Tokyo or Hong Kong?

Hong Kong has the edge for a swim because its beaches are part of the city. Repulse Bay and Deep Water Bay are a short bus ride from Central, Shek O and Lantau's Cheung Sha are easy outings, and most beaches have lifeguards and shark nets. The sea stays warm for half the year.

Tokyo's own bay shore is for strolling, not swimming. Swimming means an hour by train to the dark volcanic sand of Kamakura or Enoshima, in a short July and August season with crowded weekends.

Both are among Asia's great food cities, but Tokyo goes deeper. Hong Kong is the place for Cantonese cooking at its best: morning dim sum, roast goose, wonton noodles, live seafood on Lamma and the cha chaan teng diner, which is unique to the city.

Tokyo adds a range no single cuisine can match. There are soba counters and one-dish specialists that have cooked the same thing for decades, kaiseki and sushi at the highest level, depachika food halls, and French and Italian cooking that would stand out in their home countries. Sake, whisky and coffee are taken just as seriously.

Tokyo gives far more to see. Ueno Park alone holds the Tokyo National Museum and the National Museum of Western Art, and Senso-ji, Meiji Jingu, the Imperial Palace moats and the Rikugien garden are among Japan's best-known sights.

Hong Kong's main sight is the city itself: the harbour skyline from the Peak, the trams and the tenement blocks of Kowloon. Man Mo Temple, the Big Buddha and the West Kowloon museums, M+ and the Palace Museum, are good, but they fill fewer days.

Tokyo offers the bigger and stranger night out. Golden Gai's two hundred tiny bars, whole buildings of whisky and vinyl bars, and izakaya around every station give it endless variety. Shibuya and Roppongi have real clubs that run until the first trains.

Hong Kong is smaller and more concentrated. Most nights centre on Central: crowds drink in the street at Lan Kwai Fong, Soho has careful cocktail bars and Wan Chai stays open late. Rooftop bars sell the harbour view, but there is little in the way of clubbing.

Hong Kong is the better choice for the outdoors, and that surprises many visitors. Green hills rise directly behind the towers, and the Dragon's Back, Lantau Peak and the hexagonal rock columns of Sai Kung are often under an hour away by public transport.

Tokyo's nature mostly starts at the edge of the city. Mount Takao is an hour west, the Okutama gorges further out, and Hakone and the Fuji lakes take around two hours. Inside the city, the parks are at their best in cherry-blossom season and in the November colours.

Tokyo is the stronger base for day trips. Kamakura's Great Buddha and Zen temples, the Toshogu shrine at Nikko, Hakone's lakes and hot springs and the merchant houses of Kawagoe are all easy by train, with no border to cross.

Hong Kong's best outing is Macau, about an hour away, with its Portuguese squares and its own cuisine. Guangzhou and Shenzhen are close by fast train, but they mean entering mainland China, so check the entry rules first. Within the territory, Cheung Chau, Lamma and Tai O make easy island days.

Children will find plenty to do in both cities, but Tokyo makes the days easier. In Hong Kong, the pandas and aquarium at Ocean Park, Disneyland on Lantau, the Peak Tram and the Ngong Ping cable car all make excellent outings, and the city is safe and simple to get around. Weekend crowds, steamy summers and hotel rooms too small for a family make it harder work.

Tokyo has two Disney parks across the bay, the Ghibli Museum, Miraikan and Ueno Zoo. It also has the everyday comforts parents notice most: lifts and baby rooms in stations, spotless toilets everywhere and food that suits fussy eaters.

Both cities have superb public transport and need no car, and in both one card covers almost everything. The difference is scale. Hong Kong is compact, the MTR runs to the airport, and the Star Ferry, the trams and the Mid-Levels escalator are pleasures in themselves.

Tokyo's network is far larger and its neighbourhoods are made for walking, from Shibuya to Harajuku or through Yanaka. The cost of that size is huge stations that can confuse you on the first day, crammed rush-hour trains, and a last train around midnight.

Tokyo goes further, especially for specialist shopping. You will find vintage clothes in Shimokitazawa, kitchen knives on Kappabashi, books in Jimbocho, real craft lacquer and ceramics, and the department stores of Ginza.

Hong Kong is the city of luxury flagships and huge malls with no sales tax. Its street markets in Mong Kok and on Temple Street, the curio shops on Hollywood Road and the tailors of Tsim Sha Tsui make shopping part of the sightseeing.

Tokyo is easier on the wallet, and the difference comes mostly from where you sleep and how you eat. In Hong Kong the bed is the heaviest cost of the trip, with cramped rooms at steep rates, and a cocktail or a meal overlooking the harbour in Central is priced like a night out in London or New York. Living like a local softens this. The MTR and the Star Ferry cost very little, noodle shops and neighbourhood dim sum are good value, and the hills and the waterfront are free.

Tokyo's hotels are no bargain either, and rates climb steeply during cherry-blossom season and Golden Week, though business hotels keep a mid-range stay affordable. Tokyo saves you money at the table. A bowl of ramen, a set lunch or a convenience-store meal is cheap and well made, and serious restaurants serve lunch menus that let you taste their cooking for much less than dinner would cost.

Tokyo is much the richer for an evening at the theatre or a concert. You can see kabuki at the Kabuki-za one act at a time, Noh and the Takarazuka Revue, orchestras in halls famous for their acoustics, and hundreds of small live houses and jazz bars.

Hong Kong's distinctive form is Cantonese opera, at the Xiqu Centre or in bamboo theatres at village festivals. Beyond that, visitors mostly rely on the Philharmonic, touring musicals and the annual Arts Festival, since local theatre is in Cantonese.

Bathing is the big difference. Tokyo has hundreds of neighbourhood sento, some using natural hot-spring water, along with large bathing complexes with saunas and the onsen inns of Hakone, about ninety minutes away. Note that many baths still turn away guests with tattoos.

Hong Kong has no bathing tradition. It does have foot reflexology parlours on almost every block, Chinese herbal tea shops and polished hotel spas, but for real quiet you need to go to Lamma or Ngong Ping.