Amsterdam or Manchester?

Neither city is a place for sea swimming, but Amsterdam comes closer. Zandvoort and Bloemendaal give it a proper sandy shore backed by dunes, about half an hour away by train. On hot days locals also swim at IJburg or in the Sloterplas without leaving the city.

Manchester is inland. Formby and Blackpool on the Irish Sea take an hour or more to reach, and they are for walking rather than swimming, in water a degree or two colder than the North Sea. In both cases the coast is a breezy outing, not a reason to come.

Both cities eat best from what trade and migration brought in, not from their own cooking. Amsterdam's table is the more distinctive: Indonesian rijsttafel, Surinamese roti, herring from a street stall and warm stroopwafels at the Albert Cuyp. For drinking there are jenever tasting rooms and the early-evening borrel in old brown cafés.

Manchester gives you range rather than character, with a large Chinatown, cheap curries along Wilmslow Road in Rusholme and food halls in converted mills in Ancoats. Its Victorian pubs and craft breweries under the railway arches are the bigger draw, and there is little fine dining.

This is where the two cities differ most. Amsterdam has art the whole world travels to see: Rembrandt's Night Watch at the Rijksmuseum and the largest Van Gogh collection anywhere, both on one square. Add the Anne Frank House, and set it all inside a UNESCO-listed ring of 17th-century canals and merchant houses.

Manchester's sights tell a narrower story, that of the cotton era and the first industrial city. You see it in the Town Hall, the John Rylands Library, the Castlefield warehouses and the Science and Industry Museum. That fills two rewarding days, mostly for free, but nothing here has the worldwide fame of Amsterdam's big three.

Both are serious cities for going out, with electronic music in their history, and the difference is in the setting. Amsterdam mixes candlelit brown cafés and canal-side terraces in the Jordaan and De Pijp with all-night clubs in old industrial buildings out in Noord. The Amsterdam Dance Event in October is the high point of its year.

Manchester's nights centre on the warehouse bars and DJ rooms of the Northern Quarter, the long-established Gay Village on Canal Street and big warehouse raves in autumn and winter. Students keep weeknights busy in term time. The centre gets rowdy at closing time and goes quiet in summer, just when Amsterdam's terraces are fullest.

Manchester wins clearly if you want to walk uphill. The Peak District starts on its eastern fringe, Edale and Kinder Scout are under an hour away on the Hope Valley line, and the Lake District is within a day's reach. Low cloud and mud come with the moorland.

Amsterdam's outdoors is flat and gentle. You can cycle through the polders and wooden villages of Waterland, walk the woods of the Amsterdamse Bos or see bison in the dunes of Zuid-Kennemerland. It is lovely from a bike, but there is nothing wild about it.

Both cities sit at the heart of good rail networks, but Amsterdam's outings are closer together and easier. Haarlem is a quarter of an hour away, and Leiden, Delft, Utrecht, the Mauritshuis in The Hague and Rotterdam all fit easily into a day. Then there are the windmills at Zaanse Schans and Kinderdijk, and the Keukenhof in spring.

Manchester's list is strong too, with Liverpool, Chester and York among its outings, but the journeys are longer. It leans more towards the countryside, with Chatsworth, Buxton and the Lake District towns, which suits travellers who want stately homes and hills as well as cities.

Amsterdam is the easier city with children. It is compact and safe, and the old Artis zoo, the hands-on NEMO science museum, good playgrounds, canal boats and pancake houses are all close together. The catch is the fast bikes and the unfenced canal edges, so small children need holding on to.

Manchester relies on indoor attractions that are often free. There are working engines at the Science and Industry Museum, dinosaurs at the Manchester Museum, and an aquarium and a snow slope at the Trafford Centre, all of which help when it rains. Its biggest draws, Chester Zoo and Alton Towers, each take a day out.

Amsterdam is the easier city to get around. Trams thread through the canal ring and out to the museums, a metro line crosses the city from north to south, and ferries over the IJ to Noord cost nothing, all paid with the same tap of a card. Trains from Schiphol run straight into the centre. Above all, the whole city is built for the bicycle, so a hired bike gets you almost anywhere faster than any tram, as long as you can hold your own in the busy lanes.

Manchester's centre is also compact and flat, but beyond it you depend on fewer tram lines and the buses. The Metrolink gets you to Salford Quays, Old Trafford and the airport, and the buses cover the rest. Trams are packed on big event days, cycling is no match for Amsterdam's, and frequent rain makes walking a chore. You won't need a car in either centre, but in Manchester one does help for the remoter parts of the Peak District.

Amsterdam has a slight edge for browsing. There are the boutiques and vintage shops of the Nine Streets and the Jordaan, the luxury labels of PC Hooftstraat, and markets from the Waterlooplein flea market to the floating Bloemenmarkt. Delft blue, cheese and Dutch design make easy things to take home.

Manchester is the bigger regional shopping centre, with the high-street names, two department stores and the vast Trafford Centre. Its character is in the Northern Quarter, with its record shops and Afflecks. Football shirts are what most visitors carry home.

Manchester is easier on a budget. Rooms are reasonable on ordinary weeknights, cheap meals in the curry houses and Chinatown are easy to find, and most of the main museums are free. Rooms do jump in price when there is a home match or a big concert, so dates matter.

Amsterdam is one of the costliest cities in Europe for a bed, with a tourist tax on top and museum tickets that add up. Staying in Haarlem or Utrecht and eating from market stalls helps, but it is still the more expensive trip.

The Concertgebouw sets the tone in Amsterdam. It is one of the world's great halls, famous for its acoustics, with concerts on most days of the season. Opera and ballet on the Amstel, contemporary music and the Bimhuis jazz club at the Muziekgebouw, and touring bands at Paradiso and the Melkweg fill out the week. Theatre is mostly in Dutch, though, so it is hard going for most visitors.

Manchester's strength is its gig circuit, which runs from back rooms in the Northern Quarter to one of Europe's largest arenas. Its theatre is in English, so visitors can follow it, above all at the Royal Exchange, which plays in the round inside the old cotton trading hall. The Hallé and the BBC Philharmonic share the Bridgewater Hall, but the city has no opera company of its own, so opera comes from visiting productions.

Amsterdam's large sauna complexes and day spas on the edges of the city are mixed and nude in the Northern European way, and they are good for a proper afternoon of heat and rest. Away from the crowded centre, an early walk along the quieter canals or a ferry across the IJ also slows things down.

In Manchester the choice is hotel spas and a few small day spas, and Victoria Baths is an Edwardian building to look round, not to swim in. If you want real rest, take the train for an hour to the old spa town of Buxton or out into the Peak District.