Bath or Edinburgh?

Neither city is a place to swim, but Edinburgh at least has a beach of its own. Portobello's long sands and promenade are a short bus ride from the centre, and the wide East Lothian beaches at Gullane, Yellowcraig and North Berwick make fine coastal walks, even if the North Sea is too cold for most people.

Bath is inland, and its nearest seaside, Weston-super-Mare, has brown water and a tide that goes out a very long way. Summer swims in the Avon are the local alternative, and a proper sandy beach means a long day out to Dorset or Devon.

Bath eats in a modest, homely way. Its pleasures are West Country cheese and Somerset cider, gastropubs and bakeries around the Abbey and Walcot Street, the farmers' market in the old Green Park station, and its own bakes, the Sally Lunn bun and the Bath Oliver biscuit, with afternoon tea in the Georgian streets. Beyond that the range is narrow: little cooking from other cuisines and almost no street food.

Edinburgh gives a food lover more to plan around. Scallops and langoustines from the west coast, Highland beef and venison and grouse in autumn reach their best in the modern kitchens of Leith, Stockbridge and the New Town, and the whisky bars, with guided tastings of single malts, are something Bath has no answer to. Street food and cheap local meals are hard to find, though, so eating well here takes some choosing.

Both cities are UNESCO World Heritage Sites built in stone, but Edinburgh has more layers. Its medieval Old Town, running from the castle down the Royal Mile to Holyroodhouse, faces a Georgian New Town across a valley. The national museum and galleries, most of them free, give rainy days real depth.

Bath covers less ground but is remarkably complete: the Royal Crescent, the Circus and Pulteney Bridge, with the Roman Baths and the Abbey at their feet, all in one compact centre. Its museums are smaller and more personal, from Georgian home life at No. 1 Royal Crescent to the Holburne, and two or three days cover the city.

Both cities go out to the pub, but Edinburgh has more choice and stays up later. Victorian bars on Rose Street, the Grassmarket's old drinking dens, Leith's harbour pubs and the late clubs of the Cowgate give a real range. In August the festivals keep the centre awake into the small hours.

Bath's evenings are quieter: coaching inns, real-ale houses around Kingsmead and a few cocktail bars, with student clubs during term. On a weeknight most visitors are back at their hotel early, and the nearest big night out is in Bristol.

Edinburgh has wilder ground on its doorstep. Arthur's Seat, an extinct volcano with crags and lochs, rises within a short walk of the Royal Mile. The Pentland Hills offer proper ridge walking, and boats from North Berwick go out to the gannets on the Bass Rock.

Bath's countryside is softer: the Skyline loop over wooded ridges, the Kennet and Avon towpath, a cycle route through old railway tunnels, and Cheddar Gorge and the Cotswolds within an hour. It suits gentle walks and days on the canal rather than open hills.

Both make excellent bases, and the difference lies in what surrounds them. From Bath the trips are to ancient and rural England: Stonehenge and Avebury, Wells and Glastonbury, Lacock, the Cotswold villages and Salisbury, with Bristol a quarter of an hour away by train. Many of the villages, though, need a car or a tour.

Edinburgh's trips lean on Scottish history and are easier by rail: Glasgow, Stirling Castle, Linlithgow Palace, St Andrews and the Borders abbeys. The Forth Bridges and Rosslyn Chapel make simple half-days.

Edinburgh keeps children busier. The castle, the hands-on National Museum, Dynamic Earth, the illusions of Camera Obscura and the zoo can fill several days, and Holyrood Park and Portobello's sands give children room to run. The buses take buggies, though the Old Town's cobbles and steps are hard going.

Bath has one big hit in the Roman Baths and a good playground in Royal Victoria Park, and beyond those it is a city for adults. Its steep streets are hard work with a pushchair, and many families head out to Bristol's science centre and aquarium or the safari park at Longleat.

Both centres are easy to walk and awkward to drive in. Bath is the smaller of the two, about twenty minutes on foot from end to end, much of it pedestrianised, with the station at the bottom of town. Outside the city, though, public transport thins out quickly.

Edinburgh spreads a little wider, and its hills, bridges and stairways take more effort. A dense bus network and a tram from the airport to Leith fill the gaps, and Waverley station, right in the centre, makes train trips out simple.

Neither is a major shopping city, and the difference is in character. Bath is better for browsing: independent bookshops and jewellers in the lanes by the Abbey, antiques on Bartlett Street, the makers and salvage dealers of Walcot Street, and the centuries-old Guildhall Market.

Edinburgh is the place to buy things that are made in Scotland: cashmere, tweed, tartan from specialist kiltmakers and single malts. Victoria Street and Stockbridge have the best independent shops, while the tartan souvenir shops along the Royal Mile vary widely in quality.

Both are expensive to visit, mostly because of rooms. Bath is small, so its hotels fill up and prices jump on summer weekends and at Christmas. Edinburgh's peaks come with the August festivals and Hogmanay.

Where they differ is in what you get for free. Edinburgh's national museums and galleries cost nothing, and neither does Arthur's Seat, while Bath's main draws, the Roman Baths and the spa, are costly. In Bath, the walkable centre and pub lunches help, as does staying midweek or in Bristol. Edinburgh is much kinder on the budget in late autumn and winter, outside the Christmas weeks.

Bath's stage life centres on the gilded Georgian Theatre Royal, with touring drama, opera, dance and a Christmas pantomime, plus concerts in the Abbey and the Assembly Rooms, bands and comedy at the Art Deco Forum, and festivals of literature and Mozart. With no resident orchestra or opera company, most nights offer little choice.

Edinburgh is in a different league. In August the Fringe, the International Festival and the Tattoo turn the whole city into a stage. The rest of the year the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra play regularly at the Usher Hall and the Queen's Hall, Scottish Opera and Scottish Ballet come to the Festival Theatre, the Lyceum and the Traverse produce drama, and there are folk sessions in the pubs.

This is where Bath leaves Edinburgh far behind. It is the one place in Britain where you can bathe in natural hot spring water, whether in the rooftop pool overlooking the Abbey or the small Georgian Cross Bath. The whole town moves at an easy pace of tearooms and gardens.

What Edinburgh offers is unusual but limited: the tiled Victorian Turkish baths at Portobello, the Royal Commonwealth Pool and shoreside saunas for cold-water swimmers. Out of season its gardens and riverside walks are restful, but in August the centre is anything but.