Kamakura or Tokyo?

Kamakura has the sand itself. Yuigahama and Zaimokuza are a walk from the station, the beaches facing Enoshima are along the Enoden line, and Zushi and Hayama to the east are quieter. In July and August that makes it easy to swim before or after the temples.

Tokyo's own bay shore at Odaiba and Kasai is for strolling, so a Tokyo visitor who wants to swim ends up on the same Shonan sand after an hour on the train. Neither is a beach destination: the sand is grey and volcanic in both cases, and summer weekends are crowded.

Kamakura eats well within a narrow range: whitebait over rice near the beach, shojin ryori around the Zen temples, snacks along Komachi-dori and Kamakura vegetables at the Renbai market. It has little choice in the evening.

Tokyo is a reason to travel to Japan on its own, running from standing soba counters in stations and yakitori under the Yurakucho tracks to sushi and kaiseki counters, the depachika food halls and the Tsukiji outer market. Even Kamakura's own visitors make the trip up the line for serious sushi, ramen or an izakaya crawl.

Kamakura's heritage is concentrated and coherent. The open-air Great Buddha, Tsurugaoka Hachimangu and the great Zen temples of Engaku-ji and Kencho-ji all date from the age of Japan's first warrior government, the museums are modest, and two or three days see it well.

Tokyo offers more overall, and its strength is the museums, led by the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno, along with Senso-ji, Meiji Jingu and the Imperial Palace moats. Because so much was rebuilt after 1923 and 1945, the feeling of walking through one historic town belongs to Kamakura, while depth and range belong to Tokyo.

Kamakura goes quiet once the day-trippers leave, with a few izakaya and small bars near the station and nothing that runs late. Tokyo is the opposite, with the two hundred tiny bars of Golden Gai, izakaya around every major station and clubs in Shibuya and Roppongi that keep going until the first morning trains. If you stay in Kamakura, a night out means an hour on the train each way and keeping an eye on the last departure.

There is a similar amount of nature on offer, but it comes in different forms. In Kamakura it starts at the door: the Daibutsu and Tenen trails link the temples through wooded hills past cave tombs, and the bay has surfing at Shichirigahama and paddling at Zaimokuza.

Inside Tokyo, the green space means parks such as Shinjuku Gyoen and Yoyogi, and real hiking is a train ride out, to Mount Takao, the Okutama gorges or the Fuji Five Lakes. Tokyo gets you to steeper mountains, while Kamakura puts forest and sea within walking distance.

Both are excellent bases on the same rail network, and each is the other's favourite outing. Kamakura's strengths lie close by: Enoshima on the Enoden, Yokohama in under half an hour, the fishing port of Misaki on the Miura Peninsula, and Odawara and Hakone to the west.

Tokyo reaches further north and inland, to the Toshogu shrines of Nikko, the clay-walled merchant houses of Kawagoe, the Edo-period canals of Sawara and, by shinkansen, Karuizawa. Choose Kamakura for the coast and Hakone, and Tokyo for a wider spread across the region.

Both have Japan's safety and cleanliness, but Tokyo gives children far more to do and makes daily life easier. Disneyland and DisneySea, the Ghibli Museum, Ueno Zoo and Miraikan can fill a week, and stations have lifts and baby rooms.

Kamakura works well for two or three days: climbing inside the Great Buddha, riding the Enoden along the sea, the aquarium at Katase and summer paddling. Long temple staircases, hill trails that defeat a stroller and weekend crowds make it harder work with small children.

Kamakura is a small town you can walk, with the Enoden and a single JR stop covering the rest, but valleys, steps and weekend gridlock slow it down. Tokyo is easier despite its size: the densest rail network in the world, signs in English and one rechargeable card put almost every sight a short walk from a station. Tokyo's hard parts are its giant stations and rush hour, and Kamakura's are a packed Enoden and the hills.

Kamakura is good for an afternoon of browsing on Komachi-dori and the quieter Wakamiya-oji, for sweets, tenugui cloths, ceramics, good knives and the lacquered Kamakura-bori woodwork. Tokyo is a shopping destination in itself, from Ginza's department stores and Omotesando's flagship stores to the vintage of Shimokitazawa, the knives of Kappabashi and the bookshops of Jimbocho. Anyone travelling with a shopping list should save it for Tokyo.

Neither is cheap to sleep in, and Tokyo comes out a little kinder overall. Kamakura has few hotels and competes for them with Tokyo weekenders, though temple fees, train fares and soba lunches are fair.

Tokyo's business hotels offer a sensible middle ground, and its cheap ramen, set lunches and convenience-store meals make a budget go further than Kamakura's small choice of places to eat allows. Many Kamakura visitors save by sleeping in Yokohama or Fujisawa.

Kamakura's stage is mostly its shrine calendar, with traditional dance at the spring festival and yabusame horseback archery in autumn, plus occasional performances at a small Noh theatre. On an ordinary evening there is little to see.

Tokyo has a performance every night: kabuki at the Kabuki-za with single-act tickets, the Takarazuka Revue, the NHK Symphony at Suntory Hall, opera at the New National Theatre and bands in the live houses of Shimokitazawa and Koenji. If a festival falls during your stay, Kamakura is worth timing for. Otherwise the stage belongs to Tokyo.

Kamakura's calm comes from stillness rather than bathing: zazen sessions at Engaku-ji and Kencho-ji and the moss gardens around Jomyo-ji and Zuisen-ji, best on weekday mornings. It has no hot springs of its own.

Tokyo adds the bath to its temple gardens, with hundreds of neighbourhood sento, some fed by natural hot-spring water, and large complexes with saunas and outdoor pools. For a true onsen inn, both send you to Hakone, and many of Tokyo's baths turn away guests with tattoos.