Chiang Rai or Sapa?

Neither city has a beach, so if you want sea and sand, add a separate stretch on the coast. What differs is the water you do get. In Chiang Rai's heat, a hotel pool, a cool pool under a forest waterfall or a reservoir is a real pleasure. Sapa's mountain streams are cold and shallow, more to look at than to swim in.

Chiang Rai eats better. Northern Thai cooking gives you khao soi, nam ngiao, sai ua sausage and chilli dips with sticky rice, all easy to try cheaply at the night bazaar and the weekend walking streets. The coffee and oolong grown in the hills support a large café culture.

Sapa's cooking is built around the cold: hotpots of salmon and sturgeon farmed in the streams, skewers and sticky rice in bamboo tubes from the lakeside grills, and Hmong thang co if you are adventurous. It is warming after a trek, but the centre relies on travellers' menus of mixed quality, and you will run through the local dishes sooner than in Chiang Rai.

Chiang Rai has the sights. Its three modern temple works, the White Temple, the Blue Temple and Baan Dam, are unlike anything else in Thailand. Wat Phra Kaew, the Lanna-era temples and the hill-tribe museum add older history, enough for two or three days.

Sapa's town has little beyond the stone church from the French era and a small museum on the ethnic groups. Here the culture is something you see in daily life rather than in a museum: Black Hmong, Red Dao, Tay and Giay villages along the trails, with indigo dyeing and weaving. Walk past Cat Cat and the other nearby villages, which are busy and partly staged, to see everyday life.

Neither is a place for late nights, but Chiang Rai gives you more to do after dinner. There is the short strip of bars near the clock tower, with reggae and acoustic covers, and the beer tables at the night bazaar, before the town goes quiet around midnight. Sapa goes to bed earlier still: a hotpot by the fire, a few travellers' bars with pool tables and the lakeside grills, since most people are walking the next morning.

Nature is the reason to go to Sapa, and here it is well ahead. From a ridge at around 1,500m, trails drop straight into the terraces of the Muong Hoa valley, through bamboo forest and past village homestays. Fansipan, the highest peak in Indochina, can be climbed over one or two days or reached by cable car.

Chiang Rai's countryside is gentler, and you need a vehicle to reach it: Khun Korn waterfall, the tea terraces of Doi Mae Salong, the gardens at Doi Tung, the sunrise over a sea of cloud at Phu Chi Fa and the Mekong valley. It is lovely after the rains, but the smoke haze from field burning can spoil it for weeks from late winter. In Sapa the main drawbacks are winter fog and muddy trails in summer.

Chiang Rai has the wider choice of outings within easy reach. Chiang Saen's ruined chedis, the Golden Triangle viewpoint over the Mekong, the border market at Mae Sai, Doi Tung and the Yunnanese tea town of Doi Mae Salong fill two or three days without long drives.

From Sapa, the best outing is the Sunday market at Bac Ha, about two hours away, where Flower Hmong come to trade livestock and textiles. Smaller markets such as Can Cau are similar. Lao Cai is a working border city rather than a sight, and beyond that most outings are into the mountains themselves.

Chiang Rai is the easier place with children, though neither has much made for them. Singha Park's open space, lakes and animals, the elephant sanctuaries and the colourful temples make good outings, and the town is flat and relaxed. The drawbacks are long rides out to the sights and the smoky months, which are a poor time for young children.

Sapa suits older children who can walk. They will enjoy the buffalo in the paddies, a night in a homestay and the cable car up Fansipan. Toddlers find it hard going, with steep streets, slippery trails, cold and damp winters and persistent village vendors.

Both have small centres you can walk, with uneven pavements, and in both the sights lie outside town, so you will be paying for transport in either. Chiang Rai is flat and has more ways to get around: tuk-tuks, songthaews, ride-hailing apps, a local bus to the White Temple and regional buses to Chiang Saen and Mae Sai. Many visitors also hire a car or scooter.

Sapa's streets climb steeply and there is no public transport worth relying on, but the trails mean you can walk to the villages. A short tram runs down to the cable car. Getting to Sapa in the first place takes a long road trip or an overnight train from Hanoi.

Chiang Rai has more for shoppers, almost all of it in markets. The nightly bazaar sells hill-tribe textiles, silver and carved wood, the Saturday walking street on Thanalai Road is more local, and oolong from Doi Mae Salong and local coffee make the best things to take home.

Sapa's shopping is almost entirely handicrafts: Hmong and Dao embroidery, indigo cloth, brocade bags and silver, sold in town and in the villages. Some of it is fine handwork, but machine-made copies are common and sellers can be insistent, so the market at Bac Ha is a better place to buy.

Both are very cheap, so cost is no reason to choose one over the other. What differs is where the money goes. In Chiang Rai it is drivers, car hire and tours to reach sights outside town. In Sapa, walking with a local guide costs little. The Fansipan cable car is the main extra, along with the popular hotels in the centre, and bargaining is normal for crafts and motorbike rides.

Neither has a theatre or concert season. Chiang Rai has a little more variety: Lanna dance on the night bazaar stage, khantoke dinners with traditional dancing, and street processions at Loy Krathong. Sapa's offer is short, simple shows of Hmong and Dao pan pipes and dance in the town square at weekends and in a few villages.

Chiang Rai is the more restful base overall. It is a slow-paced small town with massage shops on almost every street, spas on the river and in the hills, simple hot spring pools at Pong Phrabat and Mae Kachan, and retreats in the countryside, though it is best to avoid the smoky season.

Sapa's real treat is the Red Dao herbal bath, a soak in wooden tubs of water steeped with forest plants, best taken in Ta Phin after a day's walk. For calm, though, stay in a homestay in the valley rather than in town, where traffic and persistent selling make it hard to rest.