Hoi An or Kyoto?

For beaches, only Hoi An is in the running. An Bang lies about 5km from the old town through rice paddies, and pale sand runs almost unbroken north toward Da Nang. Swimming is warm and easy from spring to late summer, though the autumn monsoon brings rough seas.

Kyoto is inland. Its nearest swimming is the freshwater shore of Lake Biwa in high summer. The good Sea of Japan beaches are more than two hours north, so time on the sand there means an overnight detour.

Kyoto has the deeper table. You can eat kaiseki in old wooden houses in Gion, temple cuisine at Daitokuji and Tenryuji, tofu and yuba, snacks along Nishiki Market and sake at the Fushimi breweries, and serious restaurants are unusually common for a city its size.

Hoi An's cooking is narrower but entirely its own. Cao lau, white rose dumplings and the town's stuffed banh mi are eaten on plastic stools for very little, and a market visit followed by a cooking class is a highlight. The riverside menus repeat, though, and there is little fine dining.

Kyoto is far ahead here. Seventeen UNESCO-listed sites, from Kinkaku-ji to Nijo Castle, over a thousand temples and shrines, the machiya lanes of Higashiyama and the Kyoto National Museum could fill weeks.

Hoi An offers one compact, beautiful ensemble: the merchant houses, Japanese Bridge and Chinese assembly halls of an old trading port. It is best walked at dawn or under the lanterns and covered in a day or two, and its small museums can't compare with Kyoto's.

Neither is a city for big nights out, but Kyoto gives you a little more to do after dinner. Pontocho and the Kiyamachi canal have sake bars, standing izakaya and a few small clubs, and Osaka is under an hour away by train.

Evenings in Hoi An are for walking along the lantern-lit river and floating a paper candle. A few backpacker bars on An Hoi islet stay open later, but there are no clubs, the town is quiet before midnight, and anyone wanting more goes to Da Nang.

Kyoto's nature is more varied and closer to hand. Forested hills enclose it on three sides, with the Daimonji climb, Arashiyama's bamboo and the cedar path from Kurama to Kibune, all heightened by spring blossom and autumn maples.

Around Hoi An the land is flat and rural: rice paddies by bicycle and basket boats among the Cam Thanh palms. Its distinctive extra is offshore, where you can snorkel over coral at the Cham Islands, though the stormy autumn rules out much of this.

Kyoto is an outstanding base. Nara's deer and great Buddha, Osaka, Uji's Byodo-in and Himeji Castle are each an hour or less by train, with Kobe and the castle towns of Lake Biwa as further options.

From Hoi An there are two outings of real weight. One is the Cham temple ruins of My Son, the other Da Nang, with its Museum of Cham Sculpture and the Marble Mountains on the way. Beyond those the choice thins, and Hue is too far for a comfortable return in a day.

Kyoto is the easier family trip. It is safe, clean and orderly, with steam locomotives at the Railway Museum, an aquarium and zoo near the centre, ninja shows at the Toei studio park, and Nara's deer a short ride away.

Hoi An wins children over with lantern-making, basket boats and gentle sand in the calm season, and resort pools help. Midday heat, motorbikes outside the pedestrian core and broken pavements mean parents need to watch more closely.

Hoi An has no public transport a visitor would use, while Kyoto has trains, a tram and buses running to almost every sight, and that makes Kyoto the simpler place to get about. In Hoi An, walking the small old town is easy because much of it is closed to traffic, and a borrowed bicycle covers the flat lanes out to the beach. But My Son, Da Nang and the airport all mean a taxi, a ride-hailing app or a driver.

In Kyoto a car is never needed. The flat central grid suits walking and cycling, and JR lines, private railways, the little Randen tram and city buses reach the temples around the edges of the basin. The two subway lines miss most of those temples, though, and the buses crawl in the blossom and autumn colour seasons.

Kyoto has the wider and finer shopping. Family-run craft shops sell Kiyomizu ceramics, Nishijin silk, kitchen knives and tea. There are the Teramachi arcades, department stores and food halls on Shijo, and the monthly flea markets at To-ji and Kitano Tenmangu.

Hoi An has one thing Kyoto doesn't: clothes made to measure in a day or two, along with shoes and bags. It pays to order early so there is time for several fittings. Beyond that it is lanterns, ceramics and the An Hoi night market, with much of the same stock in shop after shop.

Hoi An is far kinder to the wallet. Homestays and small hotels with pools, market noodles and borrowed bicycles keep a comfortable stay cheap. Only the beachfront resorts and riverfront restaurants come close to Western prices.

Kyoto is mid-range. Everyday food, trains and temple fees are reasonable, but hotels and ryokan are expensive and climb further during the blossom and autumn colour seasons, and a kaiseki dinner is a real splurge.

Kyoto has a real stage tradition. There are the spring dances of the geiko, kabuki at the Minamiza, Japan's oldest kabuki house, regular Noh, and a concert hall with its own symphony orchestra, though much of the calendar is seasonal.

Hoi An offers bai choi, a sung card game played in the old town, short shows of folk music and dance, and a large outdoor spectacle on the town's history. It has no theatre or concert hall.

Both reward a slower pace, but in different ways. In Hoi An that means massage at every level, resort pools and yoga, best enjoyed from a base among the paddies or by the sea rather than in the crowded evening old town.

Kyoto has the bathing culture Hoi An lacks: century-old sento, hot springs at Kurama and Ohara, Arima an hour away and deep ryokan tubs. Add zazen, tea ceremonies and temple stays, though finding calm there means early mornings or the quieter northern temples.