Port Douglas or Ubud?

Port Douglas has a real beach on the doorstep. Four Mile Beach curves south from town, palm-backed and firm underfoot, and from June to October it is an easy place to swim. From November to May you swim inside the netted enclosure or in a stinger suit. The water is often milky rather than clear, and crocodiles rule out the creeks.

Ubud is inland, so a beach day means the best part of an hour in a car to Sanur's calm, reef-sheltered water or to the black sand of Keramas and Saba, which is better for watching surfers. Most people swim in a villa pool looking out over the paddies instead.

Ubud gives you more to discover at the table. Its best food is Balinese: babi guling at lunchtime counters, bebek betutu slow-cooked in spice paste, and nasi campur in family warungs a lane or two away from the main street. On top of that come raw-food cafés, Kintamani coffee and a few tasting menus built on island produce.

Port Douglas does a long outdoor seafood dinner well, with reef fish, prawns and mud crab around Macrossan Street and the marina, and good tropical fruit for breakfast. The choice narrows after a week, though, and nothing on the menu is particular to the place.

In Ubud you see culture every day. Offerings sit on doorsteps, processions pass on feast days, and the old royal palace of Puri Saren stands beside the lotus pond of Pura Taman Saraswati. Puri Lukisan, Neka and ARMA trace Balinese painting since the 1930s, and the eleventh-century Elephant Cave, Goa Gajah, is on the edge of town.

Port Douglas has two small buildings worth a look, the old Court House and the timber chapel of St Mary's by the Sea, and both take minutes. Its most rewarding cultural experience is a Kuku Yalanji-guided walk at Mossman Gorge.

Both towns are early to bed, and neither has clubs. Port Douglas evenings are Australian pub evenings, with a cover band on a Macrossan Street terrace and a cheerful crowd, and Cairns is an hour away for anything later. Ubud's evenings are quieter still, with garden bars and a couple of music bars, and a much longer drive to Seminyak or Canggu to go out properly.

Port Douglas has the bigger natural setting. Boats run daily to the outer ribbon reefs for coral walls, turtles and reef sharks, with dwarf minke whales passing in midwinter, and Low Isles makes a gentler reef day. On land, Mossman Gorge and the Daintree reach Cape Tribulation, where the rainforest comes down to the sea.

Ubud's nature is on land and mostly on foot: the Campuhan Ridge path, the terraces of Tegallalang, rafting on the Ayung, jungle waterfalls, and a climb of Mount Batur in the dark for sunrise. It is gentler and closer to hand, but it has nothing like the reef.

Ubud is much the better base for day trips. Tirta Empul's holy spring and the cliff-cut tombs of Gunung Kawi are close, and Besakih, Klungkung's painted pavilions, Tanah Lot, Pura Ulun Danu Bratan and the Jatiluwih terraces are each a day out with a driver. The slow roads decide how many fit into one day.

From Port Douglas, most outings go to reef and rainforest rather than to other towns. Cairns is an hour down the coast, Kuranda is reached by the old mountain railway and cable car, and the crater lakes of the Atherton Tablelands fill a day. After those, the list runs short.

Port Douglas is the easier choice with young children. The town is small and safe, the Wildlife Habitat puts koalas and cassowaries within reach, Low Isles offers snorkelling straight from the sand, and glass-bottom boats show coral to children who cannot swim yet. The limits are the summer stinger nets, crocodile warnings and long boat rides out to the outer reef.

Ubud welcomes children warmly, and villa pools, dance shows and gentle rafting go down well. Even so, missing pavements, scooter traffic and bag-grabbing macaques make it better suited to older, outdoorsy children than to toddlers.

Port Douglas is simpler to get around. Macrossan Street, the marina and the north end of the beach are a flat walk from each other, bicycles cover the resort strip, and tours collect you from your hotel. You only need a car for the Daintree or the Tablelands, and the airport transfer from Cairns takes about an hour.

Ubud is hard work on foot. Pavements are broken, the main streets fill with scooters, and the roads climb steeply in and out of the river valleys, with no public transport to fall back on. Days are planned around a driver or ride-hailing, so stay central if you want to walk to dinner.

Shopping in Port Douglas is an evening stroll along Macrossan Street and the marina, past resort-wear boutiques, South Sea pearl jewellery and a few galleries of Aboriginal art. On Sundays there is also the market in Anzac Park under the trees. The selection is small, and for anything more you go to Cairns.

In Ubud, things made by hand give you far more to take home. Haggling is expected at the Art Market opposite the palace. Each craft village on the road from the south has its own trade: woodcarving in Mas, silver in Celuk and painting in Batuan. Jalan Hanoman adds linen clothes and natural cosmetics, though you won't find fashion or luxury shopping.

Ubud costs far less. Garden rooms in family homestays, warung meals, massages and a driver for the day all come cheap. Spending there is a choice, since the jungle resorts and tasting menus charge close to European prices.

In Port Douglas, high costs are hard to avoid. Most beds are in upmarket resorts and apartments, and the reef and rainforest trips that bring you there are all paid excursions. Self-catering, takeaway seafood on the beach and wet-season rates help a little.

Ubud has a performance most evenings: Legong, the Barong drama or the chanting circle of the Kecak, danced to live gamelan in the palace courtyard or on the lotus-pond stage at Saraswati by village troupes with long traditions. A temple festival, if you chance on one, shows the same dances in their own setting.

Port Douglas has no stage at all. Live music means an acoustic set or cover band at a pub, plus the outdoor music and parades of its yearly autumn carnival.

Ubud is built around wellness. Yoga runs from dawn to dusk in open pavilions, retreats last from a weekend to several weeks, and Balinese massage, flower baths and traditional healers are part of local life, with riverside spas above the Ayung and Petanu gorges and quiet paddies a few steps from the main road.

Port Douglas relaxes you through its pace and its setting: lagoon pools under palms, resort day spas using native botanicals and a few yoga classes. It is restful, but it has no healing or bathing tradition of its own.