Aberdeen or Manchester?

Aberdeen at least has a beach of its own: a long stretch of sand and dunes that starts at the harbour mouth, a twenty-minute walk from the centre. Wider, emptier beaches run north to Balmedie. The cold North Sea makes it a place for a windy walk rather than a swim.

Manchester has no coast at all. Formby's dunes and Blackpool's promenade are a train ride of an hour or more away, so the seaside is a day out rather than part of the stay.

Manchester offers far more choice. Chinatown, the curry houses of Rusholme and the food halls in the old Ancoats mills give you something different every night, and its Victorian pubs and craft breweries make drinking one of the city's real strengths.

Aberdeen's cooking is narrower but more tied to its region: North Sea fish, Aberdeen Angus beef, the buttery at breakfast and Speyside whisky, with Stonehaven's famous fish and chips just down the coast. It is good honest eating, but with less range.

The two are close, but the stories they tell differ. Aberdeen's appeal is how it looks: a whole city built of silver-grey granite, with Marischal College at its heart and the medieval lanes of Old Aberdeen around King's College and St Machar's Cathedral. The Maritime Museum covers fishing and North Sea oil.

Manchester is about the industrial age. You see it in the neo-Gothic Town Hall, the John Rylands Library, Castlefield's warehouses and a run of free museums from the Science and Industry Museum to the Whitworth. Manchester has more collections to fill its days, while Aberdeen has the more striking old quarter.

Going out is a reason to visit Manchester, and it isn't one for Aberdeen. Manchester's range runs from the warehouse bars and small DJ rooms of the Northern Quarter to the Gay Village on Canal Street and dressed-up Spinningfields. In autumn and winter, warehouse raves bring in big-name DJs.

Aberdeen's evenings centre on traditional pubs and long whisky lists around Belmont Street and Union Street. A few clubs fill with students on term-time weekends, and the streets go quiet early during the week.

Both cities have real hill country nearby, but Aberdeen's is bigger and wilder. Royal Deeside leads into the Cairngorms, with high plateau walks, Lochnagar, pine forests around Braemar and skiing at Glenshee in winter. The coast adds cliffs, seabirds, the seals of the Ythan estuary and dolphins off Torry Battery.

From Manchester, trains reach the Peak District in under an hour for Kinder Scout and the ridge from Mam Tor, and Heaton Park and the canal towpaths give green space in town. It is easier without a car, but the moors are gentler and there is no sea.

Manchester sits at the heart of northern England's rail network, which gives it the wider choice. Liverpool, Chester and York are each about an hour or so away by train, and the Peak District adds Chatsworth, Bakewell and Buxton, all reachable without a car.

Aberdeen's outings are excellent but mostly of one kind, and most need a car. The highlights are Dunnottar on its sea stack, the castles of the Castle Trail, Balmoral and the Speyside distilleries. Dundee is the main trip that works well by train.

Manchester gives children more to do, much of it indoors and free. There are working engines at the Science and Industry Museum, dinosaurs at the Manchester Museum, and an aquarium and real-snow slope at the Trafford Centre, with Chester Zoo about an hour away.

Aberdeen is calmer and doesn't have Manchester's rowdy weekend evenings, but it has fewer attractions. It relies on the Science Centre, the beachfront funfair, Duthie Park's glasshouses and spotting dolphins at the harbour, and the weather often pushes plans indoors.

Both centres are compact and easy to walk. Manchester adds the Metrolink trams out to Salford Quays, Old Trafford and the airport, and its two main stations make day trips simple. Aberdeen has buses but no trams, and although the station is central, the castles, Deeside and the distilleries really need a hire car.

Manchester is worth a trip for shopping alone. It has department stores and designer labels around King Street and Spinningfields, vintage and record shops in the Northern Quarter, the stalls of Afflecks, and the huge Trafford Centre on the edge of the city.

Aberdeen covers the basics with two central malls and Union Street, plus a few independent shops in Rosemount and around Belmont Street. The best things to buy there are knitwear, tartan and whisky, and these are often better bought in the Deeside villages or at the distilleries.

Costs are much the same in both: British prices for meals, drinks and taxis, with free museums to soften the bill.

The differences are in rooms and getting about. Aberdeen's business hotels are often good value at weekends and in summer, but its countryside usually means hiring a car. Manchester's hotel rooms jump on football, concert and conference dates, though cheap curries and food-hall meals are easy to find and the train covers most outings.

Manchester makes much of its own music, while Aberdeen mostly hosts touring shows. The Hallé and the BBC Philharmonic are based at the Bridgewater Hall, and the Royal Exchange stages theatre-in-the-round inside the old cotton trading hall. Gigs run from Northern Quarter back rooms to one of Europe's largest arenas.

Aberdeen's stage life centres on His Majesty's Theatre and the Music Hall, with touring drama, visiting opera and the Scottish orchestras. Its most local flavour is traditional music at pub sessions.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, so wellness in both means hotel spas. Aberdeen is the easier place to unwind, with its unhurried pace and country-house hotels offering treatments out in Deeside. Manchester's centre is loud, especially at weekends, and its restful escape is a train to the Peak District or the old spa town of Buxton.