Hakone or Sapporo?

Neither is a beach destination, but Sapporo makes a summer swim easier. The wide, plain sand at Ishikari or near Otaru is half an hour to an hour away, and local families gather there for barbecues during a few warm weeks from late July.

From Hakone, the nearest shore at Odawara is steep, pebbly and often rough, so swimming means going on to the sheltered sand at Atami. In both places the sea is a side trip, not a reason to go.

In Hakone, food mostly means the kaiseki dinner and Japanese breakfast that come with your inn. At a good ryokan these meals are refined and seasonal, but outside the inns there is little beyond soba, tofu, sweet bean buns and the black eggs at Owakudani, and most places close by early evening.

Sapporo is one of Japan's great food cities. It has its own dishes in miso ramen, soup curry and lamb grilled at the table, and sea urchin, salmon roe and crab at Nijo Market. Add the red-brick beer halls and a dense mix of izakaya and sushi bars around Susukino, and you have days of choice.

The two are about equal, but the sights are very different in character. Hakone's are art museums set in landscape, such as the sculpture lawns of the Open-Air Museum and the Pola Museum in its beech forest, alongside relics of the old Tokaido road like the cedar-lined paving and the rebuilt checkpoint at Lake Ashi.

Sapporo has little from before the 1870s. Its interest lies in Meiji pioneer buildings such as the Clock Tower and the red-brick government office, the Ainu collections at the Hokkaido Museum, and Isamu Noguchi's Moerenuma Park. Either can be covered in about two days.

Hakone has no nightlife, and that is deliberate. After dinner you take a last soak and go to bed, and only a few small bars in Hakone-Yumoto stay open later.

Sapporo has Susukino, a block of neon-lit towers filled with tiny counter bars, karaoke rooms and late ramen shops. It stays busy past midnight even in midwinter. The night is about bar-hopping rather than clubbing, and it is easier to start in the side streets than on corners where touts work.

Both offer strong scenery, but of different kinds. Hakone is a single volcanic caldera, with the steaming vents of Owakudani, Lake Ashi on the crater floor, Fuji behind it on clear days, and ridge walks to Mount Kintoki and through the Sengokuhara pampas grass.

Sapporo is about snow and the wide country around it. It has powder slopes at Teine and Kokusai inside the city and Niseko about two hours away. In summer you can canoe and hike volcanoes in Shikotsu-Toya, an hour south, or visit the flower fields of Furano and Biei. Skiers should choose Sapporo, and walkers who want Fuji views should choose Hakone.

Hakone has the richer range of day trips because it sits within reach of Japan's most visited region. Tokyo is under two hours on the Romancecar, and Kamakura's Great Buddha and Zen temples, Yokohama, Odawara Castle and the Izu Peninsula are all easy trips.

Sapporo's best outings are Otaru's canal and warehouses, the Yoichi whisky distillery, the Ainu museum at Upopoy and the volcanic valley above Noboribetsu. Beyond those, most trips head into lakes and farmland rather than other towns.

Children enjoy Hakone's transport: the zigzag railway, the ropeway over the steaming vents and the replica pirate ship on Lake Ashi. But there is little else made for them, the inns can feel formal, and the steep paths are hard with a pushchair.

Sapporo is easier for a longer family stay. Its subway and underground walkway make getting around simple, and it has polar bears at Maruyama Zoo, snow slides at the Snow Festival, and beginner ski slopes within the city. In summer, the fountains and play hills at Moerenuma give children plenty of room. Pack serious winter clothing for January and February.

Hakone's railway, cable car, ropeway, boats and buses form a loop on one pass, and the ride is part of the sightseeing. The villages are far apart on winding roads, though, and at weekends the ropeway queues and slow buses can eat into the day.

Sapporo is far quicker to get around. The flat centre is laid out on a numbered grid and easy to walk, three subway lines take one IC card, and a heated underground walkway runs from the station to Susukino. Only outlying places such as Jozankei and Moerenuma need a bus.

Hakone's one real buy is yosegi-zaiku, the geometric wood marquetry you can watch being made around Hatajuku, plus sweets and pickles on Yumoto's main street. Anyone who wants clothes needs to take the bus to the outlet mall near Gotemba.

Sapporo offers proper city shopping, with department stores above the station, the long covered Tanukikoji arcade, and basement food halls full of Hokkaido chocolate, cheese and dried seafood. Ainu woodcarving and textiles make a more distinctive souvenir.

Sapporo is noticeably easier on the budget. Business hotels are comfortable, and ramen, soup curry and bento lunches cost little. Many of the main sights, such as the parks, the old government building and the university, are free. Costs only climb for crab dinners, ski passes and Snow Festival week.

Hakone's appeal is the ryokan night with dinner, breakfast and a bath, and the better inns, especially those with private outdoor tubs, cost a lot, more so at weekends and in autumn. The transport pass and public day-baths help keep the rest of the trip affordable.

Hakone has no theatre, concert hall or regular music. At most you might find an occasional museum recital or a performance put on at an inn.

Sapporo has a genuine classical scene. The Kitara concert hall in Nakajima Park is home to the city's symphony orchestra and hosts the Pacific Music Festival each July. Touring opera and ballet, jazz bars in Susukino, and the Yosakoi Soran street dancing in June round out the programme.

Hakone is built for bathing. You can choose between seventeen spring areas, from riverside Yumoto to the milky sulphur water of Sengokuhara. Many rooms have their own balcony bath, and the slow routine of soaking, resting and an early dinner sets the pace of the whole stay.

In Sapporo, the onsen is an outing rather than the reason for the trip. Jozankei's open-air pools in a river gorge are about an hour away by bus, and Noboribetsu makes a good day or overnight trip. Back in the city, the wide streets and snowbound quiet make it calmer than its size suggests.