Tokyo or Dubai?

Dubai's coast is one long stretch of pale sand on shallow, clear Gulf water, from Jumeirah and Kite Beach to the JBR strip below the Marina towers. Many visitors never leave their resort on Palm Jumeirah, whose private beach is the reason for the stay. In winter the sea is just right, and in summer swimming moves to the cooler ends of the day.

Tokyo's own shoreline is port and reclaimed land, so a proper swim means an hour's train ride to the dark volcanic sand of Kamakura, Zushi or Enoshima. The bathing season covers only July and August, and summer weekends are crowded. It makes a nice afternoon out, while in Dubai the beach can be the whole trip.

Dubai eats well through its residents: Keralan fish curry, Pakistani karahi and Iranian kebabs in the canteens of Deira and Karama, and celebrity-chef rooms and the long Friday brunch in the hotels. Emirati cooking is hard to find, and alcohol is confined to licensed venues.

Tokyo works on another scale. Specialists that have made one dish for decades, sushi and kaiseki counters, the depachika food halls and the yakitori alleys under the Yurakucho tracks give endless choice. Sake bars, whisky and careful coffee make drinking as much a pleasure as eating, and you can eat superbly without booking or spending much.

Dubai's sights are mostly modern: the Burj Khalifa, the Museum of the Future and the skyline at dusk. The older trading port survives along the Creek in the wind-tower houses of Al Fahidi, Al Shindagha and the abra ride to the Deira souks, and two or three days covers it all.

Tokyo lost most of its old fabric in 1923 and 1945, yet Senso-ji, the forested Meiji Jingu, the Imperial Palace moats and the lanes of Yanaka still give plenty to see. The museums are the real draw, with the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno holding the largest collection of Japanese art anywhere, so a culture-minded visitor can fill a week or more.

Dubai's nights take place indoors and by licence: rooftop bars above Sheikh Zayed Road, DJ clubs, beach clubs on the Palm and dress-code lounges in DIFC. It is glossy and late, but drinks are very expensive and there is no casual bar street.

Tokyo offers far more range. The tiny bars of Golden Gai and the stacked whisky and vinyl bars feel personal, izakaya crowd the lanes around every station, and the clubs of Shibuya and Roppongi run until the first morning train. You can drift from bar to bar on foot, which Dubai's hotel-bound scene never allows.

Around Dubai the outdoors is desert. The red dunes of Al Marmoom and Lahbab offer dune drives and nights under the stars, and Hatta's hills add kayaking and short hikes. For much of the year the heat rules out anything after early morning.

Tokyo's rail lines reach genuine mountain country: forest trails on Mount Takao, the gorges and cedar ridges of Okutama, and the Fuji views of Hakone and the Fuji Five Lakes. In the city, Shinjuku Gyoen and Yoyogi Park come into their own in cherry-blossom season and in November colour.

From Dubai there are three good outings. Abu Dhabi has the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque and the Louvre Abu Dhabi, Sharjah next door has its heritage quarter and Islamic museum, and Al Ain has its oases and forts. Beyond those, the surroundings are mostly desert and road.

Tokyo is one of the best bases in Asia. Kamakura's Great Buddha and Zen temples, Nikko's Toshogu shrine, Yokohama's harbour, the merchant houses of Kawagoe and the hot springs of Hakone are all easy train rides, so you could spend a different day out for a week.

Both cities are excellent with children, but Tokyo is the easier of the two. Dubai's strengths are its attractions: Legoland, water parks on the Palm, the Dubai Mall aquarium, indoor snow, and a calm shallow sea with kids' clubs at the resorts. Summer heat and taxi rides between everything are the drawbacks.

Tokyo has Disneyland and DisneySea, the Ghibli Museum and the Miraikan science museum, and it adds a daily ease Dubai cannot: safe streets you can walk, lifts and baby rooms in stations, and spotless toilets everywhere. Its weak points are crowded rush-hour trains and the August heat.

Dubai stretches some 50km along the coast and was built for cars. The driverless metro is comfortable along Sheikh Zayed Road and around the Creek, but the beaches, the Palm and the theme parks usually mean a taxi, and the heat makes walking between stations hard work.

Tokyo has the densest rail network in the world, trains that run to the minute and one card that pays for them all. Almost every sight is a short walk from a station, and walking between neighbourhoods such as Shibuya and Harajuku is a pleasure in itself. The one gap is after midnight, when the trains stop.

Dubai shops indoors and on a grand scale. The Dubai Mall and the Mall of the Emirates put nearly every luxury and high-street brand under one air-conditioned roof, and the watch and jewellery trade runs especially deep. In Deira the Gold Souk sells jewellery by weight, while the spice and perfume souks nearby deal in saffron, frankincense and oud. Outside the malls and souks, though, there is almost no independent shopping at street level.

Tokyo matches that luxury with Ginza's great department stores and the flagships of Omotesando, then adds what Dubai lacks: vintage and independent labels in Harajuku's backstreets and Shimokitazawa, kitchen knives along Kappabashi, books in Jimbocho, and lacquer, ceramics and washi paper of real quality. For anyone who likes to browse street by street, it is the better city by some distance.

Neither is cheap, but Tokyo is gentler on the wallet. In Dubai the winter resorts, the observation decks, the theme parks and above all the alcohol cost a lot. Savings come from the South Asian canteens of Karama and Deira, the metro, and lower hotel rates in summer.

In Tokyo, food is the great bargain, from ramen and set lunches to convenience-store meals, and many temples and gardens cost little or nothing. Small central rooms take most of the budget, especially in cherry-blossom season and Golden Week.

Dubai's stage is mostly imported. The dhow-shaped Dubai Opera hosts touring ballet, musicals and orchestras, and arena tours come through in the cooler months. Without a resident company or theatre district, you plan around a booked show rather than stumble on one.

Tokyo has a deep homegrown stage. Single-act kabuki tickets at the Kabuki-za, noh theatres, the Takarazuka Revue, the NHK Symphony in halls like Suntory Hall, and live houses in Koenji and Shimokitazawa every night mean there is always something on. Spoken theatre, though, is almost all in Japanese.

In Dubai, relaxing means the resort spa. Hammam rituals, hydrotherapy pools and long massage menus on Palm Jumeirah are excellent and work just as well in summer. The desert retreats inland add silence, but the city itself has no bathing tradition.

In Tokyo, bathing is part of daily life. Neighbourhood sento with painted Fuji murals, some fed by dark mineral spring water, large bathing complexes with saunas, and the mountain onsen inns of Hakone let you relax the way residents do. Temple grounds and gardens provide calm between outings, though many baths still turn away guests with tattoos.