Ubud or Yogyakarta?

Neither is a beach town, but Ubud is the better base for a swim. Sanur's calm water inside the reef is less than an hour's drive away, so a swim fits easily into a day.

From Yogyakarta, the nearest coast at Parangtritis is for sunset walks, not swimming, because of the rip currents. The paddling pools in Gunungkidul's white-sand coves are about two hours away and crowded at weekends.

The two are about equal for eating, but the food is very different. In Ubud, you eat Balinese spit-roast pork and slow-cooked duck, along with a large international layer of plant-based cafés and a few tasting-menu restaurants.

Yogyakarta's cooking is sweet Javanese, built around gudeg, and its best eating is on the street: angkringan carts, floor-seated lesehan stalls and charcoal coffee late at night. It has less range and fine dining, and alcohol plays almost no part.

Yogyakarta has the deeper sightseeing. The Kraton is still the seat of a reigning sultan, and Taman Sari's bathing pools, the Sonobudoyo collections and the silversmith lanes of Kotagede fill several days.

Ubud's culture is smaller in scale and more a part of daily life: offerings on doorsteps, temple processions, the palace and lotus pond, and three museums tracing Balinese painting. Goa Gajah is its one major ancient site.

Neither is a party destination, but Yogyakarta stays up later. Students fill the coffee carts after dark, families pedal light-covered cars round Alun-Alun Kidul, and Prawirotaman has a small cluster of bars.

Ubud is mostly asleep before midnight, after a long dinner and perhaps a band in a garden bar. Clubbing means the long drive to Seminyak or Canggu.

For landscape on your doorstep, Ubud is ahead. You can walk from town along Campuhan Ridge into the rice terraces, raft the Ayung gorge, swim under nearby waterfalls and climb Mount Batur for sunrise.

Yogyakarta's outdoors is more dramatic but further from the centre: jeep tours across Merapi's lava fields, an overnight climb of Merbabu, abseiling into the Jomblang cave shaft and tubing through Goa Pindul.

Day trips are the main reason to stay in Yogyakarta. Borobudur and Prambanan are each world-class monuments, smaller temples cluster around Prambanan, and Solo is an easy train ride away.

Ubud also has a strong circuit: the holy spring at Tirta Empul, Besakih, Tanah Lot and the Jatiluwih terraces. But nothing on it matches those two monuments, and Bali's slow roads limit how much fits into a day.

Private-pool villas give Ubud the edge with children, because the hottest hours can be spent in the water instead of on a scooter-filled street. Older children who like the outdoors get gentle rafting, rice-field walks and evening dance shows. Toddlers are harder work, with narrow pavements and Monkey Forest macaques that grab at bags and food.

Yogyakarta has a few easy mornings of its own: Gembira Loka zoo, the Taman Pintar science park near Malioboro and the light-covered pedal cars by the Kraton. The big temples are the difficult part, with early starts, long drives and a lot of steps in the sun for young legs.

Yogyakarta is much easier to get around. The area around Malioboro, the Kraton and Taman Sari can be walked or covered by becak, ride-hailing reaches the rest, and a comfortable train runs to Solo.

Ubud has no usable public transport, and its sights are spread across steep river valleys. In practice, you plan each day around a hired driver or ride-hailing.

Both are craft towns rather than fashion destinations, and each has a silver village: Celuk near Ubud, Kotagede in Yogyakarta. Ubud is better for woodcarving, Batuan paintings and homeware from the workshops towards Tegallalang, plus linen and yoga wear in town.

Yogyakarta is the place for batik, from hand-drawn pieces to printed cloth in Beringharjo market, along with Kasongan pottery and leather wayang puppets.

Both are inexpensive, but Yogyakarta is cheaper overall. Street food, guesthouses, transport and spa treatments all cost little, and the main expense is the foreigners' entry fee at Borobudur and Prambanan.

Ubud can be just as cheap in a homestay that serves breakfast, but it also has a costly side, with luxury jungle resorts and cafés charging close to European prices.

Yogyakarta offers the wider stage. The Ramayana ballet at Prambanan, court dance and gamelan inside the Kraton, and shortened wayang kulit shows at Sonobudoyo cover the classical Javanese arts, and the arts institute supports contemporary theatre in Indonesian.

Ubud has Balinese dance with live gamelan every night: Legong, Barong and Kecak in the palace courtyard and temple grounds. Beyond that, there is little.

This is where Ubud is strongest. Dawn yoga, multi-week retreats, riverside spas above the Ayung, traditional healers and the purification ritual at Tirta Empul are woven into the town's daily life.

Yogyakarta has its own court tradition of lulur scrubs, flower baths and jamu, all cheap. But real quiet means heading north towards Merapi, away from the noisy centre.