Perth or Singapore?

Perth has the real beaches. A nearly unbroken line of pale sand runs north from Cottesloe through City Beach, Scarborough and Trigg, the water is very clear and the main stretches are patrolled. The catch is the afternoon sea breeze, so mornings are the time to swim, and few people go in during winter.

Singapore's sea is much warmer, but its beaches are man-made strips on Sentosa, calm and safe with cloudy water and tankers at anchor offshore. Most visitors swim in a hotel pool instead, or take a ferry to the Southern Islands for a quieter lagoon.

Singapore is a place to travel for food in a way Perth is not. Its hawker centres put Chinese, Malay, Indian and Peranakan cooking side by side, at stalls that each perfect one or two dishes. You can eat late into the night in Little India and Kampong Glam, and there is serious fine dining as well.

Perth's strength is its produce more than a cuisine: rock lobster, Shark Bay prawns and marron, wine from the surrounding regions, Swan Valley cellar doors and fish and chips on Fremantle's harbour. Its restaurants are scattered across the suburbs and close early, and the Asian food courts of Northbridge are the closest it comes to Singapore's casual eating.

Neither city has deep history, but Singapore fits more into a small area. The Civic District holds the National Gallery with its Southeast Asian collection, alongside the Asian Civilisations, National and Peranakan museums. The shophouses and temples of Chinatown, Little India and Kampong Glam give each quarter its own character.

Perth's centre is mostly glass towers, and its main stops are the WA Museum Boola Bardip and the Indigenous collection at the Art Gallery. Its most evocative history lies in Fremantle, where the limestone port town and the old prison are well worth the train ride.

Singapore is the better night out of the two. In Perth, going out is casual and follows the seasons. Northbridge has the clubs, late bars and late-night food, Fremantle has pubs and breweries along South Terrace, and summer brings beer gardens and long evenings outdoors. Outside Northbridge, most places are quiet by midnight.

Singapore has more bars, and better ones. There is an accomplished cocktail scene in the shophouses of Chinatown, Keong Saik and Telok Ayer, rooftop terraces above Marina Bay, and riverside bars and the main clubs at Clarke Quay. The club scene is small and the mood orderly, so it is no city for staying out until dawn either, and drinks are costly in both.

Perth has far more room for the outdoors. Kings Park's bushland sits above a broad river made for paddling, sailing and cycling. Rottnest has quokkas and limestone headlands, whales pass the coast in spring, and the Perth Hills lead into jarrah forest and the Bibbulmun Track.

Singapore's green spaces include real rainforest at Bukit Timah and around MacRitchie, as well as the raised walkways of the Southern Ridges, the wetlands of Sungei Buloh and bicycle rides on Pulau Ubin. They are rewarding but few, and the humidity limits walking to early mornings.

Perth has more places to go for a day, though they are far apart. Rottnest by ferry, the Swan Valley wineries, Mandurah by train, the old wheatbelt town of York and the monastery at New Norcia all make good outings. Margaret River is better as an overnight stay.

From Singapore the options run out quickly at the border. Johor Bahru is across the causeway but the queues can be slow, and Bintan and Batam are resort islands a ferry ride away. Malacca needs a night, and most travellers move on by plane.

Both cities are safe and easy with children, but Singapore has the bigger set of attractions. The Mandai parks with the Night Safari and the pandas, Universal Studios and the aquarium on Sentosa, and the water play at Gardens by the Bay can fill several days. All of them are reached by air-conditioned trains.

Perth's appeal is simpler and more outdoor: the zoo across the river, patrolled beaches, calm river shallows, free playgrounds and barbecues, and a day cycling Rottnest to look for quokkas. The distances often call for a car, and in both cities the heat shapes the day.

In Singapore nobody needs a car. The MRT reaches almost every sight from the airport onwards, you pay by tapping a bank card, and taxis cost little for short hops. The only real obstacle is the midday heat.

Perth's flat centre is pleasant on foot, and free CBD buses and trains to Fremantle and Cottesloe cover the basics. But the city sprawls, services thin out in the evenings and at weekends, and the hills and wineries really need a car.

Singapore treats shopping as a pastime. Orchard Road is a long run of malls, Marina Bay Sands has designer flagships, and Haji Lane and Tiong Bahru have smaller independent shops. Little India and Chinatown add gold, saris and spices.

Perth has its central pedestrian malls, a short luxury stretch on King Street and the boutiques of Claremont, and its best buys are local: South Sea pearls and Aboriginal art. Fremantle Markets have more character than Singapore's look-alike malls, but the overall range is narrow.

The real difference between these two expensive cities is where the money goes. In Perth, rooms, restaurant meals and the Rottnest ferry all weigh on the budget. The beaches, Kings Park, the CBD buses and the main museums are free, and the Northbridge food courts and park barbecues help keep meals cheaper.

In Singapore the hotel room takes the biggest share, and the wildlife parks and Sentosa charge high entry fees. Hawker meals and the MRT cost little, though. Alcohol is heavily taxed in both, so bar bills run high either way.

Perth's stage year peaks in late summer. The Perth Festival brings international theatre, music and outdoor cinema, and its fringe fills the parks with tents. For the rest of the year the state opera, ballet and symphony orchestra carry the programme, the first two at the Edwardian His Majesty's Theatre, and there are bands in the pubs of Fremantle and Northbridge.

Singapore's programme runs more evenly through the year and centres on the Esplanade by the bay, where free outdoor performances make an easy evening. Touring musicals play at Marina Bay Sands, and Chinese opera and Indian classical dance appear around temple festivals. A good evening is easy to find in either city, though few visitors travel for it.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, so the difference lies in the setting. Singapore offers more kinds of treatment, from hotel spas with skyline pools to reflexology, Chinese medicine and Ayurveda in Little India, but the city itself moves fast. Perth's spas are fairly ordinary, yet the city is slow and uncrowded, with early mornings, quiet evenings and long walks by the river and in Kings Park.