Hanoi or Singapore?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Singapore at least lets you swim in the sea. Sentosa's man-made beaches at Siloso, Palawan and Tanjong have calm, warm water behind breakwaters, and the ferry to St John's or Lazarus reaches quieter lagoons, though the water is cloudy and tankers line the horizon.

Hanoi has no coast within reach. Ha Long, Cat Ba and Sam Son all need a long journey and a night or more away, so in the city itself swimming means a hotel pool or the water parks by West Lake.

Both are outstanding places to eat on the street, and the difference is depth against breadth. Hanoi goes deep into one northern Vietnamese kitchen: pho at breakfast, bun cha at lunch, cha ca fried at the table, plus rituals like egg coffee up narrow stairs and fresh bia hoi on corner stools.

Singapore spreads wider. Its hawker centres, from Maxwell to Tekka, put Chinese, Malay, Indian and Peranakan dishes side by side under one roof, there is a stronger fine-dining tier above them, and in Little India and Kampong Glam you can still find biryani and murtabak late into the night.

Hanoi has the richer heritage to walk through. The Old Quarter's guild streets and communal houses, Ngoc Son on its islet, the French Quarter's villas and Opera House, the Temple of Literature and the excavated Thang Long citadel add up to three or four full days, with the Museum of Ethnology and Hoa Lo telling the country's story well.

Singapore's history is younger and fills fewer days, but its museums are more polished. The National Gallery holds the finest collection of Southeast Asian art in the region, the Asian Civilisations and Peranakan museums sit nearby, and the ethnic quarters and the Marina Bay skyline make up the rest.

Both cities go quiet earlier than clubbers would like, but the evenings feel very different. Hanoi's nights are outdoor, cheap and early: bia hoi on the pavement from late afternoon, loud backpacker bars around Ta Hien, a weekend promenade round Hoan Kiem, and most places shut by midnight.

Singapore is a city for an expensive, well-made cocktail. The best of it is in the shophouse bars of Keong Saik and Telok Ayer and on the rooftops above Marina Bay, with Clarke Quay holding the small club scene.

Hanoi has the edge, mainly for what lies beyond it. Within the city there are only the lakes, the West Lake shoreline path and heavy air, but two hours south the limestone towers of Ninh Binh rise out of the paddies, with boat trips through the caves of Trang An and Tam Coc, and the Ba Vi hills offer forest walks.

Singapore's green is closer to hand but limited. Real rainforest at Bukit Timah and MacRitchie, the Southern Ridges walkways, Sungei Buloh's wetlands and a bike ride round Pulau Ubin are all easy half-days, and once you have done them, there is nothing else on the island.

Here Hanoi is much stronger. Ninh Binh combines the old capital of Hoa Lu with the Bai Dinh pagodas, the Perfume Pagoda is reached by rowing boat, and closer in you have the Bat Trang ceramic village, Van Phuc silk and the laterite-walled houses of Duong Lam.

Singapore's choices are thin. Johor Bahru is just over the causeway but border queues eat into the day, the ferries to Bintan and Batam lead mainly to resorts, and Malacca really needs a night.

Singapore is one of Asia's easiest cities for children, and Hanoi is one of the harder ones. The Mandai parks with the zoo, Night Safari and pandas, Universal Studios and the aquarium on Sentosa, and the water play at Gardens by the Bay fill days easily, in a clean city with lifts and air conditioning at every turn.

Hanoi welcomes children warmly and the water puppet show is a hit, but motorbike traffic, pavements full of scooters and the humid summer mean short outings from a hotel near the lake, with a hired driver for anything further.

Singapore is almost effortless to get around. The MRT runs from the airport to Orchard Road, Marina Bay and the edge of the rainforest reserves, you tap a contactless card to ride it, and the only obstacle to walking is the midday heat.

Hanoi's main sights are compact enough to cover on foot, between the Old Quarter, Hoan Kiem and Ba Dinh, but walking is tiring when you keep stepping into the road and have to cross through moving motorbikes. The rail lines barely help visitors, so you end up relying on ride-hailing cars and motorbike taxis.

Singapore is the place for brands and choice. Orchard Road's malls and the designer flagships under Marina Bay Sands carry everything, while Haji Lane and Tiong Bahru supply independent boutiques, bookshops and design stores.

Hanoi has less range but more character. Whole streets in the Old Quarter still sell one trade, Hang Gai's tailors make clothes to measure in a day or two, and lacquerware, Bat Trang ceramics and hill-tribe textiles make better souvenirs than anything in Singapore's look-alike malls.

The gap is wide. In Hanoi, street meals, coffee, beer, boutique rooms and rides all cost so little that money is rarely a worry, and only cruises and international hotels push the bill up.

In Singapore, hotel rooms are among Asia's costliest, drinks are heavily taxed and the wildlife parks and Sentosa charge steep entry. Hawker food, cheap trains and the free gardens soften it, but the room will still eat most of the budget.

Singapore has more on stage in any given week. The Esplanade has a concert hall, a theatre and free shows by the bay, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra plays a regular season, and touring musicals come to the theatre at Marina Bay Sands.

Hanoi has less on, but more of it is local. Water puppetry by Hoan Kiem and ca tru sung poetry in Old Quarter communal houses are traditions of Hanoi and the north, and Singapore has nothing like them. The Opera House is the weak point, because its programme is too irregular to plan around.

Hanoi edges ahead because massage there is cheap enough to have every day. Foot and full-body treatment shops line the Old Quarter, and the quieter lanes of West Lake or the lakes at dawn offer some calm away from the horns.

Singapore's version is more polished: hotel spas with skyline pools, reflexology and Chinese medicine in Chinatown, Ayurveda in Little India and early walks in the Botanic Gardens. Its streets are calmer too, but a treatment costs much more.