Bath or Inverness?

Neither is a beach destination, but Inverness has the better shore within reach. Nairn's long sands are about twenty-five minutes away, and Rosemarkie and Chanonry Point on the Black Isle make a fine breezy afternoon, even if the firth stays too cold for most people to swim.

Bath is inland, and its nearest seaside at Weston-super-Mare offers brown, shallow water and a distant tide. Summer swimmers there head for river spots on the Avon instead, and good sand means a long day out to Dorset or Devon.

Bath comes out ahead on the strength of its independents and its local identity. Gastropubs and independent restaurants fill the lanes around the Abbey and up Walcot Street. They cook with West Country cheese, Somerset cider and lamb, and the city has its own baking in the Bath bun, the Bath Oliver and the Sally Lunn bun. The Green Park farmers' market and the Georgian tearooms serving afternoon tea add to it, though the choice of other cuisines is thin and there is hardly any street food.

Inverness eats more narrowly but has a fine larder. West coast langoustines and mussels, Moray Firth seafood, venison and smoked salmon star at a handful of serious tables by the river, and the pubs fall back on Cullen skink and haddock. Choice thins quickly beyond the centre, and in summer the best places need booking ahead.

This is where the two differ most within the city limits. Bath is an architectural set piece: the Circus, the Royal Crescent, Pulteney Bridge and the Assembly Rooms in Georgian stone, with the Roman Baths and the fan-vaulted Abbey at the centre and museums such as the Holburne and No. 1 Royal Crescent to fill a second or third day.

Inverness offers a castle on its bluff, a cathedral across the river and a compact museum of Highland and Pictish history. Its one weighty site is Culloden battlefield, a short drive east, and most other heritage lies out in the country rather than in town.

Both are pub towns that go quiet early, so neither suits anyone after a big night. The difference is in the glass: Bath has old coaching inns, real-ale houses and a few cocktail bars, livened by students in term, with Bristol fifteen minutes away by train for something bigger. Inverness is about whisky bars and a slow dram around Church Street and the riverside, often with a fiddle session in the corner.

Inverness is the place for real landscape. Loch Ness and the Great Glen start just south of town, Glen Affric's pine forest and the Cairngorms' high plateau are about an hour away, and Torridon and the road to Skye lie within two hours. The weather is changeable and winter days are short, but the scale is genuinely wild.

Bath offers gentler country you can walk out to from the centre: the Skyline loop, the Kennet and Avon towpath, the Two Tunnels Greenway and the Cotswolds edge, with Cheddar Gorge in the Mendips within an hour. It is lovely, rolling and tame by comparison.

Bath has far more variety on the doorstep. Bristol is fifteen minutes by train, Cardiff a little over an hour, and Stonehenge, Avebury, Wells, Glastonbury, Lacock, Salisbury and the Cotswold villages make a week of quite different outings.

From Inverness the trips are mostly to single sites: Urquhart Castle, Cawdor, Fort George, the Clava Cairns and Speyside distilleries, with Pitlochry or Eilean Donan on a long day. With no other city in reach, the week becomes castles and whisky rather than a change of towns.

The two are broadly level for children, but the appeal differs in kind. Bath's star is the steaming Roman Baths, with Royal Victoria Park's playground nearby, though its steep streets are hard on pushchairs and the bigger attractions are in Bristol or at Longleat.

Inverness leans outdoors: Loch Ness boat trips and monster hunting, dolphins at Chanonry Point, and the Highland Wildlife Park with its snow leopards and polar bears under an hour away. The weather means keeping the Aquadome pool in reserve for wet days.

Bath is the easier city to be in without a car. Its pedestrianised centre packs the Abbey, Baths, Circus and Crescent into a short walk, direct trains run to Bristol and London, and park-and-ride keeps traffic out, though the hills are steep and country villages still need a car or tour.

Inverness has a small, flat centre and a central station with scenic lines to Kyle of Lochalsh, Thurso and Aviemore. But the glens, castles and distilleries lie down single-track roads with sparse buses, so the trip depends much more on hiring a car or booking tours.

Bath is a proper shopping day out. Fashion and British brands line Milsom Street, chains gather at SouthGate, and the real pleasure is the independents: bookshops in the Abbey lanes, antiques on Bartlett Street, the makers and salvage dealers of Walcot Street, and the old Guildhall Market.

Inverness is more about souvenirs with substance: tartan, tweed, knitwear, Celtic silver and malt whisky, plus the Victorian Market and a much-loved bookshop in a former church. An hour or two covers it.

Neither is cheap, but Bath is the heavier on the wallet. Central rooms are dear and very dear on summer weekends and at Christmas, and the Roman Baths and spa add up, so sleeping midweek or in Bristol makes the biggest saving.

Inverness eases the bill somewhat because its main attraction, the landscape, costs nothing to walk in, and rooms drop well outside summer. Car hire and tours are the costs to budget for there, and July and August need booking well ahead.

Bath has the fuller stage calendar. The gilded Georgian Theatre Royal brings touring drama, West End-bound plays, opera and dance, with concerts in the Abbey and Assembly Rooms and long-running literature, music and Mozart festivals.

Inverness relies on Eden Court for touring theatre, comedy and concerts, but its distinctive side is traditional: fiddle and accordion sessions in pubs most nights, Gaelic song at festivals and the Highland Games in summer.

Bath was built on its hot springs, and that gives it a decisive lead. Water rising at about 46°C fills the rooftop pool at Thermae Bath Spa, with views over the Abbey, and the small Georgian Cross Bath, and the Pump Room and riverside gardens set an unhurried pace.

Inverness has no bathing tradition, only country-house hotel spas and the Aquadome's sauna. Its calm comes instead from long summer evenings, walks round the Ness Islands and a dram by the fire.