Hue or Nha Trang?

Here the gap is wide. In Nha Trang the sand starts across the road from the hotels and runs the length of the centre, and the island bays and Doc Let have clearer water when the town beach feels crowded.

Hue has no beach of its own. Thuan An is a plain local strip at the river mouth, and Lang Co is a prettier outing more than an hour south. Both are worth a hot summer day but neither is the point of the stay, and from September the sea there turns rough.

The two eat about equally well, almost all of it from plastic stools, but the cooking is different. Hue's food is spicy, salty and courtly: bun bo Hue, banh beo and banh khoai, com hen with river clams, and a Buddhist vegetarian tradition that makes meat-free eating easy.

Nha Trang's food is built around the sea, with fish-cake noodle soup, nem nuong rolls and crab or squid grilled at the table, and there is drip coffee on every block. Neither offers much fine dining. Nha Trang's tourist streets have more foreign food, though much of it is pizza.

This is Hue's great strength. The moated citadel with its Imperial City and Forbidden Purple City, the tombs of Tu Duc, Minh Mang and Khai Dinh, each with its own character, and Thien Mu pagoda make two or three full days of imperial heritage found nowhere else in Vietnam.

Nha Trang's sights fit into a day: the Cham towers of Po Nagar, still used for worship, the white Buddha above Long Son Pagoda, and the Yersin museum. They are good breaks from the beach rather than a reason to come.

Nha Trang stays up later. Its backpacker blocks behind the seafront run bar crawls, beach bars put on fire shows and DJ nights on the sand, and a few clubs keep going into the early hours.

Hue has a short strip of loud backpacker bars on the south bank, beer with ice at street-side places, and a riverside night market, and most of the city is asleep before midnight. Neither is worth choosing for its nightlife, but in Hue the evening is a stroll and in Nha Trang it can be a night out.

Nha Trang has a slight edge, and its outdoors is the bay: steep green islands, boat trips and the protected reefs around Hon Mun, among the best-known snorkelling and diving in Vietnam. The Ba Ho falls and the hills of Hon Ba make a morning inland.

Hue's setting is gentler and mostly on land: cycling past rice fields to the tombs, boating on the wide Tam Giang lagoon, and the forest and waterfalls of Bach Ma about an hour south. Its autumn floods also put much of this out of reach for longer than Nha Trang's rains do.

Hue is far better placed for outings. To the north is the former Demilitarised Zone, with the Vinh Moc tunnels and Khe Sanh. To the south are the Hai Van Pass, Lang Co and Da Nang, which you can also reach by a scenic coastal train, and Hoi An makes a natural next stop.

From Nha Trang the choice is thin: Phan Rang's Cham towers and craft villages about two hours south, and island fishing communities such as Binh Ba. Dalat needs a night away, so most visitors simply stay by the bay.

Nha Trang works far better with children. The beach is gentle in the dry season, and the amusement and water park on Hon Tre with its aquarium, the mud-bath parks and the resort pools give a family plenty to do. Scooter traffic and the midday heat are the main drawbacks.

Hue has nothing built for children. Dragon boat rides, cyclos and the open Citadel grounds please older ones, but between the heritage sites, the heat and the autumn rain, the city suits a short stop better than a family base.

Neither city has public transport a visitor would use, and in both the pavements are cluttered with parked motorbikes. Hue's centre is small and flat, so the south bank and the Citadel are easy on foot, by bicycle or by cyclo, but reaching the tombs upriver means hiring a taxi, a motorbike driver or a boat.

Life in Nha Trang runs along the strip by the promenade. Ride-hailing cars and motorbike taxis cover anything further, boats go to the islands, and the airport at Cam Ranh is a 35km drive away.

Neither city is worth visiting for shopping, and in both it centres on a big market hall. Hue's Dong Ba sells household goods and snacks, and the local buys are conical hats with poems in the leaves, sesame candy and incense from Thuy Xuan, with tailors in the hotel streets. Nha Trang's Cho Dam and the beach night market lean towards dried seafood, cashews, lacquerware and beachwear, the regional specialities are pearls and agarwood, and there are a couple of malls.

Both cities make a budget go a long way, but Hue goes further still. Its guesthouses and stall food cost next to nothing, and the main expense is the entry tickets to the Citadel and the tombs.

In Nha Trang, spending creeps up through the very things a beach stay is made of: the island park, boat and dive trips, imported drinks, and seafood sold by weight on the tourist streets.

Hue at least has something of its own to hear: nha nhac court music in the Citadel, ca Hue singers on lantern-lit dragon boats on the Perfume River, and the Hue Festival in its season. These are staged for visitors, but they come from the royal past.

Nha Trang offers cover bands in beach bars, the occasional Cham or folk dance show for tourists, and little else.

Nha Trang has a real draw here: warm mineral mud baths and hot spring pools near Thap Ba on the edge of town. Add the spas in resorts on the quieter bays and long mornings under a beach umbrella, and it is the better place to switch off.

Hue's calm is quieter and more inward: pagodas, the Kim Long garden houses, tai chi by the river and early nights. For a soak there are the Thanh Tan hot springs, but they are an hour's trip rather than part of the day.