Galle or Hoi An?

Galle's coast has more variety. Within a short tuk-tuk ride or an hour's drive are the sheltered curve of Unawatuna, Jungle Beach below the Rumassala headland, reef pools at Dalawella and Thalpe where you can snorkel among turtles, and the bays of Mirissa and Weligama.

Hoi An has a single long, straight run of pale sand. An Bang is the main beach, about 5km away through the rice fields, and quieter stretches continue north towards Da Nang. It's fine for easy swimming but has no coves or reefs. The two calm seasons fall at opposite times of year: Hoi An's sea is calm through summer, when Galle's monsoon surf makes many beaches unsafe.

Hoi An has the more distinctive food. Cao lau is properly made only here, and white rose dumplings, the local chicken rice and stuffed banh mi add to a short but particular list. Cooking classes that start at the central market or in the Tra Que gardens are a good way to spend a morning.

Galle has real Sri Lankan cooking: rice and curry with many side dishes, hoppers at breakfast, kottu and sour fish curries. However, the fort's cafés mostly cater to visitors, and the best plates are in plain places outside the walls. Neither town has much range, but Hoi An's food is more of a reason to go.

Hoi An's old town has more to see. The wooden merchant houses, the Japanese Bridge, the Chinese assembly halls and the family chapels all reflect a port where Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese traders lived side by side, and the silk lanterns turn the streets into an evening sight.

Galle offers a European colonial setting on an Asian headland: Dutch ramparts, the Reformed Church with its gravestone floor, the Maritime Museum and a lighthouse, best seen on a sunset walk along the bastions. Both towns are UNESCO-listed and can be covered in a day or two, but Hoi An's lanes are denser and more varied.

Both towns go to bed early, but Hoi An has a little more going on. Strolling the lantern-lit riverbank is a pleasant evening in itself, a few backpacker bars on An Hoi islet stay open later, and Da Nang is close for a proper night out. In Galle, evenings mean dinner and a drink on a veranda inside the fort, with Unawatuna's beach bars the only real alternative.

There's little to choose between them overall, but the landscapes are very different. Galle has wilder tropical scenery: rainforest at Kanneliya and Sinharaja, reefs and surf breaks along the coast, and blue whales off Mirissa in the dry season.

Hoi An's countryside is flat farmland, best explored by bicycle through the paddies or by basket boat in the Cam Thanh palm waterways. For more dramatic scenery there are the Cham Islands reefs, the langur monkeys on Son Tra and the Hai Van Pass.

The two are about even here, but the outings are of different kinds. Hoi An has one major excursion in My Son, the jungle valley of Cham temple ruins, and a second good day in Da Nang for the Cham sculpture museum and the Marble Mountains. After that the options thin out quickly.

From Galle you can work along the coast instead: Ambalangoda's mask workshops, old Matara, Dondra Head at the southern tip, the cliffside cave shrines of Mulkirigala, and Colombo by train. There are more choices, but none matches My Son, and much of it is more of the same coast.

Hoi An is the easier place to keep children busy. They can make silk lanterns, spin in basket boats, join a market-and-cooking class or cycle through the fields, and resort pools, a theme park with a safari park and Da Nang's attractions are close by.

Galle works for a quieter villa-and-beach stay. Children can explore the fort's car-free ramparts, paddle in Unawatuna bay, visit turtle hatcheries and go whale-watching. There are no zoos or parks, though, and the fast coast road makes any walk beyond the walls tiring.

Hoi An is easier to get around without a driver. The old town is closed to traffic for long stretches of the day, and the beach, paddies and villages are all an easy, flat bicycle ride away, often on a bike lent free by your hotel. Galle's fort is just as easy on foot, but beyond the walls everything means a tuk-tuk, and the narrow coast road leaves no room for walking or cycling between beaches. Galle does have the edge for longer journeys, with a coastal railway to Colombo, while Hoi An has no useful public transport for visitors.

Hoi An has something worth planning a day around: hundreds of tailors who make suits, dresses, coats, shoes and bags to measure, with fittings over a day or two. Lanterns, ceramics and the An Hoi night market add to it.

Galle's shops are confined to a few fort lanes, selling linen clothing, handloom textiles, beeralu lace, tea and spices, plus gem dealers who need to be approached with caution. It's enjoyable browsing, but there's less to buy.

Both are cheap places to visit, but Hoi An is cheaper overall. Homestays with pools, almost nominal street food and free bicycles make a comfortable stay easy on a modest budget. Only the riverside restaurants and the beachfront resorts reach international prices.

Galle has two distinct price levels. Rice and curry, trains, tuk-tuks and Unawatuna guesthouses cost very little, but the restored villas and restaurants inside the fort charge close to European resort prices, so where you sleep and eat makes a big difference to the cost.

Neither town is a destination for performance, but Hoi An at least offers something most evenings. Visitors can join a game of bai choi, the sung folk game, in the old town, and there's a performance house with short folk music and dance shows as well as the large outdoor history show on the river. In Galle, live performance means hotel dance and drumming shows, and the mask-dance tradition at Ambalangoda is only worth the trip for real enthusiasts. For a concert in Galle, plan a trip to Colombo.

Both are good places to slow down, but in different ways. Galle is the place for a real treatment programme: Ayurveda here ranges from a simple oil massage to week-long residential retreats with doctors' consultations and prescribed diets, and yoga studios cluster around Unawatuna and Thalpe.

Hoi An's version is lighter and more casual. There are massage rooms on every street, resort pools between the town and the sea, and a slow bicycle ride through the paddies. It's restful, but it's not built around a healing tradition.