Aberdeen or Brighton?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Brighton gets more use out of its seafront. The shingle runs all the way from the Marina to Hove. Lifeguards patrol the central stretches in season, and a warmer Channel makes a calm summer day good for a dip.

Aberdeen actually has the softer ground, with real sand and dunes by the harbour and wide, empty strands at Balmedie. The North Sea and the wind make it a place for a bracing walk rather than a swim, though. If you want sand you can enjoy in the sun, neither town gives you that easily.

Brighton is the better place to eat out. Its strength is a dense spread of independent places in the North Laine and Kemptown, a long record with vegetarian cooking, and serious coffee, with Sussex sparkling wine on the lists.

Aberdeen's strength is its ingredients rather than its restaurants. North Sea fish, Angus beef, the buttery at breakfast and Speyside whisky are excellent, but there are fewer good kitchens to choose from. The best fish supper may well be in Stonehaven, not in town.

The two are broadly level for sights, but they show very different kinds of Britain. Aberdeen is stern and northern: silver-grey granite, the huge front of Marischal College, and the medieval lanes of Old Aberdeen around King's College and St Machar's Cathedral, with a maritime museum that tells the story of oil.

Brighton is playful and Regency. Its showpiece is the Royal Pavilion, with Indian domes outside and chinoiserie inside, set among white crescents and the old alleys of the Lanes. Both cities take two or three days at most, and in both you spend more time looking at buildings than going round collections.

Going out is one of the main reasons people visit Brighton, and it is one of the weakest reasons to visit Aberdeen. Brighton's bars are busy every night of the week. Kemptown has one of Britain's oldest LGBTQ+ scenes, and the clubs on West Street and in the seafront arches stay open into the small hours, loudly so at weekends.

Aberdeen's evenings centre on Belmont Street. There you will find traditional pubs with long whisky lists and a few student clubs, and they go quiet midweek and outside term.

Aberdeen has the wilder and higher country. Royal Deeside and the Cairngorms give you mountain plateaus, Lochnagar, pine forest and winter skiing. On the coast there are seal colonies at the Ythan estuary, and dolphins swim past Torry Battery.

Brighton's landscape is softer but very close. The chalk grassland of the South Downs starts at the edge of the city, and the white cliffs of the Seven Sisters are the high point. It also has water sports off the seafront, which Aberdeen's colder sea does not encourage.

Brighton has the wider choice, mainly because London is about an hour away by train. Add Lewes, Arundel, Chichester, Rye and the battlefield at Battle, most of which you can reach without a car.

Aberdeen's outings are excellent but of one type and more spread out. You get castles such as Dunnottar on its sea stack and Craigievar, Balmoral up Deeside and the Speyside distilleries, and most of them need a car.

Brighton is the easier choice with children. It has a full traditional seaside kit: pier rides, one of the oldest aquariums in the world, Volk's Electric Railway and paddling at Hove Lagoon. The pebbles and the late-night weekend crowds are the drawbacks.

Aberdeen is safe and unhurried but has fewer attractions aimed at children. You get the science centre, the funfair on the esplanade, the glasshouses in Duthie Park and spotting dolphins at the harbour mouth. With the weather, you need an indoor backup plan more often.

Both centres are compact, and both stations sit right in them, but Brighton is the easier town to manage without a car. Its frequent bus network reaches Hove and the Downs. Trains run straight to London and the Sussex towns, so you only need a car for remote villages. The one catch is the climb back up from the seafront.

Aberdeen's centre is just as walkable, and the town is flatter. The buses are only adequate, though, and the castles, Deeside and the distilleries all really need a hired car.

Brighton is better for browsing. The North Laine is full of vintage clothes, records and retro furniture, and the Lanes have jewellers and antique dealers in the old alleys.

Aberdeen's shopping is mostly two chain-store centres and Union Street. Rosemount and Belmont Street have a few independents. Its best souvenirs are knitwear, tartan and whisky, which you are better buying in the Deeside villages or at a distillery.

Aberdeen is somewhat easier on the budget, and mostly because of its rooms. Hotels built for business travellers often have reasonable rates at weekends and in summer. Its museums are free, though hiring a car adds to the cost.

Brighton's rooms are the expensive part, especially on summer weekends when Londoners and party groups fill them. Once you have a bed, walking, the beach and the Downs cost nothing. A midweek or winter stay brings the cost down a long way.

Brighton has much more going on stage, and much of it is made locally. In May the Brighton Festival and Fringe fill the whole town for weeks. All year round there is a deep live-music and comedy circuit, and Glyndebourne's summer opera is twenty minutes away.

Aberdeen has a respectable regional programme. His Majesty's Theatre and the Music Hall host touring drama, national opera and ballet, and the Scottish orchestras, and pub sessions add some traditional music.

Neither is a place to come for pampering, though Brighton has a little more of a ritual. Its year-round dawn sea swimmers warm up in saunas on the seafront, and a quiet midweek walk past the beach huts on Hove's lawns is restful.

In Aberdeen, relaxing mostly means a hotel spa or a country-house hotel out in Deeside.