Hoi An or Siem Reap?

On beaches there is no contest. Hoi An has An Bang and an almost unbroken run of pale sand toward Da Nang a short ride from the old town, with warm, calm water from spring to late summer and red-flag seas in the autumn monsoon.

Siem Reap has no coast at all. The Tonle Sap is for boat trips, not swimming, and the sea is most of a day away, so swimming means the hotel pool, welcome after a hot morning at the temples but no substitute for a beach.

Hoi An eats better for a visitor because its dishes exist nowhere else: cao lau, white rose dumplings and its stuffed banh mi are worth the trip on their own, and cooking classes that start at the market or in the Tra Que gardens are a local speciality. The weak spot is the riverfront, where menus repeat.

Siem Reap has Khmer cooking to offer, fish amok and num banh chok from morning stalls, plus a small group of tasting-menu kitchens and social-enterprise restaurants. The centre around Pub Street leans heavily on pizza and backpacker menus, though, so the good meals take more seeking out.

Siem Reap is far ahead here. The Angkor temples, from Angkor Wat to the stone faces of the Bayon and the tree-split galleries of Ta Prohm, take three days or more and rank among the great monuments anywhere, with the Angkor National Museum to set the scene.

Hoi An's old town is a well-kept ensemble of merchant houses, the Japanese Bridge and Chinese assembly halls, lovely by lantern light. But it is a day or two of slow walking with only small museums, a charming backdrop rather than a sight on Angkor's scale.

Neither is a clubbing town, but Siem Reap gives more of a night out. Pub Street packs a few blocks with late bars, cheap draught beer and music every night, with calmer cocktail bars along the river.

Hoi An's evenings are about lantern-lit walks and paper candles on the river, with a few backpacker bars on An Hoi and streets that go quiet before midnight. Anyone wanting a bigger night has to go to Da Nang.

Hoi An has more variety within reach. Beyond its own paddies and the Cam Thanh palm waterways, the Cham Islands offer snorkelling and diving over coral, while the Marble Mountains, the Son Tra peninsula and the Hai Van Pass add real relief, though autumn storms curb much of this.

Siem Reap's countryside is flat paddy and sugar palm, best cycled early. Its highlights are the bird colonies of Prek Toal on the Tonle Sap and the waterfall and forest of Phnom Kulen, but there are no mountains or sea, and the heat limits activity for much of the year.

Both have a solid handful of outings, but of different kinds. Siem Reap's best days out are more temples, the fine pink sandstone of Banteay Srei and the collapsed, overgrown Beng Mealea, along with the stilt villages on the lake, and no town is close enough for an easy return.

Hoi An mixes ruins with a city: the Cham temple valley of My Son one day, Da Nang's Cham sculpture museum and the Marble Mountains the next, and a boat out to the Cham Islands. Hue is better kept for an overnight stop.

Hoi An is clearly easier with children, especially young ones. The old town is small and partly traffic-free, there are lanterns to make and basket boats to spin in, and resort pools plus a gentle beach in the calm season give plenty of downtime.

Siem Reap rewards older children who enjoy clambering through Ta Prohm's roots and riding in tuk-tuks. Steep temple steps, long walks, fierce spring heat and almost nothing built for kids make it tiring for little ones.

Neither town has useful public transport, but Hoi An is easier to get around under your own steam. Its old town is closed to motor traffic for long spells, and the beach and villages are a flat bike ride away, often on a free hotel bicycle.

In Siem Reap you are driven most of the time. The centre is walkable, but heat and broken pavements cut walks short, and the temples mean a hired tuk-tuk, a car or an e-bike on the main circuits.

Hoi An has a shopping draw of its own in made-to-measure tailoring, with suits, dresses, shoes and bags made in a day or two, alongside silk lanterns, ceramics and the An Hoi night market.

Siem Reap's offer is narrower: Old Market silk scarves, kramas and silver, plus night-market trinkets. Its artisan workshops for silk weaving, stone carving and lacquerware are the place to look for quality.

Both are very cheap, with pool hotels, market meals and massages costing a fraction of Western prices. The difference is in the fixed costs. Siem Reap's Angkor pass is a large outlay on a short stay, and a tuk-tuk for the temples is a daily expense. In Hoi An, free hotel bicycles cover most outings, though the beachfront resorts can reach international prices.

Siem Reap has the better stage evenings. Apsara dance links directly to the figures carved at Angkor, and the Cambodian circus under its big top, with acrobatics, theatre and live music, is widely admired.

Hoi An has bai choi games in the old town, short folk music and dance shows and a large outdoor history spectacle on the river. These are pleasant but slight, and neither town has a theatre or concert hall.

Both make it easy to slow down, with massage at every level, yoga classes and pools, and neither has a bathing tradition. Hoi An's calm comes from its setting: rooms among the paddies or by the sea, and days paced by bicycle and river.

Siem Reap's calm comes from routine, with early temple starts followed by long afternoons in garden hotels and Khmer massage with herbal compresses. In either town, staying a little away from the evening crowds of the old town or Pub Street pays off.