Doha or Singapore?

Neither city is a beach destination, and they disappoint in different ways. Doha's swimming is in the shallow, calm Gulf at groomed hotel beaches in West Bay and on The Pearl, or on the long empty shores at Al Wakrah and Simaisma. A drive south brings you to the dunes at Sealine, where the desert meets the sea. The water is lovely in spring and autumn, cool in midwinter and too warm in summer.

Singapore's sea is warm in every month, but the main beaches are imported sand on Sentosa, behind breakwaters, facing a horizon of anchored tankers. The ferry to the Southern Islands finds clearer, quieter lagoons, though many visitors simply stay by the hotel pool.

This is where Singapore pulls furthest ahead. Its hawker centres, from Maxwell and Lau Pa Sat to Tekka and Old Airport Road, serve chicken rice, laksa, chilli crab and murtabak cooked by stalls that specialise in one dish. Together they draw on Chinese, Malay, Indian and Peranakan cooking that belongs to the city itself, and there is serious fine dining above them.

Doha also eats well, but mostly from the kitchens of its migrant communities: Keralan parotta, Pakistani grills, Lebanese and Iranian cooking. Qatari machboos is easiest to find around Souq Waqif. It is a good table, but few of its dishes are Doha's own.

Doha's culture rests on two remarkable buildings. I. M. Pei's Museum of Islamic Art holds a world-class collection, and Jean Nouvel's desert-rose National Museum tells the peninsula's story. Around them the historic fabric is thin: a rebuilt souq, a few restored houses in Msheireb and a small fort.

Singapore has more to explore. The Civic District groups the National Gallery, the Asian Civilisations Museum and the Peranakan Museum by the river. Chinatown, Little India and Kampong Glam each have their own temples, mosque and shophouse streets, and the Botanic Gardens are a UNESCO site.

In Doha an evening out mostly means tea, shisha and a long dinner with families at Souq Waqif or Katara until after midnight. Drinking is limited to hotel bars and a few hotel clubs, so there is no bar district to wander.

Singapore gives you far more to choose from. Rooftop terraces look over Marina Bay, cocktail bars fill the shophouses of Keong Saik and Telok Ayer, Clarke Quay has riverside bars and clubs, and a younger crowd gathers around Haji Lane. Drinks are expensive and the city is not one for staying out until dawn, but bar-hopping is easy.

Doha stands on flat gravel desert with a built-up shore. The outdoor trips that matter are a dune drive to Khor Al Adaid, the Inland Sea, and kayaking among the mangroves at Al Thakira. In town, Aspire Park and the Corniche are for an early-morning walk.

Singapore, small as it is, has real rainforest. There are macaques on the Bukit Timah and MacRitchie trails, a treetop walk, raised walkways across the Southern Ridges and crocodiles in the Sungei Buloh wetlands. A bumboat takes you to Pulau Ubin to cycle among mangroves and old kampong houses.

Neither city is a base for touring, but Singapore at least has a border to cross. Johor Bahru's old quarter is over the causeway, although the queues can take up much of the day. Ferries reach the resort islands of Bintan and Batam in about an hour, while Malacca really needs a night.

Qatar's options beyond Doha are the ruined pearling town of Al Zubarah, about an hour and a half away, the rebuilt waterfront souq at Al Wakrah and a few empty fishing villages. Most visitors fit the rest of the country into one desert tour.

Both cities are safe, clean and welcoming to children, but Singapore gives them more to do. The Mandai parks offer open zoo enclosures, the Night Safari, a walk-through bird park and giant pandas. Sentosa adds a theme park, an aquarium and calm beaches, and the Science Centre and the water-play garden at Gardens by the Bay fill the gaps.

Doha's strengths are indoor theme parks and water parks, the shallow hotel beaches and an easy camel ride in the dunes. Families stay out late into the evening, but from June to September only the air-conditioned options are practical.

Singapore is about as easy as cities get. The MRT is step-free and reaches the airport, Chinatown, Orchard Road and the rainforest reserves, you tap a contactless card to ride, and taxis cost little.

Doha's three driverless metro lines are clean and serve the souq, the National Museum, West Bay, Katara and Lusail. Still, the city is built for cars, so taxis fill the gaps, and walking only works around the souq, Msheireb and the Corniche in the cooler months. In both cities the heat sends you indoors at midday.

Both cities do the giant air-conditioned mall, but Singapore has more beyond it. Alongside Orchard Road and the designer shops under Marina Bay Sands, there are independent fashion boutiques in Haji Lane, bookshops and design stores in Tiong Bahru's Art Deco blocks, and Peranakan beadwork and porcelain to take home.

Doha's malls are just as large but offer the familiar brands, and independent design is rare. Its distinctive buys come from Souq Waqif: oud, frankincense, Arabic coffee pots and falconry gear, with gold sold by weight next door. That gives it a traditional market with more character than anything in Singapore.

Doha comes out somewhat cheaper, and most of the difference is in the room. Its big international hotels in West Bay, Lusail and The Pearl cost about what they do elsewhere in the wealthy Gulf. Prices rise sharply in the cooler peak season and during big sporting events, though, so the months when Doha is pleasant are also its dearest. In Singapore even a plain mid-range room is among the most expensive in Asia.

Drinking is expensive in both cities, for different reasons. In Doha alcohol is served only in licensed hotel venues, where drinks and hotel dinners cost well above European levels. In Singapore heavy taxes push bar prices far beyond the rest of the region. Doha's usual evening of tea and a long dinner at Souq Waqif costs far less, so it is easier to keep nights cheap there than in Singapore's cocktail bars.

Singapore gives you more to see on an ordinary week. At the Esplanade there is a concert hall, a theatre and free shows by the bay. The Symphony Orchestra plays a regular season, the Victoria Theatre puts on local productions, and touring musicals come to Marina Bay Sands.

Doha has fine venues in the Katara opera house and amphitheatre, and the Qatar Philharmonic plays there. Its programme depends on visiting productions and the cooler-season festivals, though, and is thin in summer, with nothing like a live-music bar to drop into.

The two cities are much alike here. Neither has a bathing tradition of its own, and wellness in both mostly means polished hotel spas. Doha's spas often include Arabic-style hammam rooms and scrubs, and there is a retreat built on Arabic healing practices an hour and a half up the coast. A beach, pool and spa stay in winter is the restful way to do Doha.

In Singapore the treatments are part of street life. There are foot reflexology parlours and Chinese medicine clinics in Chinatown and Ayurveda in Little India, and the quiet spots are the Botanic Gardens at dawn and the paths round the reservoirs.