Singapore or Dubai?

Dubai is the real beach destination of the two. Jumeirah, Kite Beach, JBR and Umm Suqeim give long public stretches of pale sand on calm, clear Gulf water, and the resort hotels on Palm Jumeirah make the private beach the centre of the stay. The catch is summer, when the sand gets too hot by mid-morning.

Singapore's sea is warm all year, but its beaches are engineered strips on Sentosa, with murky water and a horizon full of anchored ships. The sheltered lagoons of St John's and Lazarus are pleasant for a swim, yet most visitors end up in the hotel pool.

Both cities feed you through their immigrant populations, but Singapore makes eating the point of the trip. Its hawker centres at Maxwell, Lau Pa Sat, Tekka and Old Airport Road serve chicken rice, laksa, chilli crab and satay that grew out of the city itself, and kaya toast at a kopitiam is part of the daily routine.

Dubai's best cheap eating is the Keralan, Pakistani and Iranian food of Deira, Karama and Satwa, with celebrity-chef rooms and the Friday brunch at the top end. Its own Emirati cooking is hard to find, and because alcohol stays inside licensed hotels, wine plays little part in meals.

Singapore has much more to see. The Civic District gathers the National Gallery, with its unmatched Southeast Asian collection, the Asian Civilisations Museum and the Peranakan Museum. Chinatown, Little India and Kampong Glam each have their own temples, mosques and shophouse streets, and the Botanic Gardens are a UNESCO site.

Dubai's appeal is modern spectacle, from the Burj Khalifa to the Museum of the Future. Its older layer is the wind-tower houses of Al Fahidi, the Al Shindagha area and the abra ride to the Deira souks, and once you add the Jumeirah Mosque and the Etihad Museum, the list is nearly done.

Neither city does a loose, street-level night out, but Dubai's scene is bigger and runs later. It has DJ clubs with international names, beach clubs on Palm Jumeirah that carry on past sunset, and the weekend brunch that turns into an evening, all inside hotels and licensed venues with dress codes.

Singapore's strength is the bar rather than the club. The cocktail bars in the shophouses of Keong Saik and Telok Ayer, the rooftops above Marina Bay and the more casual crowd around Haji Lane suit a well-made drink, while the clubs along Clarke Quay are few.

Singapore has more green within reach. It has real rainforest at Bukit Timah and MacRitchie with macaques along the trails, raised walkways across the Southern Ridges, birds at Sungei Buloh and a bicycle ride among the mangroves of Pulau Ubin, all within the city.

Dubai's outdoors is desert. There are dune drives and nights in camp at Al Marmoom and Lahbab, kitesurfing and paddleboarding on the coast, and the Hajar mountains around Hatta are the only change of landscape. In summer it all shrinks to the hours around dawn.

Dubai has the better trips out. Abu Dhabi's Grand Mosque and Louvre are an easy drive down the coast, Sharjah next door has its heritage quarter and Museum of Islamic Civilization, and Al Ain has UNESCO oases and mud-brick forts.

Singapore, as an island, has little beyond its border. Johor Bahru is across the causeway but the queues can take much of the day, Bintan and Batam are resort islands, and Malacca really needs a night. Most visitors simply fly on.

Both are safe, child-friendly cities with big-ticket attractions, and Singapore has a slight edge. Its Mandai parks, with the zoo, Night Safari, bird park and pandas, offer something Dubai has no answer to, and Universal Studios on Sentosa and the water play at Gardens by the Bay add more.

Dubai's offer is theme parks, water parks and the Dubai Mall aquarium, and the Mall of the Emirates has indoor snow. Its calm, shallow sea suits toddlers better than Singapore's beaches do. Getting between attractions, though, nearly always means a taxi.

Singapore is one of the simplest cities anywhere to get around. The MRT reaches almost every place a visitor wants to go, you pay with a tap of a bank card, and covered walkways take the edge off the heat.

Dubai has a driverless metro too, but it follows Sheikh Zayed Road through a city laid out for cars. The Palm, the beaches and the theme parks lie well away from the stations, the wide roads are hard to cross, and taxis fill the gaps. Only the Marina promenade, Al Fahidi and Downtown's boulevard are pleasant on foot.

Dubai has the bigger and deeper shopping of the two, and for many visitors it is a reason to go. The Dubai Mall and the Mall of the Emirates hold whole wings of designer flagships, and the jewellery and watch trade is especially strong. In Deira, the Gold Souk sells jewellery by weight and the spice and perfume souks offer saffron, frankincense and oud, a kind of traditional market Singapore cannot match.

Singapore's malls along Orchard Road are huge too, but they are much alike, so its edge is at street level. Dubai has little outside Alserkal Avenue to match Haji Lane's boutiques or the bookshops and design stores in Tiong Bahru's Art Deco blocks, and Peranakan beadwork and porcelain make more distinctive souvenirs.

Dubai gives a budget traveller more room to manoeuvre, because its hotel rates fall sharply in the hot summer months. Singapore's rooms are among the dearest in Asia all year and stay the largest part of the bill. Alcohol and the big attractions cost a lot in either city, Dubai's drinks and Singapore's wildlife parks and Sentosa in particular.

The savings come from the same two places, food and transport. In Dubai that means the South Asian and Arab eateries of Deira and Karama, the metro and the abras. In Singapore it means the hawker stalls, the MRT and buses, and free mornings in the parks and gardens.

Singapore has more on stage. The Esplanade has a concert hall, a theatre and free shows by the bay, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra plays a regular season, and Chinese opera and Indian dance appear at temple festivals.

Dubai relies on visiting productions. Touring ballet, opera and musicals come to Dubai Opera in the cooler months and big pop tours play the arena, but with no resident orchestra or company there is little to stumble on by chance.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, so in both, rest means a spa. Dubai's resort spas on Palm Jumeirah and the Jumeirah coast are larger, with hammam rituals and hydrotherapy floors, and the desert retreats inland offer the kind of silence Singapore cannot match.

Singapore's version is more everyday, with foot reflexology and Chinese medicine clinics in Chinatown and Ayurveda in Little India. For quiet, there are the morning paths of the Botanic Gardens and the shade around the reservoirs.