Jakarta or Ubud?

Neither city is a beach destination, but the sea is easier to reach from Ubud. Jakarta's bay is too polluted for swimming, and the man-made beaches at Ancol are for strolling and seafood. Clear water and reefs mean a speedboat out to Pari or Tidung in the Thousand Islands, usually with a night away.

From Ubud, the black-sand coast is under forty minutes away, though its surf is better for watching than swimming. The calm, reef-sheltered water at Sanur is about an hour by car. It is still a day out, but an easy one, and in between a villa pool or a river below the terraces does the job.

Jakarta offers far more to eat. Padang, Manadonese and Sundanese cooking all have their followings alongside the city's own Betawi dishes, such as soto Betawi. People eat at every hour, from the street stalls of Glodok and the night markets of Blok M to polished modern Indonesian restaurants in Menteng.

Ubud's range is narrower but distinctive. It has Balinese babi guling, crisp duck eaten looking out over the rice fields, betutu slow-cooked in banana leaf, and a large number of plant-based cafés serving the yoga crowd. Go to Jakarta to eat your way across the country, and to Ubud for one island's cooking done well.

Ubud's sights repay a short stay better because its culture is concentrated and still part of daily life. The royal palace, the lotus pond of Pura Taman Saraswati, carved family gateways and fresh morning offerings all sit within walking distance of each other. The Puri Lukisan, Neka and ARMA museums trace the history of Balinese painting.

Jakarta's history is bigger but spread thinly. There is Dutch Batavia around Fatahillah Square, pinisi schooners at Sunda Kelapa, Hindu-Buddhist statues in the National Museum and Istiqlal mosque facing the Cathedral. It fills two or three days, but traffic between the sights takes a good share of them.

Jakarta is known across the region for late nights. Big clubs and after-hours venues run past dawn, rooftop bars cluster in SCBD and Senopati, Kemang has its expat-leaning strip and Blok M has cheap, rowdy bars. You take taxis between them, and much of it goes quiet during Ramadan.

Ubud has no clubs at all. An evening there means dinner, a dance performance and a drink on a terrace, perhaps with a cover band, and the town is dark by eleven.

In Ubud the landscape is part of every day, and in Jakarta it is not. From Ubud you can walk straight out onto the Campuhan Ridge, follow paths through the irrigated terraces of Tegallalang, raft the Ayung or drive an hour and a half to climb Mount Batur for sunrise.

Jakarta is flat and densely built, with little green beyond Merdeka Square. Its nature is real but far away: the tea hills of Puncak, the rainforest of Gunung Gede Pangrango and the reefs of the Thousand Islands. They suit a weekend away, and traffic can double the two-hour drive south.

Ubud is the better base for outings. Tirta Empul, the rock-cut tombs of Gunung Kawi, Besakih on the slopes of Mount Agung, the walled village of Tenganan and Ulun Danu Bratan on its mountain lake give you a different trip for each day. Every one of them needs a hired driver.

Jakarta has fewer outings, but the main ones are easy by rail. Bogor's Botanical Gardens are a commuter-train ride away, and the high-speed train reaches the cool Art Deco streets of Bandung. Beyond those and the sultanate ruins at Banten Lama, Java's great sights, such as Borobudur, need a flight.

Jakarta has more to fill children's days. There is Dunia Fantasi with the aquarium and water parks at Ancol, the leafy Ragunan Zoo, Taman Mini's miniature houses, and malls with indoor play areas for the hottest hours. The drawbacks are heat, traffic jams, poor air and missing pavements, so a hotel with a pool and a driver help a great deal.

Ubud has fewer attractions, with a zoo, a safari park and gentle rafting, but a villa with a pool among the rice fields makes a calmer base. Keep small children away from the food-snatching macaques of the Monkey Forest and the scooters on the main streets.

Jakarta is hard to get around, and Ubud is harder. Jakarta at least has the MRT along the Sudirman-Thamrin spine, TransJakarta buses in their own lanes and commuter trains. Cheap app-booked cars and motorbike taxis fill the gaps, as long as you plan around rush hour and heavy rain.

Ubud has no public transport worth using. You can walk between the palace, the market and the Monkey Forest on narrow pavements, but villas and sights further out mean a driver for the day, a ride-hailing app or a scooter, which is risky for anyone without real experience.

Jakarta is the place for scale and range. It has luxury malls around the Hotel Indonesia roundabout and in Senayan, fabric and Muslim fashion at Tanah Abang, electronics in Mangga Dua, whole floors of batik to bargain over and antiques on Jalan Surabaya. What it lacks is a street to stroll along.

Ubud is smaller and more personal. Its art market and galleries, and the workshop villages of Celuk for silver, Mas for woodcarving and Batuan for painting, are good for buying craft close to where it is made. Jalan Hanoman adds linen and yoga boutiques, but there are no malls or big brands.

Both cities are cheap, and the difference lies in where the money goes. In Jakarta the bargain is a large business hotel with a pool, and city transport costs almost nothing, while cocktails in the business districts are the one real expense.

In Ubud the cheap things are guesthouses, warung meals, massages and a driver for the day. Costs climb with private pool villas and imported wine, and depending on cars for everything adds up over a week.

Ubud has a living tradition on stage every night. Legong, the Barong and Rangda drama and the firelit Kecak are performed with a full gamelan orchestra in the palace courtyard and temple forecourts. Beyond that, there are only bar bands.

Jakarta draws touring concerts and the Java Jazz Festival, with theatre and film at Taman Ismail Marzuki and concerts in the colonial Gedung Kesenian. Wayang and gamelan appear only now and then, though, so you need to check what is on.

Here Ubud is far ahead. Retreat centres, yoga, meditation and spas ranging from neighbourhood massage rooms to pavilions above the river are what the town runs on. Cool, misty mornings over the rice fields and purification bathing at the water temples add to the calm.

Jakarta's spas offer pijat massage, the lulur body scrub and creambath hair treatments cheaply, in local salons, hotel spas and reflexology parlours in the malls. Outside the door, though, the noise, heat and haze make it a city to recover from rather than relax in.