Kaohsiung or Tainan?

Neither city is a place for a beach vacation, but Kaohsiung gives you a bit more. Cijin's dark sand is mostly for sunset walks, while Sizihwan below Shoushan has a sheltered bay with a swimming area in season. The real draw is Xiaoliuqiu, reached via Donggang, where you can snorkel with sea turtles in small coral coves.

Tainan's coast west of Anping is flat grey sand, lagoons and sandbars, with the Golden Coast and Yuguang Island best for watching the sun go down. Swimming is often discouraged or banned, so the hotel pool is the realistic option.

Both cities cook in the sweeter southern style, but Tainan treats food as heritage and is where Taiwanese go to eat. Breakfast is beef soup made with that morning's beef, and the day runs through danzai noodles, coffin bread and shrimp rolls at stalls run by the same family for generations. Grazing around the temples and the lanes near Shennong Street can fill a whole trip.

Kaohsiung eats well too, with more emphasis on seafood. On Cijin you pick your catch from the ice, and Ruifeng night market is where locals queue for oyster omelettes and grilled squid. Neither city offers much fine dining.

Tainan has the deeper history. It was the island's capital for more than two centuries, and it shows in the Confucius Temple, Chihkan Tower on its Dutch foundations, Fort Zeelandia in Anping and the dense web of temples in the old centre. The Chimei Museum adds European painting and violins.

Kaohsiung's sights come from its life as a port: the Lotus Pond pagodas, the former British Consulate above the harbour mouth, Pier-2's warehouse galleries and the glass Dome of Light in a metro station. They take two or three days, and many visitors pair them with Tainan's older layers.

Neither city is made for a big night out, but Kaohsiung gives you more evening to work with. Its most local habit is a long, noisy dinner at a stir-fry hall, where beer and seafood keep the table going into the small hours. Afterwards you can try the bars around Pier-2 and Yancheng or have a drink by the Love River, and at weekends there are a handful of clubs in Sinsing and Lingya. The crowd is local and the choice is modest, but a late night is easy to find.

Tainan is the quieter of the two. After dinner there are a few cocktail and whisky bars tucked into townhouses near Shennong Street and Haian Road, and the streets empty well before Kaohsiung's do. If you stay in Tainan, expect early nights and take a train south for anything livelier. If you want both, eat your way through Tainan and spend your later evenings in Kaohsiung.

Kaohsiung has hills and sea right on its doorstep. Shoushan's forested limestone trails, full of macaques, rise beside the harbour, and the Chaishan cliffs make a fine sunset walk. Further out lie the Moon World badlands, the Yanchao mud volcanoes, Maolin's waterfalls and butterfly valleys, and Xiaoliuqiu's reefs for diving.

Tainan's outdoors is wetland. In Taijiang National Park, small boats glide through the Sicao mangrove tunnel, and black-faced spoonbills winter at the Qigu estuary beside the salt mountain. That makes it the pick for birdwatchers, but there is little hiking beyond the low Guanziling foothills.

Each city makes an excellent day trip from the other, but Kaohsiung reaches more of the south. From there you can visit Tainan in half an hour by high-speed rail, reach Fo Guang Shan and Hakka Meinong inland, take the ferry to Xiaoliuqiu, or drive about two hours to Hengchun and Kenting.

Tainan sits closer to the north. Chiayi and the Alishan forest railway are an easy run, and the temple town of Lukang is just about possible in a day. Its own outer districts add the old streets of Xinhua and Yanshui.

Kaohsiung has far more built for children. The National Science and Technology Museum is large and hands-on, there is a zoo on Shoushan and a theme park at Dashu, and simply riding the light rail, the Cijin ferry or the rooftop Ferris wheel by the harbour keeps young children happy.

Tainan works in a more improvised way. Children can scramble over the Anping forts and the Tree House, take a boat through the Sicao mangroves and see the armour halls at the Chimei Museum, but the nearest zoo and theme park are in Kaohsiung. Summer heat and scooter-blocked pavements are a problem in both.

This is where the two cities differ most. Kaohsiung has two metro lines and a harbour light rail, with English signs and one card that also covers buses and the Cijin ferry. The network is thin for such a spread-out city, but taxis and bike-share fill the gaps easily.

Tainan has no metro, slow buses and a high-speed rail station well outside town. The old core around Chihkan Tower and Shennong Street is walkable, if you dodge parked scooters, but Anping and the Chimei Museum mean a taxi, and most visitors rely on ride-hailing.

Kaohsiung offers more range. Japanese-style department stores with basement food halls cluster around Sanduo and the Arena, there is a huge harbourside mall, and the Xinjuegang grid near Central Park covers youth fashion and sneakers.

Tainan is smaller but more distinctive. Independent shops in the townhouses of Shennong and Zhengxing streets sell ceramics, indigo cloth, tea and stationery, and the 1930s Hayashi Department Store, with a shrine on its roof, is worth a visit for the building alone. Neither city is a destination for luxury fashion.

Both cities are cheap, and a vacation in either costs much the same. What differs is where the money goes. In Kaohsiung, low metro, light rail and bike-share fares keep daily costs down. In Tainan the snacks are about as cheap as eating gets, but with no metro the taxi fares add up over a stay.

Kaohsiung has the formal stage. Weiwuying, the wave-roofed national arts centre, holds an opera house, a concert hall and a playhouse, and it hosts touring orchestras, dance companies and the city's own symphony. The Music Center and the Arena take the big Mandarin pop and rock shows.

Tainan's performances are best seen in front of its temples. On festival days and gods' birthdays, stages go up for Taiwanese opera and glove puppetry, and processions bring drum troupes and the Eight Generals. For an orchestra or a ballet, you go to Kaohsiung.

The two are fairly evenly matched, and both have plenty of skilled, inexpensive foot-reflexology and massage shops. The real difference is hot springs. From Tainan, the rare mud springs of Guanziling are about an hour away and make a relaxed day out, while Kaohsiung's nearest springs, at Baolai or in Pingtung, really need an overnight stay. Within the cities, Kaohsiung offers quiet walks by the Love River and Chengcing Lake, and Tainan offers slow afternoons in townhouse tea rooms, though scooter noise can get in the way.