Cardiff or Inverness?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Cardiff makes a summer seaside afternoon easier. Barry Island's sandy bay and funfair are half an hour away by train, and Penarth's pebble shore and pier are just along the coast. The Bristol Channel is also a few degrees less cold.

Inverness has prettier sand than you might expect: the long beach at Nairn, and Rosemarkie and Chanonry Point on the Black Isle. But the Moray Firth is colder still, so a visit there means a walk along the shore looking for dolphins, not a swim.

Cardiff has the wider range. You can start at the Victorian market with Welsh cakes and laverbread, then move on to the neighbourhood bistros of Pontcanna and Canton and the long run of Middle Eastern and South Asian kitchens on City Road. The local ales in the pubs are good too.

Inverness eats narrower but very well within its range: langoustines, Moray Firth seafood, venison and Cullen skink, with a few serious riverside restaurants. Whisky is the drink that matters here. Choice thins out quickly, and in summer the better tables need booking.

There's a real gap here. Cardiff Castle stands in the city centre with its lavish coal-money interiors, and across the road the white stone civic centre holds the National Museum and its strong French Impressionists. St Fagans' open-air museum and Llandaff Cathedral fill two or three full days.

Inverness has the red sandstone castle on its bluff as a view rather than a visit, plus the cathedral and a compact museum of Highland and Pictish history. Its most important site, Culloden battlefield, is out on the moor east of town. Most of its history means driving out rather than walking around.

Cardiff is a proper night out, especially at weekends. St Mary Street fills with groups, rugby international days turn the centre red, and Womanby Street has small alternative bars and late venues. The two universities keep it going during term.

Inverness is an evening in the pub. Church Street and the riverside have old wood-panelled bars and whisky bars where a slow dram is the whole point, and the town is quiet before midnight on weeknights.

Inverness has the stronger hand here. Loch Ness, Glen Affric's Caledonian pinewoods and the Cairngorms around Aviemore are each within about an hour, with Torridon and the road to Skye beyond them. Shore-based dolphin watching at Chanonry Point is something Cardiff simply doesn't have.

Cardiff's outdoors is gentler and closer to home: Bute Park and the Taff Trail running north from the castle, the barrage loop, and the coast path past Penarth's cliffs. For a mountain day, Pen y Fan in the Brecon Beacons is an hour's drive away.

Cardiff's surroundings are richer and easier to reach. Caerphilly's huge fortress is twenty minutes away by train and Castell Coch sits in the woods just north of the city. Chepstow and Tintern Abbey make a pair, and Bath and Bristol are each about an hour by rail. You can mix castles, Roman Caerleon and the industrial heritage of Big Pit with whole other cities.

Inverness offers single sites rather than towns: Urquhart Castle above Loch Ness, Cawdor, Fort George, the Clava Cairns and the Speyside distilleries. Most of them are much easier by car or on a tour.

The two are about even for children, but the days look different. Cardiff keeps everything within walking or train distance: Techniquest at the Bay, the farm animals and old shops at St Fagans, rowing boats on Roath Park lake and Barry Island's funfair in summer.

Inverness has more wildlife and adventure but needs the car. The Highland Wildlife Park has polar bears and snow leopards, there's a forest adventure park at Carrbridge, and you can take a monster-hunting boat trip on Loch Ness. On wet days the Aquadome pool in town is the fallback.

Cardiff is easier to manage without a car. The castle, museum, arcades and market are all a few minutes' walk from Central station. A shuttle train or a water taxi along the Taff reaches the Bay, and local lines run out to Penarth, Barry and Caerphilly.

Inverness is just as walkable in its small centre, and its railway lines to Kyle of Lochalsh and Thurso are scenic trips in their own right. The glens and distilleries, though, lie down single-track roads with sparse buses, so most visitors either hire a car or plan around tours.

Cardiff gives you the better afternoon of browsing, mostly thanks to its glass-roofed Royal, Morgan and Castle arcades with their record, book and vintage shops. Queen Street and the central mall cover the national chains.

Inverness has one Victorian arcade of its own, and shopping there is about taking the Highlands home: tartan, tweed, knitwear, Celtic silver and malts from the specialist whisky shops. An hour or two is enough.

Cardiff is somewhat easier on the budget. The national museums, St Fagans included, are free, the centre needs no transport, and the train trips to castles and the coast are short and cheap. The catch is hotel rates on rugby and stadium concert dates.

Inverness costs more in practice, because the landscape you came for usually means car hire or tours, and distilleries charge for visits. Its small stock of rooms fills up and climbs steeply in July and August, so the shoulder seasons are the better buy.

Cardiff is a capital for the stage. The Wales Millennium Centre houses Welsh National Opera, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales is based in the city, and the Royal Welsh College adds a steady run of student shows. The small venues on Womanby Street book bands most nights.

In Inverness, Eden Court carries the touring theatre, dance and concerts for the whole Highlands, and classical music only arrives on tour. Its real draw is traditional: fiddle and accordion sessions in the pubs, and Gaelic song at the Highland Games.

Neither city has a bathing culture, and in both, relaxing mostly means a hotel spa. In Cardiff that is a city break kind of calm: leisure pools at the Bay hotels, slow mornings in the Pontcanna cafés, a walk through Bute Park.

Inverness leans rural. There are country-house hotel spas around Loch Ness, the Aquadome's sauna, long light summer evenings on the Ness Islands and a dram by the fire.