Hoi An or Yangshuo?

Hoi An has a proper coastline. An Bang is about 5km from the old town through the rice fields, and the pale sand runs almost unbroken north towards Da Nang. From spring to late summer the water is warm and calm, though autumn brings red flags and heavy surf.

Yangshuo is far inland and has no beach at all. A swim from the gravel banks of the Yulong or in a quiet bend of the Li is a nice way to end a hot day of rafting, but anyone who wants sand and sea should go to Hoi An.

Hoi An is worth eating your way through. Cao lau, white rose dumplings, chicken rice, mi Quang and its stuffed banh mi are a short but genuine local cooking, served cheaply at market counters and plastic stools, and cooking classes that start in the market or at Tra Que are a local speciality.

Yangshuo has fewer dishes worth seeking out: beer fish, pork-stuffed snails and vegetables, and Guilin rice noodles for breakfast. Both towns have a tourist strip with repetitive menus, the Hoi An riverfront and West Street, but Yangshuo has less to fall back on beyond it.

Hoi An's old town is a heritage sight in its own right. It is a former trading port where Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese influences show in the wooden shophouses, family chapels and the covered bridge, and it is especially beautiful after dark under the silk lanterns.

Yangshuo cannot compete on this. Its centre is largely rebuilt, there are no significant museums, and the interest lies in scattered pieces: brick villages along the Yulong, the Ming-era Dragon Bridge and an ancient banyan tree. People go there for the scenery, not the history.

Neither town is a nightlife destination, but Yangshuo is livelier after dark. West Street fills with domestic tourists, bars open onto the lane with loud music and dancers on stage, and it stays busy well past midnight.

Hoi An's evenings are gentler: a walk along the lantern-lit river, a paper candle floated on the water, a drink, and an old town that is quiet before midnight. The few late backpacker bars on An Hoi islet are about as wild as it gets. For a real night out, people take a taxi to Da Nang.

Yangshuo's scenery is world-class, and it starts right at the edge of town. Limestone peaks crowd around the Li and Yulong rivers, and bamboo rafts, the walk from Yangdi to Xingping, the viewpoints on Moon Hill and Laozhai Hill, climbing, kayaking and caving are all close by.

Hoi An's countryside is flat and quieter: rice paddies seen by bicycle, and the nipa palm channels of Cam Thanh explored by basket boat. Its one real advantage is the sea. The Cham Islands offer snorkelling and diving over coral, which landlocked Yangshuo cannot offer, and the Hai Van Pass and Son Tra add drama further away.

For day trips the two are fairly level, but the outings differ in kind. Hoi An has one major excursion, the Cham temple ruins of My Son in their jungle valley, plus Da Nang's museum of Cham sculpture and the Marble Mountains. After those the options thin out, and Hue is too far for a day.

Yangshuo's list is longer but lighter: the small old towns of Xingping, Fuli, Daxu and the better-preserved Huangyao, with Guilin and its Reed Flute Cave about an hour away. Choose Hoi An for one memorable ancient site, and Yangshuo for a string of pleasant villages.

Hoi An is the easier choice with children, and it suits younger ones too. They can make a silk lantern, spin in a basket boat or cycle through the paddies, and resorts with pools, a gently shelving beach in the calm season and a large theme park with a safari park down the coast fill the other days.

Yangshuo suits families with older, outdoorsy children. Bamboo rafting and caves with mud pools go down well, but nothing is built for children, and summer storms, a noisy West Street and roads busy with coaches need managing.

Hoi An is easier to get around. The old town is closed to motor traffic for long parts of the day, and the beach, the rice fields and the villages are all an easy, flat bike ride away, often on a bicycle lent by your hotel. Only Da Nang, the airport and My Son call for a taxi or a driver.

In Yangshuo the compact centre matters less, because almost everything worth seeing is out in the countryside. That means a hired bicycle or e-scooter, local minibuses or a driver, with signs mostly in Chinese beyond the centre and the high-speed rail station a drive out of town.

Hoi An gives you a real reason to shop: made-to-measure tailoring, with suits, dresses, coats, shoes and bags cut in a day or two. It is worth allowing time for several fittings. Silk lanterns, ceramics and the An Hoi night market add to it, though there is no luxury shopping.

Yangshuo's shopping is mostly mass-produced souvenirs along West Street. The exceptions are the hand-painted fans from the workshops in Fuli and simple gifts of local tea and osmanthus.

Both are cheap, and Hoi An is slightly cheaper. Its homestays with pools, almost-free street food and free hotel bicycles keep a stay inexpensive, and the main extra costs are the old town's heritage entry fee, the riverfront restaurants and the international-style beach resorts.

Yangshuo's guesthouses, noodle breakfasts and minibuses also cost little, but the money goes on tickets for river cruises, bamboo rafts, caves and the night show. Room rates also jump during Golden Week and the Spring Festival.

Neither town has a theatre or a concert hall, and both rely on one large outdoor spectacle on a river. Yangshuo's is the better known: Zhang Yimou's show on the Li, with hundreds of performers lit against floodlit karst peaks.

Hoi An's island show retelling the town's history is smaller in reputation, but the town also has more intimate folk performances: bai choi, a sung card game visitors can join, and short music and dance shows at a traditional arts house. In Yangshuo, the rest is cover bands on West Street.

Hoi An makes rest easier. There are massage rooms and spas on almost every street, from foot-massage parlours to resort treatment centres, yoga classes are easy to find, and the resorts between the paddies and the sea are built for doing very little.

Yangshuo can be just as calm, but only in the right place: a guesthouse in the Yulong valley looking out over the peaks, with tai chi in the morning and a warm mud pool in one of the caves. It has few spas, and the town centre is loud late into the night, so where you stay matters more there.