Kyoto or Tokyo?

Neither city is a place for a beach vacation, but Tokyo has easier access to the sea. About an hour by train takes you to the Shonan coast, where Yuigahama at Kamakura, Zushi and Enoshima have long beaches of dark volcanic sand and swimmable water in high summer.

Kyoto is inland. Its nearest swimming is in fresh water at Lake Biwa, or at Suma, a plain city beach on Osaka Bay. The clear water of the Sea of Japan coast is too far for anything less than an overnight trip.

Kyoto offers precision. Seasonal kaiseki is served in old wooden houses, Buddhist temple cooking is eaten inside the precincts where it is made, and tofu, yuba and Kyoto vegetables run through the menus. Nishiki Market and the sake breweries of Fushimi are good for eating between meals.

Tokyo has all of that refinement and a great deal more variety. It has more starred restaurants than anywhere, many counters that have made one dish for decades, the depachika food halls and serious French, Italian and Chinese cooking. Kyoto has none of that international range, and in Tokyo you can eat well on any street without planning.

Kyoto escaped wartime bombing, and it shows. Seventeen UNESCO sites, from Kiyomizu-dera to the gardens of Ryoan-ji, sit among more than a thousand temples and shrines. Whole districts of machiya townhouses still stand, so the historic city is all around you rather than in separate pockets.

In Tokyo, the 1923 earthquake and the 1945 bombing took most of the old city. What remains is spread out: Senso-ji, Meiji Jingu, the Imperial Palace moats and the lanes of Yanaka. Tokyo's strength is its museums, led by the huge Japanese art collection at Ueno, and its modern architecture.

Tokyo is one of the great cities for a night out, and Kyoto is not. Golden Gai packs some two hundred tiny bars into a few alleys, and whole buildings are stacked with whisky, vinyl and cocktail bars. The clubs of Shibuya and Roppongi run until the first morning train.

Kyoto's evenings centre on Pontocho and the Kiyamachi canal, with sake bars, standing izakaya and riverside terraces in summer. It is pleasant for a drink, but the city goes to bed early, and anyone wanting a late night takes the train to Osaka.

The two are well matched for the outdoors, but the experience is different. In Kyoto the hills begin where the streets end. You can walk up Daimonji behind the eastern temples, wander the bamboo of Arashiyama, or take the cedar-forest path from Kurama to Kibune, all with little travel.

Tokyo needs a longer train ride, but the scenery is bigger. Mount Takao is the easy first hike, Okutama has steeper gorges and ridges, and Hakone and the Fuji Five Lakes have views of Mount Fuji, which can be climbed in summer.

Kyoto is the stronger base, mainly because so much is so close. The deer and great Buddha of Nara, the tea town of Uji, the food streets of Osaka and Himeji Castle are all an hour or less away, so you can do several in one stay without much planning.

Tokyo has excellent outings too, but they are further apart. Yokohama is close, and Kamakura is about an hour away. Nikko's Toshogu shrine and the hot springs and lakes of Hakone take longer and fill a whole day.

Tokyo is much easier with children. Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea, the Ghibli Museum, Ueno Zoo and the hands-on Miraikan could fill a week. Lifts and baby rooms at stations, and spotless toilets everywhere, take the strain out of daily logistics.

Kyoto is just as safe and clean, and its Railway Museum, Toei's Edo-period film set and the gates of Fushimi Inari go down well with children. But much of a stay is temples with stairs and crowds, and many families end up going to Osaka for the theme park.

Tokyo's rail network is about as good as urban transport gets. The lines are dense and punctual, one card covers the lot, signs are in English, and almost every sight is near a station. The weak points are the huge interchanges and the last trains around midnight.

Central Kyoto's flat grid is lovely on foot or by bicycle. The catch is that the great temples ring the edges of the city, beyond its two subway lines. You end up combining JR, private railways, the Randen tram and slow, crowded buses.

Tokyo is in another league for shopping. It has the luxury houses and old department stores of Ginza, Omotesando's architect-designed flagships, vintage clothing in Harajuku and Shimokitazawa, and whole districts given over to electronics, kitchen knives or books.

Kyoto is more focused, and it suits a different buyer. Family shops that have run for generations sell Nishijin silk, Kiyomizu-ware, incense and tea by weight, and the monthly flea markets at To-ji and Kitano Tenmangu are worth planning a day around. Fashion and variety are limited.

The two cost much the same, and the pattern is similar. Noodle counters, food halls and convenience stores make eating cheap, while rooms take most of the budget. Kyoto's costs climb at cherry blossom and autumn colour time, when rooms become scarce, and a kaiseki dinner or ryokan night is a deliberate treat.

In Tokyo the expensive extras are taxis after the last train and cocktail bars, and Golden Week pushes up room rates. Lunch menus at fine restaurants are one of the city's best bargains.

Tokyo offers far more to see on any given night. The Kabuki-za stages kabuki most of the year and sells tickets for single acts. You can also see Noh, Takarazuka's revues, the NHK Symphony and other orchestras at halls such as Suntory Hall, and opera at the New National Theatre. Hundreds of small live houses in Koenji and Shimokitazawa have bands every evening.

Kyoto's stage is more traditional and depends on the season. The spring dances of the geisha districts and the year-end Kaomise at Minamiza, Japan's oldest kabuki theatre, are memorable if your dates match. On a random evening, though, the choice can be thin.

Tokyo has more bathing on offer. Hundreds of neighbourhood sento survive, some filled with dark natural mineral water. Large bathing complexes with saunas and rest rooms are made for long, lazy afternoons, and Hakone's onsen inns are about ninety minutes away. Many baths still turn away guests with tattoos.

Kyoto's calm is quieter and more contemplative. You can sit in front of a raked gravel garden, join zazen or a tea ceremony, or spend a night in a temple lodging, with hot springs at Kurama and Ohara and century-old sento in town. That calm depends on avoiding the crowds, so go early in the morning, in winter, or to the outlying temples.