Queenstown or Sydney?

Queenstown has a lakeshore rather than a beach. Lake Wakatipu stays so cold that a swim means a quick plunge off the town jetty or from the shingle on Queenstown Bay. Lake Hayes and Moke Lake are warmer in January and February, but sunbathing here is a summer extra, not a reason to go.

Sydney is one of the world's great beach cities. Ocean beaches run from Bondi to Coogee, Manly and the Northern Beaches are a ferry ride away, and harbour coves such as Balmoral and Camp Cove have calmer water. The sea stays warm into autumn, so you can fit a beach day into almost any week of a summer stay.

Queenstown has more places to eat than its size suggests: burger counters, pie shops and lodge-style restaurants serving lamb and venison. Its real strength is Central Otago pinot noir, poured at the cellar doors of Gibbston Valley. Beyond that the choice is narrow.

Sydney offers far more. There are oysters and prawns from the harbour and the Pyrmont fish market, Vietnamese food in Cabramatta, Lebanese in Lakemba, Indian in Harris Park, and serious fine dining in Surry Hills and Potts Point. Neither place has a cuisine of its own and both are dear, but Sydney can keep a keen eater interested for days.

Queenstown has few sights. There is the 1912 steamship TSS Earnslaw, a handful of stone buildings from the gold rush and the view from the gondola, and Arrowtown tells the gold-rush history better.

Sydney has two world-famous landmarks in the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. It also has the colonial streets of The Rocks, the convict-era Hyde Park Barracks and the Art Gallery of New South Wales with its Aboriginal collection. It has no dense old centre, but it fills a few days of sightseeing where Queenstown fills a morning.

Queenstown goes out a lot for a small town. Seasonal workers and skiers fill the pubs and DJ bars around Shotover and Camp streets, especially on winter Saturdays, but a couple of nights covers it. Sydney has more range: laneway cocktail bars in the CBD, the harbourside pubs of The Rocks, the LGBTQ scene on Oxford Street and the more alternative inner west around Newtown and Enmore.

Neither is a club city. Sydney's advantage is the choice of districts, each with its own kind of evening.

Both have superb outdoors, but Queenstown is built around it. Lake Wakatipu and the Remarkables are at the end of the street, the Routeburn Track and Mount Aspiring National Park lie up the Glenorchy road, and bungy, jet boating, paragliding and several ski fields are close at hand. That makes it the better base for mountains and adrenaline.

Sydney's outdoors is coastal. It has clifftop walks from Bondi to Coogee, sea trails and waterfalls in the Royal National Park, surfing, kayaking on the harbour and humpback whales passing in winter and spring. The Blue Mountains are two hours west, but nothing near the city matches Queenstown's alpine scenery.

Both have a short list of outings, and wine country features in both. From Queenstown the drives are short: Arrowtown is twenty minutes away, Wanaka about an hour, and Gibbston and Cromwell make easy vineyard days. Milford Sound is the exception, a very long day there and back.

From Sydney the drives are longer, to the cellar doors of the Hunter Valley, Katoomba and Leura in the Blue Mountains, and Bowral in the Southern Highlands. Trains cover Newcastle and Wollongong. Queenstown's places are nearer but mostly mean driving beyond Arrowtown.

Queenstown suits outdoor families. There is the gondola and luge, kiwi at the wildlife park, jet boats, the old steamer on the lake and good ski schools in winter. But children soon hit the age and weight limits on the town's famous thrills, and long drives tire young ones.

Sydney has more to fill the days. Taronga Zoo is reached by ferry, Darling Harbour has the aquarium and real ships to board, and there are dinosaurs at the Australian Museum, rides at Luna Park and netted harbour beaches for safe swimming. The strong summer sun is the main thing to plan around.

You can cross central Queenstown on foot in minutes, and buses reach Frankton and Arrowtown. The wineries, trailheads, Glenorchy and Wanaka really need a car, though, and mountain roads in winter can call for chains.

Sydney has a full network of trains, metro, light rail, buses and ferries on one card, and the ferries from Circular Quay double as sightseeing. The city sprawls and the beaches mean a bus ride, but a visitor staying near the harbour can manage without driving.

In Queenstown, shopping means outdoor gear, merino and possum-wool knitwear and greenstone jewellery. That is useful before a hike but not a reason to visit.

Sydney has proper shopping streets around Pitt Street Mall, the Victorian arcades of the Queen Victoria Building and the Strand, boutiques in Paddington and weekend markets at Glebe and The Rocks. Australian swimwear is its speciality.

Both are expensive, and neither suits a tight budget. In Queenstown the cost builds up through the activities you come for: bungy jumps, jet boats, scenic flights and lift passes on top of resort-priced rooms.

In Sydney most of the money goes on rooms and eating out, while many of the best things are free: the beaches, the coastal walks, the parks and the main galleries. Asian food courts and capped transport fares help keep daily spending down.

Queenstown offers little beyond covers bands in pubs, the odd touring act at the events centre and a few days of street performance during the winter festival.

Sydney is a real arts city. Opera Australia and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra play at the Opera House, Sydney Theatre Company and Belvoir stage drama, and Bangarra performs Aboriginal dance. Musicals run in the theatres on George Street, and the Sydney Festival fills January.

In Queenstown, unwinding means a cedar hot tub on a hillside above the Shotover River or a lodge spa after a day of skiing. For real quiet you go out to Arrowtown or Glenorchy rather than stay in the busy centre.

Sydney has a bathing habit of its own in its ocean pools, from Bondi to the old-fashioned Wylie's Baths and McIver's Ladies Baths in Coogee, and it also has day spas and Korean-style bathhouses. An early swim in a rock pool followed by a long breakfast makes it the more restful of the two.