Chiang Mai or Hanoi?

Neither city is a beach destination, and both send sea lovers elsewhere for a separate stay. From Chiang Mai that means a flight south to the islands, and from Hanoi a long trip to Ha Long and Cat Ba, Sam Son or the south.

For a swim in town, Chiang Mai has more natural options: Huay Tung Tao reservoir under Doi Suthep, quarry lakes and waterfall pools. Hanoi relies on hotel pools and the water parks beside West Lake.

Both are cities where you eat superbly and cheaply from stalls, but Hanoi's street food is deeper and more varied. Pho at breakfast, bun cha at lunch, cha ca fried at the table and banh cuon, each from a shopfront that may cook one dish for decades, plus egg coffee and early-evening bia hoi, make eating the backbone of a stay.

Chiang Mai's northern cooking is distinct from the rest of Thailand: khao soi, herby sai ua sausage, nam prik noom and sticky rice from Warorot market and the Chang Phueak Gate stalls. Its strength beyond that is coffee, grown in the hills and served in a remarkable number of cafés around Nimmanhaemin.

Hanoi has more to see and more layers to it. In a few days you move from the guild streets of the Old Quarter to the Temple of Literature, the French Quarter's Opera House, the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and Imperial Citadel, and good museums on ethnology, women's history and Hoa Lo prison.

Chiang Mai's heritage is almost all temples, but they are lovely and close together inside the moat: the ruined chedi of Wat Chedi Luang, the Lanna halls of Wat Phra Singh and silver Wat Sri Suphan, with Doi Suthep above. Museums are few, so two or three days of slow temple walking cover it.

Evenings are much alike in spirit: sociable, outdoors, cheap, and mostly over by midnight, so neither suits clubbing until dawn. Hanoi's nights start earlier and louder, with bia hoi crowds on tiny stools, packed backpacker lanes around Ta Hien and the weekend pedestrian streets around Hoan Kiem. Chiang Mai spreads more: cocktail and craft beer bars with a student crowd in Nimmanhaemin, rooftops near Tha Phae Gate and a brasher beer-bar strip on Loi Kroh Road.

This is where Chiang Mai pulls clearly ahead. Doi Suthep-Pui National Park begins at the western edge of town, Doi Inthanon's cloud forest is about an hour and a half away, and the Mae Taeng and Mae Rim valleys add rafting, treks to hill villages and mountain biking. Haze in the burning season is the catch.

Hanoi itself is flat and built-up, with West Lake's shoreline path and dawn tai chi at Hoan Kiem as its green moments. Its great landscapes, Ninh Binh's limestone towers, Ha Long Bay and Sapa, all mean a long day or a night away.

Hanoi's day trips are richer. Ninh Binh combines the old capital of Hoa Lu, the Bai Dinh pagodas and boat trips through caves, the Perfume Pagoda is reached by rowing boat, and craft villages such as Bat Trang and Van Phuc, the laterite houses of Duong Lam and the carved pagodas of But Thap sit within easy reach.

From Chiang Mai the best outings are quieter towns: Lamphun's gilded chedi half an hour south, Lampang's carriages and teak mansions, and the craft villages of Bo Sang and San Kamphaeng. Chiang Rai and Pai are too far for a day and need a night.

Chiang Mai is the gentler base with young children. Most of the fun is outdoors and close at hand, from short waterfall walks on the lower slopes of Doi Suthep to the snack stalls of the weekend walking streets. Traffic around the moat is heavy, but the city is smaller and quieter than Hanoi, and the haze from February to April is the main time to avoid.\n\nHanoi treats children just as warmly but gives them less room to run.

The water puppets and the village houses at the Museum of Ethnology make good half days, yet reaching them means weaving through motorbikes on pavements used for parking and cooking. From May the heat and heavy rain tire small children quickly, so a visit fits best into Hanoi's milder, drier late autumn.

Both are awkward in much the same way: no useful metro for visitors, ride-hailing as the easy answer, and pavements you often leave for the road. Hanoi's sights cluster tightly between the Old Quarter, the lake and Ba Dinh, so you walk more but must learn to cross through steady streams of motorbikes. Chiang Mai's old city is quieter on foot, while beyond the moat you flag down red songthaew trucks, and many visitors hire a scooter for the hills.

Chiang Mai is the better place to buy handmade things. The Sunday Walking Street on Ratchadamnoen, the Saturday market on Wualai Road and the nightly Night Bazaar are long evening browses of textiles, carved wood and hill-tribe embroidery, and Bo Sang umbrellas, San Kamphaeng weaving, celadon and lacquerware add depth.

Hanoi's appeal is its streets of single trades in the Old Quarter, and Hang Gai for silk and made-to-measure clothes ready in a day or two. Bat Trang ceramics and lacquer are good buys, but repeated souvenirs crowd the shops by the lake.

Both stretch a budget a very long way, and Hanoi goes slightly further: street meals, bia hoi, coffee and ride-hailing cost next to nothing, and Old Quarter boutique hotels are cheap. Chiang Mai is not far behind, with free temples and daily massages, but its draws, such as elephant sanctuaries, treks, cooking classes and hill resorts, tend to be the paid extras, just as Ha Long cruises are in Hanoi.

Hanoi has more on stage. Water puppetry with live traditional music plays daily beside Hoan Kiem Lake, the colonial Opera House hosts the national symphony, ballet and opera when the programme allows, and ca tru sung poetry fills a few communal houses on set evenings.

Chiang Mai has no formal stage of that kind. Its evenings are about live music in small bars, especially the jazz and blues jams near the north gate, plus khantoke dinners with Lanna dance, Muay Thai fights and the street processions of Yi Peng.

Chiang Mai is far better for unwinding. It is Thailand's best-known place to learn Thai massage, spas and herbal steam rooms sit in teak houses, Wat Umong and Wat Suan Dok run meditation retreats, and the San Kamphaeng hot springs are under an hour away.

Hanoi offers cheap foot and body massage after long walking days, but the city around you is all horns and crowds. Calm means staying near West Lake or walking the lakes at dawn.