Belfast or Galway?

Neither is a beach destination, but Galway handles the sea better. Salthill's promenade is a short walk from the centre, and the Blackrock diving tower gives the city a real year-round swimming culture.

In Belfast the lough shore is for walking, and the nearest sand at Helen's Bay and Crawfordsburn means a train ride. In both places the water is cold, so expect a quick dip rather than a day on the sand.

These two are close, but the menus point different ways. Belfast cooks from the land as much as the water: the Ulster fry, dry-aged beef and Mourne lamb, with St George's Market for weekend grazing and a deep shelf of Irish whiskey.

Galway leans to the sea, with Galway Bay oysters, chowder and smoked salmon, the Saturday market by St Nicholas' and an oyster festival in September. Outside its small fine-dining tier, though, it is mostly pub food and cafés of uneven quality.

Belfast has more to see, though it is built around a handful of strong sights rather than a historic core. Titanic Belfast beside the Harland and Wolff cranes, the domed City Hall, the Ulster Museum and Crumlin Road Gaol fill a couple of good days. The murals and peace walls of the Falls and Shankill, seen with a local guide, are what many visitors remember most.

Galway's heritage is a walk rather than a list of visits: the Spanish Arch, Lynch's Castle and St Nicholas' Collegiate Church, with the city museum and the cathedral across the river. It is charming, but anyone after serious museums is better off in Belfast.

Both are pub cities first, with little club life, but the mood is different. Belfast's evenings centre on the cobbled entries of the Cathedral Quarter and Victorian rooms such as the Crown Liquor Saloon, with a friendly weekend crowd and fairly early closing.

Galway has two universities in a small town, so the centre is loud even midweek in term. It reaches its peak during race week and the arts festival, and stag and hen groups are common at weekends.

Both are gateways to superb country. Belfast has hills inside the city at Cave Hill and Divis, the Lagan towpath, and the Mournes and the Causeway Coast each about an hour away.

Galway edges it on wildness. Connemara's bogs, lakes and quartzite peaks, the bare Burren and the Cliffs of Moher feel more remote, and Lough Corrib and the Aran Islands add water and island cycling.

Belfast offers the wider range of outings. Dublin is about two hours away by train, Derry's walls take most of a day, and Carrickfergus, Armagh, Downpatrick and the Antrim coast road add castles, cathedrals and seaside towns.

Galway's outings are mostly villages and single sites: the Aran Islands and Dún Aonghasa, Kylemore Abbey, Cong and Clonmacnoise. They are rewarding, but most need a coach tour or a car.

Belfast is the easier city with children. W5's hands-on science suits younger ones and Titanic Belfast holds older children, and both are indoors when it rains. On drier days the zoo on Cave Hill and the steam engines and farmhouses of the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum round out the week.

Galway is welcoming but has little built for children beyond the aquarium, playgrounds and summer funfair at Salthill. Most family outings there mean driving out to farm parks, lake boats or Connemara ponies.

Both have compact centres where walking does most of the work, though the systems differ. Belfast adds Glider rapid buses and suburban trains along the lough. Galway's core from Eyre Square to the Spanish Arch is mostly pedestrian, and the prom to Salthill is an easy walk. In both cases the countryside really needs a car or a tour, and in Galway that means narrow, winding western roads.

Belfast has more of it, with the chains around Donegall Place, the glass-domed Victoria Square and Irish linen as the souvenir worth taking home.

Galway is smaller but more independent, with bookshops, music shops and Irish design along one pedestrian street. Claddagh rings and Aran knitwear are its local specialities.

Belfast is the better deal. Hotel rooms come at fairer prices than in most UK cities, and several of its main sights cost nothing, though restaurants and drinks still carry UK prices.

Galway is expensive for its size. Rooms are scarce and climb steeply at weekends, in summer and during festival and race weeks. Its savings are the free streets, churches and pub music.

Belfast has the orchestra and the opera house, and Galway has the session and Druid. In Belfast the formal stage is the stronger side. The Ulster Orchestra plays the Ulster Hall, the Grand Opera House takes touring musicals and opera, and the Lyric keeps up Irish drama.

Galway is the better place for traditional music, with fiddles and bodhráns in Latin Quarter pubs most nights and buskers on Shop Street by day. It is also a serious theatre town, with Druid and the Irish-language An Taibhdhearc, though classical music is rare.

Neither city has a spa culture, so relaxing in either means hotel spas, cold-water swims and long walks. Galway has the stronger local rituals, with year-round regulars at Blackrock and traditional seaweed baths a drive away on the west coast. Belfast's quiet comes from the Botanic Gardens, the Lagan towpath and a pub snug, and its centre is calmer at night than Galway's.