Rovaniemi or Turku?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Turku at least has a real beach. Saaronniemi on Ruissalo is a shallow, sandy Baltic beach a short bus ride from the centre, and in the archipelago you can swim off granite rocks and jetties for a few weeks in high summer.

In Rovaniemi, swimming means a quick dip in July from a river shore on the Kemijoki or Ounasjoki, or in a forest lake. For most of the year the water is frozen, and the usual way in is through a hole in the ice after a sauna.

Turku gives food lovers more to do. The 1896 market hall has wooden stalls of smoked fish, cheese and pastries. Add the summer market square and the terraces and moored boats along the Aura, and eating becomes part of the day, built around archipelago fish, herring and dark sweet bread.

Rovaniemi's food is more limited but more distinctive: sautéed reindeer with lingonberries, Arctic char, cloudberries and squeaky baked cheese, often eaten in a log cabin or Lappish tent as part of a tour. Beyond a few careful restaurants, though, the choice is mostly hotel dining and pizza.

Turku still has the history that Rovaniemi lost. Finland's oldest city and former capital has a cathedral consecrated around 1300, a castle at the river mouth and Luostarinmäki, the wooden district that survived the fire. Add a run of museums from Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova to Forum Marinum, and there is enough for two days.

Rovaniemi was burned in 1944, so what it offers is modern. Alvar Aalto designed its library, city hall and Lappia Hall, and Arktikum is the best place in either city to learn about Arctic nature and the Sámi. With Korundi and Pilke added, there is about a day of sightseeing.

An evening in Rovaniemi usually ends early or happens outside town. Apart from a short burst in the centre on term-time Fridays and Saturdays, there is little to stay up for, and on a winter trip you are more likely to spend the night on a frozen lake waiting for the aurora than at a bar.

Turku has a real university-town weekend, with enough pubs and clubs within a few streets to move between them and bars that keep going well past midnight. Its best season is the opposite of Rovaniemi's: on light summer nights the drinking moves outdoors along the Aura, while a dark midweek evening in winter is almost as quiet as Lapland. It is good for a night out, but not for a trip built around going out.

Nature is where Rovaniemi pulls ahead. It sits in snow-covered taiga on the Arctic Circle, with husky and reindeer sledding, cross-country skiing on Ounasvaara and the northern lights, a winter season Turku cannot match. In summer the light never fully fades, and the Korouoma canyon and the fells of Pyhä-Luosto offer hiking and canoeing.

Turku's outdoors is about the water and mostly runs from May to September. You can kayak, sail or hop between islands in the Archipelago Sea, cycle the Archipelago Trail by bike and ferry, and walk in Ruissalo's oak woods. The land is flat and gentle, and in winter there is little to do outside.

Turku makes a useful base and Rovaniemi does not. From Turku, the wooden spa town of Naantali is twenty minutes away, the UNESCO-listed painted houses of Old Rauma make an easy outing, and Helsinki or Tampere are a long but workable day by train.

From Rovaniemi, the nearest towns are Kemi, Tornio and Haparanda across the Swedish border, and they are ordinary places. The real outings are activities in the forest around the town, not trips to other towns.

Both cities work well with children, but in different seasons. Rovaniemi has the edge thanks to one big draw: Santa Claus Village on the Arctic Circle, with Santa's office and post office. Husky rides, sledging and the polar bears at the Ranua zoo add to it, though the December dark and cold mean short outings and proper clothing.

Turku is a summer choice for families. Moomin World is at Naantali, Forum Marinum has ships to climb aboard, Kurala Kylämäki has farm animals and Ruissalo has a shallow beach. The city is calm and easy to manage with a pushchair.

Turku is much easier to explore on your own. Its flat centre along the Aura puts the cathedral, market hall and most museums within walking distance, the free Föri ferry crosses the river, and a single bus network reaches Ruissalo and Naantali.

Rovaniemi's centre is also walkable but much smaller. Santa Claus Village is a bus ride away, but beyond that you rely on tour operators collecting you from your hotel, or on a hired car. In winter the icy pavements make good boots essential.

If you want something made in Lapland, buy it in Rovaniemi. That means Sámi silver, a traditional knife or a birch-wood cup, plus the warm boots and layers the trip itself may call for. Beyond crafts, outdoor gear and Christmas trinkets, there is little to browse.

Turku is the better place for an afternoon of browsing, though the choice is still that of a regional city, with no luxury street. Go there for Finnish glass, ceramics and textiles, handmade woollens from the old craft workshops at Luostarinmäki, and food to take home from the market hall. Neither city is worth choosing for its shops.

Both have Nordic prices, but Rovaniemi is clearly the more expensive trip. The things people come for, such as husky safaris, snowmobile rides and aurora tours, are all guided and priced to match, and rooms are hard to find around Christmas. Visiting in summer and staying in a self-catering cabin help.

In Turku the main expense is dinner and drinks. The weekday lunch buffet, the walkable centre, the free ferry and food from the market hall keep the cost of a stay manageable.

Turku has a proper programme, while in Rovaniemi a performance is something you come across by luck. Turku has Finland's oldest orchestra, the Turku Philharmonic, and the country's oldest working theatre building, the 1839 Swedish theatre on the market square. In summer it adds the Turku Music Festival in the cathedral and castle and Ruisrock on Ruissalo.

In Rovaniemi the highlight is the Lapland Chamber Orchestra, the world's northernmost professional orchestra, which plays in the Korundi building. The regional theatre in Lappia Hall performs almost entirely in Finnish.

The sauna is central in both cities, but the setting differs. In Rovaniemi it means a wood-heated or smoke sauna in a lakeside cabin or your own lodge, with a cool-down in the open air or a plunge through the ice. The surroundings are quiet, under the winter twilight or the summer light.

Turku is more of a city and has more spas. There are public saunas by the water and in swimming halls, Naantali has a long spa tradition and Ruissalo has a spa by the sea, so it suits anyone who wants some pampering as well as the sauna.