Cambridge or Edinburgh?

Neither city is a beach destination, but only Edinburgh has a shore of its own. Portobello's long sand and Victorian promenade are a short bus ride from the centre, and the broad beaches at Gullane and North Berwick are an easy trip out. The water is cold enough that most people walk the sand rather than swim, apart from a dedicated crowd of year-round sea swimmers.

Cambridge is a long drive from any coast, so swimming there means the 1920s Jesus Green Lido or a dip in the Cam at Grantchester Meadows on a hot afternoon.

Edinburgh has more worth seeking out. It draws on the Scottish larder of scallops, langoustines, Highland beef and autumn game, has a cluster of ambitious modern kitchens in Leith and Stockbridge, and its whisky bars are a reason to visit in their own right. Street food is scarce, though, and the cheap eats near the Royal Mile disappoint.

Cambridge is pleasant but limited. Old beamed pubs serve ales and Sunday roasts, the daily market on Market Hill has street-food stalls, and Mill Road brings Asian and Mediterranean cooking. Nothing here is particular to the region, and a couple of days covers it.

The two are well matched, but the heritage is of a different kind. In Cambridge it is concentrated in the colleges: eight centuries of courts, chapels and libraries, with King's College Chapel and the Wren Library at the top and the university museums, led by the Fitzwilliam, behind them. Several colleges charge entry, and some close during exams.

In Edinburgh the whole townscape is the sight. You get the castle on its rock, the medieval closes of the Royal Mile and the Georgian crescents of the New Town, with free national museums and galleries to fill the gaps. Either city rewards two or three full days.

Both cities centre on the pub, but Edinburgh has more depth and more late options. You can drink in Victorian bars on Rose Street, old dens in the Grassmarket, harbour pubs in Leith and basement cocktail bars off George Street, with the Cowgate as the late-night strip. In August the festivals keep the centre out until the small hours.

Cambridge is good for riverside beer gardens and historic inns, with livelier bars on Regent Street and Mill Road. Its few clubs go quiet when the students leave, and people looking for a big night head to London.

This is where the two differ most. Edinburgh has a wild hill at its heart: Arthur's Seat, an extinct volcano with crags and lochs, rises to 251m within walking distance of the Old Town. The Water of Leith runs through woods to the sea, and the Pentland Hills offer proper ridge walks within half an hour. Further out are the gannets of the Bass Rock and the edge of the Highlands.

Cambridge's countryside is flat fen. It is lovely for punting, for cycling to Grantchester past grazing cattle and for watching birds at Wicken Fen, but it has no hills or dramatic scenery.

Both make excellent bases, and the choice comes down to what lies around them. From Cambridge it is English heritage and the capital. London is under an hour by train, Ely Cathedral is fifteen minutes away, and you can easily reach the wool towns of Lavenham and Long Melford, Bury St Edmunds, Norwich and the great National Trust estates.

From Edinburgh it is Scottish history and a second city. Glasgow and Stirling Castle are both under an hour away, and further afield are St Andrews, the Borders abbeys, Rosslyn Chapel and the Forth Bridges. Waverley station in the city centre makes most of these simple by train.

Edinburgh gives children a little more to do. The castle with its cannons, the hands-on galleries at the National Museum, Dynamic Earth, Camera Obscura and the zoo will fill several days, with Holyrood Park and Portobello's sand for letting off steam. The steep steps and cobbles of the Old Town are hard work with a buggy, though.

Cambridge is flatter, smaller and easier underfoot. Punting, the whale skeleton at the free Museum of Zoology and the aircraft at Duxford are the highlights, but the colleges themselves are hushed places, better suited to grown-ups.

Both centres are compact enough to walk, but the ground is very different. Cambridge is flat and largely pedestrian, and bikes are the local way to get about. The station is a fair walk out of the centre, and the buses are only adequate.

In Edinburgh the walking involves hills, bridges and stairways, but a dense bus network and a tram line from the airport to Leith fill the gaps. Its main station sits right in the middle of town. In both cities a car is more trouble than it is worth.

Edinburgh has a little more to buy and a clearer local identity. Cashmere, tweed, tartan from proper kiltmakers and single malts are the things to take home, alongside the independent shops on Victoria Street and the upmarket labels on George Street.

Cambridge is mainly about books, from old academic booksellers to second-hand dealers in the lanes, plus the daily market and vintage shops on Mill Road. In neither city will shopping shape the trip.

Both are costly places to stay, and in both the cost comes from scarce, sought-after hotel rooms. Cambridge is at its dearest in summer and around graduations. Edinburgh peaks hard in August and at Hogmanay, while late autumn and winter there are noticeably cheaper.

The savings are similar too. Cambridge has free university museums and free evensong, and you need no transport in the centre. Edinburgh has free national galleries, a free climb up Arthur's Seat and cheap buses. Paid sights such as the famous colleges, the castle and Holyroodhouse soon add up in either city.

Edinburgh has much the bigger stage, but Cambridge has one thing that is its own. In Cambridge the sound to seek out is choral evensong, sung during term by the choirs of King's, St John's and Trinity in their candlelit chapels. Beyond that there is touring drama at the Arts Theatre, student comedy in the Footlights tradition and the long-running summer Folk Festival. It has no opera house and no major orchestra of its own.

Edinburgh gives a theatre- or concert-goer far more. In August the Fringe, the International Festival and the Tattoo take over churches, cellars and the castle esplanade. For the rest of the year, the Usher Hall and the Queen's Hall host both the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Scottish Opera and Scottish Ballet play the Festival Theatre, the Lyceum and the Traverse put on strong drama, and there are folk sessions in the pubs.

Neither city has a bathing tradition of its own, and in both a proper spa means a hotel or day spa. Where they differ is in how you take to the water. Cambridge keeps it fresh and mild: an open-air pool from the 1920s and river swimming upstream of town, both at their best on a warm summer afternoon. Its busy season is summer, when tour groups pack the lanes around King's Parade, so the quiet comes early in the day, in the evening or out on the edges of town.

Edinburgh's bathing runs both hotter and colder. Portobello has a rare set of Victorian Turkish baths, with steam rooms and a plunge pool, on a seafront where cold-water swimmers warm up afterwards in saunas on the shore. The Royal Commonwealth Pool is a handsome modernist hall for a proper swim. Its crowds arrive in one hard burst in August, and for the rest of the year a slow morning in a New Town café is easy to find.