Clovelly, the old-fashioned calm of Wylie's Baths and McIver's Ladies Baths, and a few Korean-style bathhouses all make a dawn swim a real ritual.

Canberra has only a handful of day spas. What it offers instead is the stillness of the city itself, with early nights and quiet mornings by the lake, which suits a gentle break better than a planned wellness trip.