Nagoya or Nikko?

Neither is a beach destination, but Nagoya can at least offer a swim. Its own shore is port and industry, but the wide, sheltered beaches of the Chita Peninsula, such as Utsumi, are about an hour away by train and warm enough in midsummer.

Nikko has no sea at all. Its highland lakes are for boating and fishing rather than swimming, so in summer the water you will use is a hot spring or a hotel pool.

Food is one of Nagoya's real strengths. Its dark-miso regional cooking runs from eel served three ways to misonikomi udon simmered in a clay pot, and each dish has its own specialist restaurants. Add the morning-service breakfasts, the department-store food halls and the street snacks of Osu, and you can eat something different at every meal.

Nikko's list is short and gentle: yuba, mountain soba, grilled river fish and yokan. Most kitchens serve day visitors at lunch, so the best dinner is usually the multi-course meal at your ryokan.

Nikko has the more memorable sight. The shrines and temples are a UNESCO-listed ensemble in a forest of giant cedars. Toshogu's lacquer and gold carvings, the Yomeimon gate and the gilded hall of Rinnoji survive from the Edo period rather than being postwar rebuilds, and they stand together within a short walk.

Nagoya's history is scattered across a modern grid after the 1945 bombing. Its reconstructed castle and the forest shrine of Atsuta sit apart from each other. In return it has a wider range of museums, from the Tokugawa samurai treasures to the Toyota and railway museums. These suit visitors curious about how modern Japan was built.

Nagoya has a night out to offer, even if it is a modest one by Japanese standards. Sakae and Nishiki pack tiny bars, izakaya, karaoke and a few dance clubs into narrow buildings, and some stay open until morning at weekends.

Nikko goes dark soon after the day-trip crowds leave. An evening there means a long dinner at the inn and a soak, with a hotel lounge in Kinugawa as the only real alternative.

Nikko is the stronger choice by a distance, since it is the gateway to a national park. Within a bus ride you have the volcanic cone of Mount Nantai, Kegon Falls dropping from Lake Chuzenji, and the level boardwalks of the Senjogahara marsh. There is rafting in the Kinugawa gorge and snow and frozen waterfalls in winter.

Nagoya sits on a flat, built-up plain. Inside the city, nature means Higashiyama park and the Tokugawaen and Shirotori gardens. The Suzuka Mountains, the maples of Korankei and the Nakasendo walking road in the Kiso Valley are rewarding but take at least an hour to reach.

Nagoya is one of the best-placed bases in Japan. Kyoto is about 35 minutes away by shinkansen, Osaka is under an hour, and Ise Jingu is an easy rail trip. Closer still are the original castle keeps at Inuyama and Hikone, the shibori street at Arimatsu and the pottery towns of Seto and Tokoname.

From Nikko the main outing is Tokyo, which needs a long day. Utsunomiya's gyoza, the kilns of Mashiko and the thatched post town of Ouchi-juku are all within reach. Beyond them, most nearby destinations are lakes and mountains rather than towns.

Nagoya is much better equipped for children. Its large port aquarium with orcas and belugas, the huge Higashiyama Zoo, the planetarium, the bullet trains at the railway museum, Legoland and Ghibli Park could fill a week. The one catch is that they are spread around the city.

Nikko is safe and easy-going but has less for young children. Its main draws are the Edo-period theme village and the miniature landmarks park at Kinugawa, plus the lake boats and boardwalks. The long staircases at the shrines are hard work with a pushchair, so two or three days is about right.

In Nagoya the subway and rail lines share one IC card, and Nagoya Station makes regional trips straightforward. The wide postwar avenues are easy to find your way along, though not always pleasant to walk.

Nikko is simpler but slower. One road runs about 2km uphill from the station to the shrines. The lakes and falls depend on buses up the Irohazaka road, which can crawl for hours on autumn foliage weekends.

Nagoya is a real shopping city. It has large department stores around Sakae and above the station, luxury avenues between them, and the arcades of Osu, where secondhand clothes, anime and a temple flea market sit side by side. Craft buyers can also find shibori and porcelain.

Nikko has one street of souvenir and food shops. It is worth a look for Nikko-bori carved trays and straw-soled geta sandals, and for little else.

Overall costs are similar in the two places, but the money goes on different things. In Nagoya, business hotels keep rooms moderate and set lunches are good value. The spending comes from eel dinners, shinkansen day trips and theme parks.

In Nikko, soba, buses and shrine entry are cheap and there are plenty of hostels. The classic ryokan stay with dinner is the big cost, and autumn and the lake area are the dearest times and places to stay.

Nagoya has a proper programme. Kabuki at the Misono-za, Noh near the castle, the Nagoya Philharmonic and opera at the Aichi Arts Center are all there, though much of it is aimed at Japanese speakers.

Nikko has no theatre or concert life. The exception is the Toshogu festival in spring and autumn, when a procession of armoured samurai and horseback archery is worth timing a visit around.

In Nagoya a bath is something you fit around a city day. You might stop at a neighbourhood bathhouse on the way back to the hotel, or spend an afternoon at the big Nagashima complex. For a night at a traditional inn you have to leave the city for Gero, two hours into the mountains. Otherwise, the calmest places are the pond gardens of Tokugawaen and Shirotori, an hour's pause from wide roads and office blocks.

In Nikko the hot spring is the point of the stay. The riverside inns of Kinugawa and the remote lakeside baths at Yumoto are within the area, so a morning on the shrine paths can end in an afternoon soak with no long journey in between. Come on a weekday or in winter and the whole place is quiet, not just a few garden corners.