Kota Kinabalu or Penang?

Kota Kinabalu is the better choice for swimming, though the good water is offshore. Manukan, Sapi and Mamutik in Tunku Abdul Rahman Park are a short speedboat hop from the central jetty, with white sand and coral you can snorkel straight from the shore. Go early, because the beaches are small and fill up by late morning. Tanjung Aru, on the mainland, is for sunset walks rather than swimming.

Penang's main beach, Batu Ferringhi, is long and lined with resorts, but the water is often murky. The cleaner coves at Monkey Beach and Kerachut, inside the national park, take a forest walk or a boat to reach, and George Town has no beach at all.

Penang is the stronger food destination, and many visitors plan their whole stay around it. Hokkien, Malay, Tamil Muslim and Nyonya cooking meet at single-dish hawker stalls: charcoal-fried char kway teow, sour assam laksa, nasi kandar heaped with curries, and banana-leaf meals in Little India. Breakfast is taken seriously, and the best stalls can sell out by noon.

Kota Kinabalu's range is narrower but has its own character. It is built around seafood picked from live tanks, Chinese-Sabahan noodle dishes such as sang nyuk mee and Tuaran mee, and Kadazan hinava cured with lime. In both cities the best meals are casual, and fine dining hardly counts.

There is a wide gap here. George Town is a whole historic port to explore on foot, with carved clan houses such as Khoo Kongsi, the Cheong Fatt Tze and Pinang Peranakan mansions, the stilted clan jetties, and a mosque, a Hindu temple and an Anglican church within a few streets of one another. Kek Lok Si, up at Air Itam, adds one of the largest temple complexes in the region.

Kota Kinabalu lost most of its old town in the bombing of 1945. The Sabah Museum, with its longhouse village, the floating City Mosque and the 1905 Atkinson Clock Tower fill half a day, and Borneo's indigenous life is easier to see in the villages outside town.

Neither city has much of a late scene, but Penang offers more variety. You can choose between backpacker bars spilling onto Chulia Street and Love Lane, louder bars and a couple of clubs on Upper Penang Road, cocktail bars in converted shophouses and beach bars at Batu Ferringhi. Heavy alcohol taxes keep a night of drinking expensive.

Kota Kinabalu's evening usually means a long seafood dinner followed by a drink on the waterfront facing the sunset over the islands. A few live-band bars stay open later at weekends, but early boats and mountain starts set the pace.

Kota Kinabalu is far ahead on nature. Mount Kinabalu rises to 4,095m about two hours inland, a two-day climb with a night in a mountain hut, and its park is a world-class botanical site of orchids, pitcher plants and cloud forest. Nearer the city you can dive in the marine park, raft the Kiulu and Padas rivers, and take dusk cruises on the Klias wetlands to see proboscis monkeys and fireflies.

Penang's green side is gentler and closer to the city. The funicular climbs Penang Hill to its canopy walk, coastal trails in the national park lead to a lighthouse and a turtle beach, and Balik Pulau has orchards and quiet cycling roads. There are no real mountains or wilderness within easy reach.

Penang has more places worth a day out, although they are on the mainland. Ipoh, about two hours south, combines a colonial old town with cave temples in limestone cliffs, while Taiping and the royal town of Kuala Kangsar make quieter outings.

Kota Kinabalu's excursions are mostly into landscape. The town-based options are the Sunday tamu at Kota Belud, where Bajau and Dusun villagers trade livestock and crafts, and a slow ride on Borneo's only railway through rice fields to Papar and Beaufort.

The two are about equal for families, but the days look different. In Kota Kinabalu they centre on the sea and animals: shallow island water for first snorkels, and orangutans and pygmy elephants at Lok Kawi Wildlife Park. Many families simply stay at a beach resort.

Penang's appeal is more town-based. Children can hunt for street murals, visit the trick-art and toy museums, ride the Penang Hill funicular and see the butterfly park at Teluk Bahang, with Batu Ferringhi pools for the afternoons. Both cities have broken pavements, heavy traffic and constant heat, and the mountain drives from Kota Kinabalu are long and winding.

Getting around is similar in both, with a walkable core and ride-hailing for everything else, though the details differ. In Kota Kinabalu the markets, Gaya Street and the island jetty are all close together on the waterfront. Beyond that strip, the minibuses are hard to use, and the mountain and rivers need a tour or a driver.

Penang gives you a little more. A free shuttle loops through George Town, and public buses reach Penang Hill, Kek Lok Si and the national park, though they are slow. The cost is traffic, especially on the road to the north coast.

Penang's old town is more rewarding to browse. Little India sells saris, spices and gold, Chowrasta Market sells nutmeg products, and the lanes around Campbell Street still hold joss-stick makers, rattan weavers and signboard carvers, alongside small shophouse boutiques selling batik and Peranakan beadwork.

Kota Kinabalu's shopping is largely the Sunday street market on Gaya Street and the waterfront handicraft market, with its shell work and cultured pearls. Sabah tea and wild honey make good gifts. Both cities have plenty of malls, and neither is a shopping destination.

Both are cheap places to travel, with inexpensive street meals, ride-hailing and mid-range hotels. The difference is in what pushes the bill up. In Kota Kinabalu it is the experiences you came for: permits, compulsory guides and the hut for Mount Kinabalu, plus diving, rafting and park fees on the islands.

Penang's sights cost little or nothing, as most temples and clan houses charge a small fee or none. Spending rises with boutique shophouse hotels and with drinks, which are heavily taxed.

Penang has more to see, although it is tied to the calendar. The George Town Festival fills old warehouses and shophouses with theatre and dance, Straits Quay stages local productions, and the streets come alive with Chinese opera and getai during the Hungry Ghost month, and with Thaipusam processions.

Kota Kinabalu's traditional dances are mostly seen as staged shows. The exception is the Kaamatan harvest festival in Penampang, where gong ensembles and bamboo bands play for local audiences.

The two are much alike: neither has a bathing tradition, and both offer cheap foot reflexology and beach resorts with full spas. Kota Kinabalu has something Penang lacks in Poring Hot Springs, open-air sulphur tubs in the forest that are ideal after the climb but a long drive from town.

In Penang, rest comes in smaller pieces: courtyard pools in heritage hotels, long coffee-shop breakfasts and cooler evenings on Penang Hill. The heat and traffic noise in town lead most visitors to add a few days by the sea.