Guilin or Macau?

Macau at least has sand: Hac Sa's long dark curve backed by pines and the small lifeguarded cove at Cheoc Van, both on quiet Coloane. The water is warm in summer but brown with silt from the Pearl River, so they are better for a stroll or a barbecue than a swim.

Guilin is far inland, and the nearest thing to bathing is wading in the shallows of the Yulong or Li rivers on a hot day. In both places, serious swimming happens in a hotel pool.

Macau is one of the great small eating destinations of Asia. Its Macanese cooking, with minchi, African chicken and curry crab, exists almost nowhere else, and it sits beside Portuguese bacalhau and wine, Cantonese roast meats and dim sum, the street snacks around St Paul's and Taipa Village, and a run of high-end resort restaurants in Cotai.

Guilin's table is tasty but short. The breakfast bowl of mifen with its fermented chilli sauce, river snails and Yangshuo beer fish are worth seeking out, yet international food, wine and fine dining are scarce, and many places near the sights serve tour groups.

Macau has the deeper heritage. The UNESCO-listed Historic Centre threads four centuries of Portuguese and Chinese life together, from the façade of St Paul's and the mosaic of Senado Square to A-Ma Temple, Monte Fort and the Mandarin's House.

Guilin's sights are mostly landscaped limestone hills and caves, such as Elephant Trunk Hill and the lit chambers of Reed Flute Cave, with the walled Ming palace of the Jingjiang Princes' City and the carved calligraphy at Longyin Cave as its historic core. Either is covered in a day or two, but Macau's walk through history is the richer one.

Neither is a place for a big night out, but Macau keeps going later. The casinos never close, and the resorts of Cotai and the peninsula hold glossy lounges, cocktail bars with views of the lit towers and the odd large club, though there is no neighbourhood bar scene.

Guilin's evenings are a stroll round the illuminated lakes and the streets near Zhengyang Street with a skewer and a beer. Anyone after noise heads to West Street in Yangshuo, loud and aimed squarely at tourists.

This is the widest gap between the two. Guilin's karst peaks rising from the plain along the Li River are among the most famous landscapes in China, seen from a cruise boat, a bamboo raft or a bicycle, with world-known climbing around Yangshuo and the rice terraces of Longji to the north.

Macau is almost entirely built up or reclaimed. A few wooded trails on Coloane, Seac Pai Van Park and the walk around Guia Hill are all it has, and anything wilder means leaving the territory.

The two are about even, but the outings point in opposite directions. From Guilin you head into the countryside: Yangshuo as a second base, the old riverside lanes of Xingping and Daxu, the ancient Lingqu Canal at Xing'an and the Zhuang and Yao villages among the terraces.

From Macau the trips are to cities. Hong Kong is about an hour away by ferry or over the sea bridge, and Zhuhai, Zhongshan and Guangzhou lie across the land border, though every one involves passport control and the mainland may need a visa.

Neither is built around children, and both have hot, sticky summers. Guilin's appeal for families is outdoor and active: coloured caves, the river cruise, rafting on the Yulong and flat cycling for older kids, though little English is spoken and a driver helps.

Macau offers indoor and easy options instead, with the Macau Science Center and its planetarium, the Giant Panda Pavilion on Coloane and elaborate resort pools. Its stairways and crowded lanes are hard with a pushchair, and it suits a short stop better than a full family vacation.

Macau is simpler to handle. Distances are short, the old peninsula is walkable, and buses, the Taipa light rail and free resort shuttles link everything within about half an hour, so a car is never needed.

Guilin's centre around its rivers and lakes is pleasant on foot, but there is no metro and bus signs are mostly in Chinese, so visitors rely on taxis and ride-hailing apps. The real sights lie out of town, which means a high-speed train to Yangshuo, a river boat or a hired driver on winding roads to the terraces.

Macau is a serious stop for luxury buyers, with vast air-conditioned malls in the Cotai resorts full of international fashion houses, watches and jewellery, some dressed up as Venetian canals. Away from them it is mostly almond cookies, jerky and a few Portuguese tiles.

Guilin has little beyond chain stores and souvenir stalls, but its take-home goods are genuinely local: jars of chilli sauce, osmanthus tea, Sanhua rice liquor and Zhuang and Yao embroidery from the villages.

Guilin is much the cheaper trip. Meals, taxis, trains and countryside guesthouses cost very little, and the main expense is the stack of entry fees for the river cruise, caves and hill parks.

Macau swings sharply. Walking the old town, the buses and the street snacks are cheap, but resort hotels climb steeply at weekends and during mainland festival weeks such as Chinese New Year and Golden Week, and casino dining is expensive, so midweek timing matters.

Macau has slightly more for a curious evening. The Dom Pedro V Theatre, among the oldest Western-style theatres in China, and the Macao Cultural Centre host the Macao Orchestra and touring productions, the spring and autumn festivals bring visiting companies, and Cotai's arenas stage Cantonese and Mandarin pop stars.

Guilin's performances are staged spectacles for visitors, above all Impression Liu Sanjie on the Li River at Yangshuo with the lit peaks behind it, plus acrobatics, folk dance and the occasional Gui opera.

The two offer about the same amount of rest, in very different settings. Macau's version is indoor and polished: large resort spas with pools, saunas and long treatment menus, with Coloane village and old Taipa as the calm corners.

Guilin's is rustic and cheap: street-corner foot massage, the hot springs at Longsheng near the terraces, and above all a slow stay in a guesthouse among the rice fields outside Yangshuo.