Da Nang or Phuket?

Phuket is the stronger beach destination because it offers choice. Its west coast is a series of separate bays, from crowded Patong to calm Kata and the empty sand of Mai Khao, and boats run out to island beaches with clearer water. Its sea is warm all year, though the monsoon brings dangerous rip currents.

Da Nang has essentially one beach: a broad, pale strip running from Son Tra past the Marble Mountains. It is roomy and calm from spring to late summer but offers less variety, and its rough season comes in the autumn instead.

The two are broadly level for food, but the cooking is very different. Da Nang serves robust central Vietnamese food such as Mi Quang noodles, banh xeo and pork rolled at the table, mostly from plastic-stool stalls and market food halls, along with serious iced coffee.

Phuket's distinctive dishes are Hokkien and Peranakan, such as yellow noodles, moo hong and morning dim sum, and you find them mainly in Phuket Town. The beach towns lean towards tourist menus and resort dining. Both cities do excellent seafood picked live and cooked to order.

Neither city is a cultural destination in itself, and each needs only a day or two. Da Nang's best sights are ancient: the world's largest collection of Cham carving in its museum, and the cave shrines in the Marble Mountains.

Phuket's history is more recent and centres on the tin-mining boom. It survives in the Sino-Portuguese shophouses and clan houses of Phuket Town, with Wat Chalong and the Big Buddha elsewhere on the island.

Phuket has much more nightlife, though most of it is in one place. Bangla Road in Patong is loud neon, go-go bars and clubs running until dawn, and the stylish beach clubs at Bang Tao and Kamala offer a gentler alternative.

Da Nang's evenings are slower. People stroll the Han River promenade, sit in rooftop bars and fill open-air beer halls, and the An Thuong bars stay busy for a while. Most of the city is asleep by midnight.

Phuket wins on the water. Kayaking among the limestone towers of Phang Nga Bay is the highlight, and in the dry season boats run to the Similan Islands for some of Thailand's best diving. On land it offers little more than a small patch of rainforest and some sunset viewpoints.

Da Nang's strength is the mountains. The Hai Van Pass ride, the cable car to the Ba Na Hills, langurs on the Son Tra peninsula and the trails of Bach Ma give it more variety on land than Phuket.

This is Da Nang's clearest advantage. Hoi An's old trading port is about 45 minutes away and worth more than one visit. The Cham sanctuary at My Son and the citadel and royal tombs of Hue are both reachable in a day.

Phuket's outings are almost all by boat, to Phi Phi, the quiet Koh Yao islands or the Krabi coast. These are pleasant beach days, but there are almost no historic towns within reach.

Families do about equally well in either city, in different ways. Da Nang's main family attractions are the Ba Na Hills cable car and amusement park, the riverside Ferris wheel and plenty of space on the sand. The downsides are motorbike traffic and rainy autumns.

Phuket works best if you stay put at a resort in Kata, Karon or Nai Harn, with shallow water in the dry season and outings to the aquarium or elephant sanctuaries. The hilly roads mean a taxi for almost everything.

Da Nang is the easier of the two to get around. The city is flat and compact, cheap app taxis go everywhere, the centre and the beach are a short ride apart, and Hoi An is a straight run down the coastal road.

Phuket is a large, hilly island. The single airport bus runs infrequently, and songthaews don't connect one beach to another. That leaves expensive fixed-fare taxis, or scooters on steep, accident-prone roads.

Shopping is about level in the two, and in both it is practical rather than stylish, with malls of international chains covering the basics. The difference is in what is local. Da Nang's Han and Con markets are working places where residents buy dried seafood, coffee and cloth, and its one real craft is the marble carving of Non Nuoc village at the foot of the Marble Mountains. For a made-to-measure suit or a lantern to take home, shoppers go down the coast to Hoi An.

Phuket keeps its tailors and pearl sellers in the beach towns themselves, so you can order a suit between swims without making a separate trip. Its more individual side is in Phuket Town, where batik, small galleries and local design fill the old shophouses and Thalang Road closes to traffic for a Sunday market.

Da Nang is clearly cheaper. Meals, rides, massages and comfortable hotels near the beach all cost little, and only the large resorts and Ba Na Hills charge international prices.

Phuket is reasonable by Western standards but expensive for Thailand. Taxis eat into any budget, and beach hotel rates rise sharply in the peak winter months.

Da Nang's performing arts lean towards tradition, while Phuket's are mostly shows for tourists. Da Nang keeps tuong alive, the classical theatre of painted faces and drums, though performances are irregular and aimed at locals. In the evenings, bai choi singing games are performed in Hoi An's old town, and the summer fireworks festival over the Han River is the city's big spectacle.

In Phuket, an evening out means ladyboy cabaret revues or a staged cultural show for tour groups. Muay Thai bouts in Patong are lively, but they are sport rather than theatre.

Phuket is the place to go for rest and treatment. Besides massage on every beach road, it has dedicated retreats offering detox programmes, yoga and meditation, jungle spa pavilions, and the Muay Thai and fitness camps in Chalong where people stay for weeks.

Da Nang has cheap massage parlours, sea-view spas on Son Tra and a hot springs park with mud baths outside town. It is a pleasant place to unwind, but few people choose it for wellness alone.