Cornwall or Scottish Highlands?

This is Cornwall's clearest advantage. Surfers get the long Atlantic beaches at Fistral, Watergate Bay and Gwithian. In the far west the sand is white, at Porthcurno and Porthminster, and the coves near Falmouth and Fowey are sheltered enough for calmer swimming. The water is still cold, but it is warm enough for proper beach days through summer.

The Highlands have beaches just as beautiful, at Morar, Achmelvich and remote Sandwood Bay, but the sea is a good few degrees colder. That makes them places to walk and picnic, with only a brief, hardy swim.

Cornwall eats better and more easily. Fish from Newlyn supplies everything from fish-and-chip counters on the harbour to serious seafood restaurants in Padstow, St Ives and Porthleven. Pasties, cream teas, cider and Camel Valley sparkling wine fill the gaps in between.

The Highlands have outstanding ingredients, with west-coast langoustines and scallops, venison and smoked salmon, plus distillery tours that Cornwall cannot match. The good tables are scattered, though, and once you leave Oban, Ullapool or Skye, dinner often means a hotel bar with an early kitchen.

In both places the sights are single places spread across the map, but Cornwall has more of them and they are easier to combine. Tate St Ives and the Hepworth sculpture garden give it an art scene. St Michael's Mount, Tintagel and the mining engine houses at Botallack add history, and the Eden Project offers something quite different.

Highland culture is mostly history out in the landscape: the battlefield at Culloden, Urquhart and Eilean Donan castles, the memorial at Glencoe and townships left empty after the Clearances. It is moving, but you drive a long way between sites, and Inverness has no old centre to explore for days.

Neither is a place for late nights, but Cornwall has somewhere to go if you want one. In summer Newquay's bars and clubs fill with surfers and groups on stag and hen weekends, and Falmouth's students keep a smaller scene going. Highland evenings centre on a pub near the river in Inverness or a dram and maybe a folk session in a village hotel bar. Clubs hardly exist there.

The Highlands have the bigger, wilder country. Ben Nevis, Glencoe's rock walls, the Torridon peaks and the high Cairngorm plateau offer mountain days, scrambling and even modest skiing. You might also see golden and sea eagles, red deer, otters and whales off the west coast.

Cornwall's outdoors is all about the coast. The finest stretches of the coast path run around Penwith and across the Lizard. Cornwall is also where Britain surfs, with reliable swell at Newquay, Bude and Sennen. It is gentler, with moorland on Bodmin rather than true mountains.

Cornwall's outings are shorter and easier to fit together. You can hop between St Ives, Mousehole, Port Isaac and Fowey, take the ferry from Falmouth to St Mawes, or make a longer day of it to the Isles of Scilly or across to Plymouth. The towns differ in mood more than in kind.

The Highlands have outings with more character: ferries from Oban to Mull and Iona, and the steam train from Fort William over the Glenfinnan Viaduct. Slow roads make each one a long day, though, and the places at the end are small.

Cornwall is the easier choice with children. Sheltered beaches such as Gyllyngvase and Porthminster suit young children, and there is rock pooling and bodyboarding. Rainy days are covered by the Eden Project, the seal sanctuary at Gweek and Newquay's zoo, and cottages and caravan parks make the stay simple.

The Highlands reward outdoorsy families based around Aviemore, with its wildlife park and reindeer herd. Elsewhere, long drives, wet days and midges in summer make the trip harder work for small children.

Cornwall is the more manageable of the two. Its lanes are narrow and parking in the harbour towns is tight. Still, branch lines reach St Ives, Falmouth, Newquay and Looe, so you can stay in one of those towns and leave the car at home.

In the Highlands a car is close to essential. Trains and buses link the main towns but not the trailheads, beaches and glens people come to see. Single-track roads with passing places make every distance take longer than the map suggests.

Cornwall has more worth browsing. St Ives has a dense cluster of galleries, potteries and studios, and Falmouth, Fowey and Penzance's Chapel Street add independent shops and antiques. The Highlands offer good tweed, knitwear, tartan and whisky bought at the distillery, plus craft studios on Skye, but you won't find much beyond Inverness's Victorian market and the outdoor-gear shops.

Neither is cheap in summer, and both are noticeably kinder to the budget in spring and autumn. The costs come from different places. In Cornwall, it is coastal cottages during the school break, parking charges and tickets to attractions. In the Highlands, it is scarce rooms on Skye and around Glencoe, plus fuel, car hire and remote shops. The Highlands make up for it with hostels, campsites, bothies and hills that cost nothing to enjoy.

Both lean on tradition rather than concert halls. Cornwall has one unforgettable stage, the Minack Theatre cut into the cliffs above Porthcurno. It also has male voice choirs, Padstow's May Day celebration and a summer surf-and-music festival near Newquay.

Highland music is livelier day to day: fiddle and pipe sessions in pubs, ceilidhs where you learn the reels, Gaelic song in the west and Highland games with pipe bands in summer.

Both suit a slow stay rather than a spa break, and the difference is in the setting. Cornwall has spa hotels above beaches such as Watergate Bay and Carbis Bay, and wood-fired saunas on the sand to pair with a cold swim. The Highlands offer deeper quiet: a cottage at the end of a single-track road, an open fire and a dip in a loch, with just a handful of country house hotels for pampering.