Anchorage or Reykjavik?

Neither is a place for beach time, and the swimming on offer is quite different. Anchorage's Cook Inlet is silty, icy and dangerous on its mudflats, so a summer swim means one of the city lakes such as Goose Lake or Jewel Lake, during a few warm weeks.

Reykjavik's answer comes from geothermal heat. At Nauthólsvík you can take a cold dip in the sea and then sit in a warm lagoon, and the heated outdoor pools let you swim properly in any month.

The two cities eat at a similar level, and both build their menus on cold northern water. Anchorage is the more hearty and casual of the two: summer plates of wild salmon, halibut and king crab, reindeer sausage from street carts, and a good brewery culture in midtown and Spenard.

Reykjavik cooks with more restraint, putting cod, Arctic char, lamb and skyr into pared-back New Nordic dishes, with lamb soup and harbour-side hot dogs for cheaper meals. Its scene is smaller and dearer, which is why so many visitors cook for themselves.

Anchorage has more to teach a visitor. The Anchorage Museum and the Alaska Native Heritage Center together give a serious grounding in Arctic art and Indigenous life, and the aviation museum beside the floatplanes of Lake Hood adds something distinctly Alaskan. That is two or three good days of sights.

Reykjavik's list is shorter: Hallgrímskirkja, Harpa and a few small museums, the best of them the Settlement Exhibition around its Viking-age longhouse. It does have the more pleasant old town to stroll, with painted iron-clad houses around Tjörnin, which Anchorage lost when it was rebuilt after 1964.

Reykjavik has the livelier nights, at least at weekends. On Fridays and Saturdays the runtur pub crawl fills the few blocks around Laugavegur, small bars become dance floors after midnight, and in midsummer you walk home in daylight.

Anchorage is about a beer after a day outdoors. Its taprooms and dive bars are scattered across downtown and Spenard Road with no real club scene, and its nights go very quiet in the winter dark. Both cities are calm midweek.

Both are outstanding, but they offer different wildernesses. Anchorage gives you mountains and animals at the doorstep: Flattop and the Chugach behind the suburbs, moose in the neighbourhoods, the Coastal Trail along the inlet, and Dall sheep and belugas on the Turnagain Arm drive to the Portage glaciers.

Reykjavik's draw is raw geology. There is the rift at Þingvellir, Strokkur erupting every few minutes, Gullfoss, the steaming lava fields of Reykjanes and the waterfalls of the south coast, though most of it lies a drive or coach tour away. Both cities offer northern lights in winter.

The two are much alike here: small places along scenic roads, best reached by car. The difference is the age of what you find. From Anchorage the stops are frontier heritage, such as Eklutna's spirit houses, Palmer's New Deal colony barns, the Independence Mine gold camp and the odd one-tower town of Whittier.

Reykjavik's excursions carry far older history. They include the open-air parliament site at Þingvellir, the old bishopric at Skálholt and the saga country around Borgarnes and Reykholt.

Both work equally well with children, through different pleasures. In Anchorage the appeal is animals: the zoo's bears and musk oxen, moose and bison at the conservation centre near Portage, and wild moose in the parks. The costs are long drives and bright summer nights that make bedtime difficult.

In Reykjavik the appeal is water. The daily treat is a heated pool with slides, and there are farm animals at Laugardalur and an ice cave inside Perlan. The streets are safe to walk, but coach days are long and feeding a family is costly.

Reykjavik is much easier without a car. Everything central lies within a half-hour walk, buses run out to the pools and Perlan, an airport coach covers Keflavík, and organised tours reach the Golden Circle and the south coast.

Anchorage has a walkable downtown grid, but beyond it the city sprawls along wide roads and the buses are limited. Trailheads, glaciers and outlying towns all need wheels, so a rental car is close to essential, with the summer railway as a scenic extra.

Wool and local craft are what to bring home from either city. In Anchorage the worthwhile buys come from Alaska Native artists: carved ivory and soapstone, ulu knives, and qiviut scarves knitted from musk-ox underwool, sold in downtown galleries and at the Heritage Center. A summer weekend market and good outdoor-gear stores add to them, but the shops are scattered between galleries, souvenir shops for cruise passengers and malls.

Reykjavik's equivalent is a hand-knitted lopapeysa, along with ceramics and jewellery made from lava stone and fish leather. Its shops are the more pleasant to browse, gathered along Laugavegur and Skólavörðustígur and including record shops full of Icelandic music, though the choice is small and everything is dear.

Neither is cheap, but Anchorage costs noticeably less. Its expense comes mostly from summer hotel demand, a hire car and paid excursions such as glacier cruises and flightseeing, while trails and parks are free and winter is cheaper.

In Reykjavik the high prices are everywhere: guesthouses, ordinary meals, heavily taxed drinks, fuel and tours. Supermarkets, self-catering and the cheap public pools help, but you need to budget for high costs from the start.

Reykjavik offers more for an evening out. Harpa is home to the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and has superb acoustics, and the city's alternative and electronic music fills small venues most weekends. Iceland Airwaves takes over those venues in late autumn, though theatre is almost always in Icelandic.

Anchorage centres on the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts, with symphony, opera and touring Broadway, and folk and bluegrass in its taprooms. Its season falls mostly in winter, when few visitors are there.

This is where the two differ most. In Reykjavik soaking is part of daily life: every district has a geothermal pool with hot tubs, a cold plunge and often a steam room. The Blue Lagoon and quieter hot springs on the Golden Circle are within easy reach.

Anchorage has no bathing tradition. Beyond hotel spas, the best soak is the Nordic-style spa in Girdwood, about forty minutes south. Its calm comes instead from empty trails and long, light evenings.