Bath or Bristol?

Neither city is a beach destination, and the sand most people try is the same: Weston-super-Mare, where the tide goes out so far that a swim needs careful timing. The difference is the kind of water nearby. Bath's swimmers use the river Avon, at a weir east of the city and at spots upstream. Bristol, on the Severn estuary, points cold-water bathers to tidal pools such as the Victorian marine lake at Clevedon. For clear water and real beaches, both mean a long drive to Devon, Dorset, Cornwall or Gower.

Bristol gives you more to eat and more ways to eat it. St Nicholas Market serves pies alongside Caribbean and Middle Eastern dishes, container kitchens line the harbourside, and Gloucester Road, Stokes Croft and North Street are full of bakeries and neighbourhood restaurants. Drinking is its local strength, from old cider houses to craft taprooms in former warehouses.

Bath is narrower but has more of its own identity. It has its own bakes, the Bath bun, the Bath Oliver and the Sally Lunn bun, and a farmers' market in the old Green Park station. Afternoon tea is served all over the Georgian streets. What it lacks is cooking from other cuisines, street food and much life after the evening meal.

Bath is the stronger draw because the city itself is the sight. The Royal Crescent, the Circus, Pulteney Bridge and the Assembly Rooms form an unbroken Georgian townscape in honey-coloured stone. Beneath it lie the Roman Baths, with their steaming great bath and temple precinct, and the Abbey stands beside them. Smaller museums such as the Holburne and No. 1 Royal Crescent round it out.

Bristol's culture is a story of trade and engineering told through single landmarks. Brunel's SS Great Britain and the Clifton Suspension Bridge are the highlights, with St Mary Redcliffe and the M Shed account of the port and the slave trade alongside. Banksy and the street art of Stokes Croft add a modern layer that Bath has nothing like.

This is where the two differ most sharply. Bristol has a real club culture, born of trip hop, drum and bass and dubstep. It lives in warehouses and railway arches around Temple Meads and on a moored boat in the harbour, and students keep it going all year. Stokes Croft adds scruffy, creative bars, and the harbourside offers calmer waterside pubs.

Bath's evenings mostly mean a pint in a coaching inn or a real-ale house on Walcot Street. A few clubs fill up during university term. On weeknights the centre is quiet soon after dinner, which is why Bath's own night owls take the train to Bristol.

The two are broadly level, and they share the same soft, rolling West Country landscape. The old railway path of about 25km even links them by bike. The difference is in the style of outing. From Bath you step straight out of town onto the Skyline loop over the ridges, the Kennet and Avon towpath through the Limpley Stoke valley, or the Two Tunnels Greenway. Canoes and narrowboats are for hire on the canal.

Bristol has more rugged ground within the city. Climbers use the limestone cliffs of the Avon Gorge, and Ashton Court has mountain-bike trails and a deer park. From Bristol, the Wye Valley, the Brecon Beacons and Exmoor are within reach for proper upland hiking.

Both make an excellent base, and each is the other's best day out, a quarter of an hour apart by train. Wells, Glastonbury, Stonehenge, Avebury, Salisbury and the southern Cotswolds are in range from either. The difference is which edge of the map is closer.

Bath sits nearer the wool towns of Bradford-on-Avon and Lacock, the gardens at Stourhead and the house at Longleat. Bristol is better placed for the west: Cardiff, Tintern Abbey in the Wye Valley, Berkeley Castle and Gloucester. For the villages, a car or a tour helps from either city.

Bristol keeps children busy for longer. We The Curious, a science centre with a planetarium, and the aquarium sit side by side on the harbourside. Little ferries link them to the SS Great Britain, which is well set up for young visitors, and there is a spacious wildlife park on the northern edge.

Bath has the Roman Baths, which children enjoy for the steam and costumed characters, plus the playground in Royal Victoria Park and river boat trips. After that it is mostly a city for adults, though Longleat's safari park is within a drive. Steep streets make pushchairs hard work in both cities.

Bath is easier on foot. You can cross the centre in about twenty minutes, much of it is pedestrianised, and the Abbey, the Baths, the Circus and the Crescent are all close together. Drivers are best off leaving the car at a park-and-ride site.

Bristol's core around the old city, the harbour and Queen Square is also walkable, and the yellow harbour ferries are a pleasant way to cross it. Beyond that, the steep climb to Clifton tires legs. With no metro or tram, the buses get stuck in traffic, and Temple Meads station is a walk from the centre. For country sights, both cities leave you needing a car or a tour.

There is little to choose between them, and neither has a luxury tier. The difference is in scale and texture. Bath is made for browsing. Fashion runs along Milsom Street, antiques along Bartlett Street, makers and salvage dealers along Walcot Street, small shops cross Pulteney Bridge, and the Guildhall Market has traded for centuries.

Bristol has the bigger mainstream offer, with department stores and chains under cover at Cabot Circus and Broadmead. Its independent streak is grittier: record shops, delis and vintage clothes on Gloucester Road, and boutiques up Park Street to Clifton Village's arcades.

Bristol is the easier city on the wallet. Most of its main museums and churches are free, and central hotels are reasonably priced on weekdays. Market stalls and street food keep meals affordable, though it is still far from cheap.

Bath is dear. It is a small city with many visitors, so central rooms cost a lot, especially on summer weekends and at Christmas, and both the Roman Baths and the spa charge highly. Pub lunches and a walkable centre help. Many visitors simply sleep in Bristol and come over by train.

Bristol has more going on, especially in live music. Small venues in Stokes Croft, Old Market and around the harbour host bands, jazz and electronic acts most nights. On stage, the Bristol Old Vic, the oldest continuously working theatre in the English-speaking world, makes its own productions, while the Hippodrome takes touring musicals and ballet. The Tobacco Factory does Shakespeare, the Bristol Beacon hosts big concerts and St George's has chamber music.

Bath's stage life centres on the gilded Theatre Royal and its studio and children's theatre. There are concerts in the Abbey and the Assembly Rooms, and long-running festivals of literature, music and Mozart. On an ordinary night the choice is small.

Bath is in a different league here. It is the one place in Britain where you can bathe in natural hot spring water. The water rises at about 46°C and feeds the rooftop pool at Thermae Bath Spa, with its view over the Abbey, and the small Georgian Cross Bath. Tea in the Pump Room and strolls through the riverside gardens set an unhurried pace.

Bristol's own options are more modest. There is a heated Victorian lido behind Clifton's terraces, cold-water dips in the Severn's tidal pools, and the usual hotel spas and yoga studios. The city's mood is sociable rather than calm, though the Downs offer quiet.