Da Lat or Ho Chi Minh City?

Neither city is a beach base, but Ho Chi Minh City gets you to the sea more easily. Vung Tau is about two hours away by road or by fast boat down the Saigon River, so you can swim and be back the same day. The water there is warm, though often cloudy, and the beaches fill with city crowds at weekends.

From Da Lat the coast at Ninh Chu Bay or Nha Trang means a drive of nearly three hours down winding passes. That works as an overnight stop or as the next leg of the route, not as an afternoon on the sand.

Da Lat eats well in a small, seasonal way. Most evenings centre on the market steps, with grilled rice paper, bánh căn from clay moulds and hot soy milk against the chill. Hotpot with wild greens, highland avocados and strawberries come from the farms nearby. The coffee is grown on the slopes outside town.

Ho Chi Minh City is in another league, and for many visitors the food is the main reason to go. You get broken-rice plates, banh xeo, whole streets of snail stalls after dark and the Chinese-Vietnamese cooking of Cholon. On top of the street food there is a proper range of modern Vietnamese, French and international restaurants, which Da Lat largely lacks.

Ho Chi Minh City has the weightier sights. The War Remnants Museum and the Reunification Palace bring the war era close, the colonial landmarks around Dong Khoi include the cathedral and the iron-vaulted Post Office, and the incense-filled assembly halls of Cholon add older heritage.

Da Lat's appeal is more about architecture and oddity: French villas among the pines, the Art Deco railway station, Bao Dai's Summer Palace, the Crazy House and the porcelain-mosaic Linh Phuoc pagoda. It is charming but light on museums. Each city's core takes two or three days, but Saigon's days leave more of a mark.

There is no real contest. Ho Chi Minh City's evenings start with beer at pavement tables and run on to the neon of Bui Vien. Around Nguyen Hue there are rooftop bars, cocktail rooms up old stairwells and clubs full of young locals, while Thao Dien has a calmer expatriate scene.

In Da Lat a night out usually means the market, a café and bed. A few backpacker bars and the town's famously maze-like bar make for one fun evening, but there are no clubs and the streets are quiet well before midnight.

This is where Da Lat stands apart. It sits at around 1,500m among pine hills, lakes and valleys. Langbiang rises just north of town, and Bidoup-Nui Ba holds orchids and quiet trails through montane forest. Canyoning, abseiling, mountain biking and multi-day village treks are all well organised.

Ho Chi Minh City offers flat parks such as Tao Dan and, further out, the Can Gio mangroves with their macaques. The Mekong Delta's canals and paddies are about two hours away. There are no hills within reach, and the heat makes any hard outdoor effort a struggle.

Ho Chi Minh City is the better base for excursions. The Cu Chi tunnels pair well with the Cao Dai Holy See at Tay Ninh. The Mekong towns of My Tho and Ben Tre offer boat trips and coconut candy workshops, and Vung Tau's hilltop Christ statue is a seaside alternative.

Da Lat is hemmed in by its mountains. Its one real day out is the descent of the Ngoan Muc pass to the Cham towers and pottery villages at Phan Rang. Otherwise you are limited to K'Ho villages, coffee farms and silk farms close to town.

Da Lat is the more relaxed choice with children. Vietnamese families have long travelled here, so there is plenty for them: paddle boats and horse rides in the Valley of Love, strawberries to pick, a mountain coaster and a cable car over the pines. The mild air helps too. The downsides are the steep streets, the scooters and the taxis needed to reach almost everything.

Ho Chi Minh City has the water park at Dam Sen, the eccentric Suoi Tien and the old zoo, and staff everywhere make a fuss of children. Still, the humid heat and the flood of motorbikes wear families down, so a hotel pool and early-morning outings become essential.

Ho Chi Minh City is easier to get around, though neither is simple. The core around Ben Thanh and the Opera House is compact, a metro line runs east from Ben Thanh and a river bus serves some trips. Ride-hailing and motorbike taxis cover everything else quickly. Keep your phone away from the kerb, because bag snatching from passing bikes is a known risk.

In Da Lat you can walk the hilly area around Xuan Huong Lake, but there is no public transport worth using. The waterfalls, pagodas and farms are spread over steep roads that turn slick after rain, so you depend on taxis, a hired scooter or a driver for the day.

Ho Chi Minh City gives you far more to buy. You can haggle at Ben Thanh, browse the wholesale bustle of Binh Tay in Cholon, or have tailors make an ao dai or suit to measure. Lacquerware and Song Be ceramics are good crafts to take home, and Dong Khoi's malls and Thao Dien's boutiques cover fashion. Be wary of counterfeits in the tourist markets.

Da Lat's shopping is mostly edible: candied fruit, strawberry jam, artichoke tea and local beans. The night market also sells wool hats and second-hand jackets for the cold evenings.

Both are very cheap, so the difference is in where your money goes. In Da Lat almost everything costs little, from guesthouses with views over the pines to night-market dinners and entrance fees. The exceptions are Tet and the long national breaks around Reunification Day and National Day, when domestic visitors fill the rooms and it pays to book ahead.

Ho Chi Minh City is just as cheap at street level. As the business capital, though, it also has a pricier layer of international hotels, rooftop bars and imported wine. If you eat where locals eat, that layer barely touches your budget.

Ho Chi Minh City has an actual stage scene. The French-built Opera House is home to the ballet and the symphony orchestra and stages acrobatic shows about village life. Water puppetry plays in the centre, and cai luong, the southern reformed opera, survives in a few theatres.

Da Lat has no formal season. Its music happens in small cafés, where local singers perform ballads, many of them written about the town itself. Now and then there are Central Highlands gong performances or outdoor shows during the Flower Festival.

Ho Chi Minh City is the place to be pampered. Foot and body massage is part of everyday life, the long reclining hair-wash with scalp and face massage quickly becomes a daily habit, and day spas add herbal steam. Once you step back outside, though, the traffic and humidity return, and calm comes in pockets such as temple courtyards and Thao Dien's quieter streets.

Da Lat's treatments are more limited, with simple massage in town and spas at a few villa resorts. What it offers instead is the rest itself: misty lakes and cool air, best found by staying out among the pines rather than in the centre.