Hakone or Yokohama?

Neither is a beach destination, but Yokohama gets you to the sand far more easily. Lake Ashi is not for swimming and Hakone's nearest sea is the steep, pebbly shore at Odawara, so a proper swim means a trip to Atami.

From Yokohama, the Shonan beaches at Zushi, Kamakura and Enoshima and the shores of the Miura Peninsula are a short train ride away, with broad grey-brown sand and summer beach huts. The city also has its own man-made beach at Hakkeijima.

In Hakone the best meal is the one at your inn: a long kaiseki dinner of mountain vegetables, river fish and tofu, followed by breakfast the next morning. Beyond that there are soba shops in Yumoto, the black eggs at Owakudani and lunch places for day visitors that shut early.

Yokohama gives you far more choice. With Japan's largest Chinatown, the home of iekei ramen, a whole museum of noodle shops at Shin-Yokohama and the small grill bars of Noge, you can eat well and cheaply every night, though most of the grandest restaurants are in Tokyo.

Yokohama has the wider range of sights, and they tell a story unusual in Japan, that of a treaty port open to the West. You can see it in the merchant houses on the Yamate Bluff, the stone customs buildings of Kannai and the Red Brick Warehouses. Sankeien adds a garden of temple buildings and teahouses moved from Kyoto and Kamakura.

Hakone's strength is art set in landscape: sculpture on the lawns of the Open-Air Museum, and paintings at the Pola in a glass building sunk into beech forest. Add stretches of the old Tokaido road and the torii standing in Lake Ashi. These sights are scattered around the caldera, so linking them takes more travelling.

In Hakone, evenings end with a bath and a yukata, and a few izakaya in Yumoto are about all there is. Yokohama offers much more, mainly long evenings of yakitori and beer at the standing bars and counters of Noge, plus karaoke in Kannai and bars overlooking the harbour at Minato Mirai. Neither is a clubbing city, and from both a really big night out means going into Tokyo.

Hakone is the stronger choice for landscape, and the landscape is the reason to stay. It has sulphur vents at Owakudani, a crater lake ringed by forest, Fuji on clear days, and ridge walks to Mount Kintoki and Komagatake starting close to your inn.

In Yokohama, most of the nature is a train ride away: the wooded temple trails above Kamakura, the Miura coast, the cliffs of Enoshima and the Tanzawa mountains. The city itself has parks and promenades rather than wild country, and one of its best outdoor days out is a trip to Hakone.

Both make good bases, and many of the destinations are the same, including Odawara castle, Kamakura and each other. Hakone covers the mountain side best, with Atami, the temple towns of the Izu Peninsula and the Fuji lakes over the ridge, but Tokyo is close to two hours away on the Romancecar.

Yokohama has the edge on speed. Tokyo is under half an hour away and Kamakura about 25 minutes, so you can fit a day out around an evening back in the city with no fuss.

Hakone makes a memorable two or three days for children, with the zigzag railway, the ropeway, the replica pirate ship on Lake Ashi and the net sculptures at the Open-Air Museum. The formal inns, nude communal baths and steep paths make it harder going with small children.

Yokohama is set up for families in a way Hakone is not. It has the Cup Noodles Museum, the Anpanman museum, Hakkeijima Sea Paradise and Zoorasia, along with lifts in stations and flat harbour paths for pushchairs.

Neither city needs a car. In Hakone the loop of mountain railway, cable car, ropeway, lake boat and bus is part of the fun, but it is slow: the villages are kilometres apart on winding roads, and at weekends queues build at the ropeway.

Yokohama is much simpler. Dense rail and subway lines run on one tap-on card with English signs, and the harbour from Minato Mirai to Chinatown is a flat, easy walk.

Hakone has one local craft worth seeking out, the yosegi-zaiku wood marquetry made in the workshops of Hatajuku. Beyond that there are snacks and souvenirs in Yumoto and an outlet mall over the ridge at Gotemba. Yokohama is a far better place to shop, with department stores and underground arcades around the main station, waterfront malls at Minato Mirai and the smart leather shops of Motomachi.

Hakone's costs come from the night's lodging. A ryokan with dinner, breakfast and a private bath adds up fast, especially at weekends and in autumn, though simple inns around Yumoto, soba lunches and public day-bathhouses help, and the transport pass is good value.

Yokohama is the cheaper stay. Business hotels in Kannai and Sakuragicho are moderately priced, ramen and Chinatown buns cost little, and many sights, from Yamashita Park to the Western houses on the Bluff, are free.

Hakone has almost nothing on stage apart from the odd museum concert. Yokohama has a proper programme: the Kanagawa Philharmonic at Minato Mirai Hall, opera and dance at the Kanagawa Arts Theatre, touring bands in the harbour arenas, and a jazz tradition kept alive in the old cafés of Noge and Kannai and at an autumn festival.

Hakone is one of Japan's great bathing places. It has seventeen hot-spring areas, from riverside Yumoto to the milky sulphur water of Sengokuhara, outdoor baths under maples, and a pace that slows almost to a stop after dinner.

Yokohama offers the everyday version: neighbourhood sento, a large hot-spring complex on the Minato Mirai waterfront, and quiet hours in the Sankeien teahouses or the rose gardens on the Bluff. It is restful for a city, but for a real onsen stay you go up to Hakone.