Hakone or Kamakura?

Kamakura is the only one of the pair where you can walk to the sea and swim. The long curve of Yuigahama and Zaimokuza fills with beach houses in high summer, Katase and Koshigoe are a short Enoden ride west, and Zushi and Hayama are calmer to the east. The sand is dark and volcanic and the water is rarely clear, so this is a beach to add to a temple stay rather than a reason to come.

In Hakone you cannot swim in Lake Ashi, and the shore down at Odawara is steep and pebbly. Bathing there means a summer trip to Atami.

In Hakone the meal that matters is the kaiseki dinner at your inn, with mountain vegetables, river fish and tofu. Outside the inns you will find little beyond soba and tofu shops in Hakone-Yumoto, black eggs at Owakudani and set-meal places by the lake, most of them shut by early evening.

Kamakura gives you more reason to go out and eat. You can have shirasu whitebait over rice near the beach, refined shojin ryori by the Zen temples, snacks along Komachi-dori and vegetables from the Renbai market. Even so, its evenings are thin, and for sushi or izakaya hopping people take the train to Yokohama.

Kamakura was Japan's capital of warrior rule for about a century and a half, and you can see it everywhere. The open-air bronze Great Buddha, the long avenue up to Tsurugaoka Hachimangu and the gates and rock gardens of Engaku-ji and Kencho-ji are among the most important sights in the country. Smaller places such as Hase-dera and the bamboo at Hokoku-ji fill out two or three days.

Hakone's strength is art more than religious heritage. The sculpture lawns of the Open-Air Museum and the Pola Museum's Impressionists are better than anything in Kamakura's modest museums. Its history is mainly the Old Tokaido, with the rebuilt checkpoint and the shrine gate standing in Lake Ashi.

Kamakura has slightly more going on after dark. There are a few izakaya and small bars between the station and the beach, and summer evenings by the sea have some life, though nothing runs late. In Hakone the evening is dinner, a last soak and bed in a yukata. Only Hakone-Yumoto has a handful of bars, and both towns send anyone wanting a night out to Tokyo.

Hakone has the bigger landscape. It is a volcanic caldera with sulphur vents steaming at Owakudani, Lake Ashi on the crater floor and Fuji rising behind it on clear days. Ridge walks climb Mount Kintoki and Komagatake, and the pampas grass of Sengokuhara turns gold in autumn. The drawback is mist, which can hide Fuji for days.

Kamakura's nature is gentler and closer to the sea. You get low wooded hills with trails such as the Daibutsu route linking the temples, surf at Shichirigahama and paddling in the bay. Kamakura's own visitors go to Hakone for proper mountain hiking.

Both towns are good bases, and each is a day out from the other. Kamakura looks towards the cities: Yokohama is under half an hour away, Tokyo about an hour by direct train, and Enoshima's shrines and caves sit at the end of the Enoden line.

Hakone looks the other way, towards Atami, the temple town of Shuzenji on the Izu Peninsula and the lakes at the foot of Fuji. Odawara's castle is close by, and the Romancecar still gets you to Tokyo in under two hours.

Both work about equally well with children, but in different ways. In Hakone, getting around is the fun: the zigzag railway, the ropeway over the steaming vents and the pirate ship on the lake, plus seal shows at Hakone-en and an onsen theme park where families bathe in swimsuits. Formal inns and nude communal baths can be awkward with children, though.

Kamakura's highlights are climbing inside the Great Buddha, the seaside Enoden, gentle summer swimming and the big aquarium at Katase. The hard parts are long temple staircases, packed weekend lanes and small hotel rooms.

Kamakura is easier. Its centre is walkable from the station, Kita-Kamakura is one JR stop away, and the Enoden covers the Great Buddha and the coast. Weekend gridlock and crowded trains are the main nuisances, and a bicycle helps on the flat run to the beach.

Hakone's villages are kilometres apart on winding roads. A single pass covers a loop of mountain railway, cable car, ropeway, boat and bus that is part of the sightseeing, but it is slow, and ropeway queues build at weekends and in autumn.

Each town has one craft worth carrying home. In Kamakura it is Kamakura-bori, carved and lacquered woodwork, found in the quieter shops along Wakamiya-oji alongside ceramics and good knives, while Komachi-dori handles the sweets and tenugui. That gives Kamakura a pleasanter afternoon of browsing.

Hakone's craft is yosegi-zaiku marquetry, which you can watch being made around Hatajuku. Beyond that there are souvenir shops in Hakone-Yumoto and good museum shops, and the outlet mall near Gotemba is a bus ride over the ridge.

Neither is cheap, and in both the cost is mainly the bed. In Hakone the price of a ryokan includes dinner, breakfast and the hot-spring bath, and it climbs fast for a room with a private outdoor bath. Simple inns in Hakone-Yumoto, public day-bathhouses and the transport pass keep things down.

In Kamakura you pay mainly for scarce rooms near the sea or in old houses. Many visitors avoid that by staying in Yokohama or Fujisawa, and temple fees, trains and set lunches cost little.

Kamakura at least has something to attend now and then. A small Noh theatre gives occasional performances, the Ofuna arts hall hosts touring concerts, and the shrine festivals bring traditional dance in spring and yabusame horseback archery in autumn. Hakone has no theatre or concert hall, only the odd museum concert or show put on at an inn.

This is Hakone's great strength. Hot-spring areas are spread all round the caldera, from riverside Hakone-Yumoto to the milky sulphur water of Sengokuhara, and the routine of washing, soaking outdoors under maples and resting in a yukata sets the pace of a stay. A midweek visit in autumn or winter avoids the Tokyo crowds.

Kamakura offers a quieter kind of calm, without any baths. You can join zazen sessions at Engaku-ji and Kencho-ji or sit in the moss gardens of Kita-Kamakura early in the morning, before the crowds arrive.