Kanchanaburi or Siem Reap?

Neither town has a beach. Both are a long way from the sea: the Gulf coast is over three hours from Kanchanaburi and most of a day from Siem Reap. What differs is where you can swim. In Kanchanaburi it is in natural fresh water, in the turquoise limestone pools at Erawan or floating on the river from a raft house.

In Siem Reap the Tonle Sap is too muddy for swimming, so you swim in the hotel pool, and an afternoon there after a dawn at the temples becomes part of the daily routine.

The two eat about equally well, but the food is different. Kanchanaburi serves straightforward central Thai cooking: noodle counters, the night market by the railway station, and river fish at open-air or floating restaurants over the Kwai, best at sunset.

Siem Reap has the more distinctive cuisine, with fish amok, num banh chok for breakfast and sour lemongrass soups. It also has a small group of restaurants reworking Khmer ingredients in tasting menus, though you will need a tuk-tuk ride away from the pizza menus of Pub Street to find the better meals.

This is where the two differ most. Siem Reap is the gateway to Angkor: Angkor Wat, the stone faces of the Bayon, Ta Prohm wrapped in tree roots and dozens of other temples in the forest, more than three days can cover. The Angkor National Museum and the colonial streets around the Old Market add some background in town.

Kanchanaburi tells one story well, the building of the Death Railway. You can walk across the bridge and visit the war cemeteries and the Thailand-Burma Railway Centre. It is moving and worthwhile, but it fills a day rather than a trip.

Siem Reap has more going on at night. Pub Street and the lanes around it are busy every evening and stay open late, with cheap beer and plenty of company, and there are quieter cocktail bars in the side alleys and by the river.

Kanchanaburi's few riverside bars with pool tables and cover bands usually close early, and its loudest nights are the weekend karaoke rafts drifting down the river. Neither town has any real club scene.

Kanchanaburi wins easily outdoors. It sits at the edge of the large protected forest along the Burmese border, with the seven tiered falls of Erawan, the caves and cascades of Sai Yok, kayaking on the reservoirs and bamboo rafting on the river.

Siem Reap's countryside is flat paddy and sugar palms, pleasant for an early bike ride. Its highlights are the bird colonies at Prek Toal and the waterfall and forest walks on Phnom Kulen.

Both have good day trips, but of different kinds. From Siem Reap almost every outing is another temple: the fine pink carving of Banteay Srei, the overgrown ruins of Beng Mealea, distant Koh Ker. The stilt villages on the lake make the one change of scene, and there are no other towns within an easy return trip.

From Kanchanaburi there is more variety. You can take the cliffside railway to Nam Tok, walk Hellfire Pass, visit the Khmer ruins at Prasat Muang Singh, see the great chedi at Nakhon Pathom or go to the canal markets, and Bangkok is possible as a long day.

Kanchanaburi is the easier of the two with children, because its best days are spent in water and forest, which most children enjoy, and the town is calm. Its weak spot is the war history. The cemeteries and railway museums that make the town worth visiting mean little to a young child, and the falls and parks are long minivan rides away, so part of each outing is spent in a vehicle.

Siem Reap has the opposite balance. Angkor is only a short tuk-tuk ride from town, but nearly every day out is another temple, which suits curious older children far better than small ones, and almost nothing is set up for families. In either town, March to May is the hardest time to travel with children. In Siem Reap the chaotic traffic and broken pavements also make short walks around town tiring.

Both towns need wheels rather than feet, but they work differently. Kanchanaburi is strung out along the river for several kilometres, and its waterfalls and parks are far apart. Local buses and the slow train are sparse, so most visitors rent a scooter or hire a driver.

Siem Reap's centre is small enough to walk, tuk-tuks wait on every corner or come by app, and the flat main temple circuits are easy by bicycle.

Siem Reap is the better place to buy something worth taking home. Its workshops and social enterprises train artisans in silk weaving, carving and lacquerware, and the Old Market has kramas, spices and silver.

Kanchanaburi has a night market, souvenir stalls by the bridge and a few shops selling local sapphires, where you need some knowledge to buy well.

Both are very cheap, and costs add up in different places. In Kanchanaburi rooms, meals and the local train cost almost nothing, so the extra costs are the foreigner fees at national parks and the drivers or tours you need to reach them.

In Siem Reap a tuk-tuk driver for the day and a daily massage are affordable even on a tight budget, but the Angkor pass is a real expense on a short stay.

Siem Reap has two good reasons to go out in the evening that Kanchanaburi cannot match. One is classical apsara dance, best seen at the smaller, more serious performances. The other is a much-admired Cambodian circus under a big top, which tells Khmer stories through acrobatics and live music.

Kanchanaburi's one occasion is River Kwai Bridge Week, around late November and early December, when a sound-and-light show with fireworks restages the bombing of the bridge.

In Kanchanaburi, rest means a hammock over the upper Kwai with jungle across the bank. In Siem Reap it is more likely a massage after a dawn at the temples and a long afternoon by a garden-hotel pool. Siem Reap has more organised care, with proper spas offering herbal compresses, yoga classes and small retreats. In Kanchanaburi there are cheap Thai massage shops, and spas only at the larger riverside resorts.

What Kanchanaburi has is the quieter town and a natural place to soak, the small hot springs at Hin Dat, about two hours north. In Siem Reap the calm is in the lanes across the river, and it is worth staying there rather than close to Pub Street.