Bristol or Nantes?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Nantes at least puts real sand within reach. La Baule's sheltered bay and the coves at Pornic are about an hour by train, clean and calm enough for families, and the Atlantic warms a little more in late summer.

Bristol's shore is the brown, silty Severn estuary with a huge tidal range. Weston-super-Mare's sands are an hour away, but the tide goes out so far that swimming means careful timing. The Victorian marine lake at Clevedon, used for cold-water dips, is about as close as it gets.

The two eat about equally well, but in different ways. Nantes has a regional cuisine you can name: beurre blanc was born here, oysters come from the nearby coast, and Muscadet from vineyards just outside town is made to go with them. The Talensac market and the Bouffay bistros show it off.

Bristol has no dish of its own and makes up for it with range. St Nicholas Market, the harbourside container kitchens and Gloucester Road serve everything from pies to Caribbean food, and the drinking is the local part, with West Country cider and a large craft brewing scene.

These two are close, and each fills two or three days. Bristol's sights are about engineering and trade: Brunel's SS Great Britain in its dry dock, the Clifton Suspension Bridge over the gorge, Georgian Clifton and the Gothic splendour of St Mary Redcliffe, plus Banksy's early street art.

Nantes has a slightly stronger historic core, built around the moated castle of the Dukes of Brittany and the cathedral, with the merchant façades of Ile Feydeau and the Jules Verne museum. Both port cities deal openly with their part in the slave trade, Bristol at M Shed and Nantes in the château museum and the riverside memorial.

Bristol is clearly the better night out. It has a sound-system and club culture with its own sound, with clubs in warehouses and railway arches around Temple Meads and a long-moored club boat on the harbour. Weekends run late, and Stokes Croft adds scruffy, creative bars.

Nantes is friendly and easy to join, starting in the pubs and terraces of the medieval Bouffay lanes and moving later to the old banana warehouses on the Ile de Nantes. It is a regional city's night, though, and it goes quiet midweek outside term.

Bristol has more to do outdoors, and much of it starts in the city. The Avon Gorge has limestone cliffs for climbers, Ashton Court and Leigh Woods have trails, and the Mendips, Cheddar Gorge, Exmoor and the Brecon Beacons give real hill walking within two hours.

Nantes is flat and watery. The pleasures are gentle ones: a boat or canoe on the Erdre, the Loire à Vélo cycle route through the vineyards, birdwatching from a punt in the Brière marshes, and the cliff paths of the Côte Sauvage. Walkers who want hills will miss them.

Both make fine bases, but Bristol has more first-rate places close by. Bath is a quarter of an hour by train, Wells and Glastonbury are about an hour away, Cardiff is just across the Severn, and the Cotswold villages, Stonehenge and Avebury all make full days out.

From Nantes the range is wider but a little further off. You can visit the salt-marsh town of Guérande, Angers and its Apocalypse Tapestry, Clisson in the Muscadet vineyards, Vannes on the Gulf of Morbihan, and Saumur and the Loire châteaux within two hours.

Nantes is the easier city with children. The mechanical elephant and the sea-creature carousel at the Machines de l'Ile are a rare treat, the trams take a buggy without fuss, and Puy du Fou, a safari park and calm sandy beaches are all within a drive.

Bristol is welcoming too. It has the SS Great Britain, the hands-on science centre and aquarium on the harbourside, harbour ferries and a spacious wildlife park. Its steep hills are hard work with a pushchair, though, and there is no big theme park nearby.

Nantes is much simpler to move around. The centre is flat and walkable, three tram lines and a busway make an easy network, river shuttles cross the Loire, and cycling is easy along the riverside paths.

Bristol's core around the harbour and old city is compact too, and the yellow ferries help. Beyond that, the city has no tram or metro, buses get caught in traffic, and the climb up to Clifton tires legs quickly.

Shopping is a pleasant sideline in both cities and a reason to visit in neither. Bristol has the bigger mainstream offer at Cabot Circus and Broadmead, and its real character is the long independent run of Gloucester Road, with records, vintage clothes and delis.

Nantes is smaller, but the three-level Passage Pommeraye is a lovely place to browse. It also has more to take home that tastes of the region: salted-butter biscuits, berlingot sweets, Guérande salt and Muscadet.

Nantes is the somewhat cheaper stay. Hotels are easy to find and fairly priced, the trams and flat centre keep transport costs down, and set lunch menus are good value, though the coast costs more in high summer.

Bristol is manageable rather than cheap, and its hotels climb at weekends. Free entry to most museums and churches and a walkable centre soften the bill.

The two are level, but they suit different audiences. Bristol is the place for gigs: small venues in Stokes Croft, Old Market and on the harbour host bands, jazz and electronic acts most nights. The Georgian Bristol Old Vic and the Tobacco Factory give it strong theatre.

Nantes is better for classical music and spectacle. A regional opera company performs at the Théâtre Graslin, there is a national orchestra, and the La Folle Journée festival takes over in winter. The city is also home to giant street-theatre puppetry.

Bristol is a little ahead, mostly because of its neighbour. Bath's rooftop thermal pool, fed by Britain's only natural hot springs, is a quarter of an hour away by train, and the heated Victorian lido in Clifton makes a restful half day.

Nantes is the calmer city day to day, with slow afternoons by the Erdre or in the Jardin des Plantes. For proper treatment you have to travel about an hour to the old thalassotherapy centres at La Baule and Pornic.