Devon or Scottish Highlands?

Both lie on cold seas, but Devon's coast is the more usable one. The surf sands of Woolacombe, Saunton and Croyde, the estuary beaches around Salcombe and Bigbury and the resort beaches of Torbay make beach days a real part of a summer stay, and the water is a few degrees warmer.

The Highlands may have the more beautiful sand, at Morar, Achmelvich or Sandwood Bay, with water that looks turquoise on a clear day. The sea rarely gets much above 13°C, though, so a beach visit there means a walk, a picnic or a quick, hardy dip.

Both eat from their own seas and land, and neither is a restaurant destination. Devon's strengths are Brixham fish, Salcombe and Dartmouth crab, clotted cream and farmhouse cider. The best cooking is in the South Hams harbour towns, and the farm shops reward anyone cooking in a cottage.

The Highlands answer with west-coast langoustines, scallops and oysters, venison and hot-smoked salmon, and with whisky: distillery tastings are a reason to come in their own right. Away from Oban, Ullapool, Skye and Wester Ross, though, village eating thins out quickly and kitchens close early.

Neither has sights of world rank, so the real difference is in the kind of heritage each has. Devon has cities and towns to explore on foot: Exeter with its cathedral vault and Roman walls, Plymouth's Elizabethan Barbican, and old towns such as Dartmouth and Totnes. Country houses from Castle Drogo to Greenway add to them.

Highland heritage is a string of single sites set in the landscape: Culloden, the castles of Urquhart and Eilean Donan, the Glencoe memorial, abandoned Clearance townships and the brochs of the north. It moves visitors through story and setting rather than streets to wander, and almost all of it means driving.

Devon has the only real weekend scenes of the two. In Exeter and Plymouth, students keep the bars full at weekends, and Plymouth's Barbican and Union Street stay busy late. Torquay adds a handful of seaside bars and clubs in summer. Elsewhere, an evening means a harbourside pint in Dartmouth or Salcombe.

Highland evenings belong to the pub. Inverness has a small run of late bars by the river, and Fort William and Portree fill with walkers and climbers after a day on the hills. In the villages it is the hotel bar, a dram and, with luck, a folk session. There is almost nowhere to dance, and even the larger towns wind down early.

Devon's outdoors is generous and easy to reach. Dartmoor's granite tors and pony-grazed moorland, Exmoor's high sea cliffs and the red and white layers of the Jurassic Coast around Beer are all joined by the South West Coast Path. There is surf at Croyde, and the Tarka Trail and the Granite Way make for long, easy cycling.

The Highlands are on a far larger and wilder scale. The ancient sandstone peaks of Assynt, the arctic-feeling Cairngorm plateau and the long route of the West Highland Way are serious mountain country, with skiing in winter and red deer and seals along the way. In return you get weather that can turn in any month and midges in high summer.

Devon's position gives it a wider choice of outings. Bath, Wells and Bristol are within reach of Exeter, Lyme Regis and the Dorset coast lie to the east, and from Plymouth, Cornwall's Eden Project and Fowey open up. Inside the county, the river boat down the Dart and the cobbled steps of Clovelly fill easy days.

Highland outings are fewer and slower: the ferry from Oban to Mull and Iona, Loch Ness and the Speyside distilleries from Inverness, or the steam train over Glenfinnan to Mallaig. They are memorable, but the places are small and slow roads stretch every journey.

Devon is a traditional family vacation county, and it shows. It has lifeguarded beaches with gently shelving water, Paignton Zoo, the National Marine Aquarium and farm parks for wet days. Dartmoor's ponies and letterboxing keep older children busy.

The Highlands work best for outdoorsy families based around Aviemore, with the Highland Wildlife Park, the Cairngorm reindeer herd and forest trails. Elsewhere, long winding drives, rain and midges ask a lot of young children.

Devon has a working rail spine. Main-line trains join Exeter, Plymouth and Torbay, running along the sea wall at Dawlish, and branch lines carry on to Exmouth and Barnstaple. Distances inside the county are short, so drives stay manageable, though high-hedged lanes, reversing to passing places and summer queues to the beaches test anyone's patience.

The Highlands spread over far more ground, and a car matters even more. In the west and north, single-track roads, camper vans and sheep turn short distances into long ones. The scenic lines to Mallaig and Kyle of Lochalsh are journeys in themselves rather than a way to reach the trailheads, and island ferries need booking in summer.

Neither is a place to come for shopping, but they send you home with different things. Devon has the wider spread of towns to browse. There are Totnes's independent and alternative shops and its weekly market, antiques in Honiton, and galleries and nautical clothing in Dartmouth and Salcombe. Exeter and Plymouth have the familiar chains and shopping centres for anything left at home.

The Highlands have fewer places to shop but more that is made locally: tweed, knitwear and tartan, whisky bought from the distillery that made it, smoked fish, and pottery and jewellery from studios on Skye and the west coast. Beyond Inverness there is little in the way of a high street, and a remote village may have only its general store. Pick up walking kit in Fort William or Aviemore before heading west.

Both are expensive in summer, and the ways to save are much the same: travel in spring or autumn, cook for yourself, and enjoy the free coast and hills. In Devon, the main saving is to stay in Torbay, Plymouth or an inland village rather than a harbour town or surf village.

In the Highlands the pressure comes from scarcity. Rooms on Skye and around Glencoe sell out early, and fuel and remote shops add to the bill. Hostels, campsites and bothies are the budget answer.

An evening out in Devon usually means staged performance. Plymouth's Theatre Royal, one of England's largest regional theatres, brings touring musicals, opera and ballet. Exeter has drama at the Northcott and evensong in the cathedral, and Dartington Hall keeps up its tradition of summer music.

The Highlands lean on tradition instead: fiddle and pipe sessions in pubs and village halls, ceilidhs where visitors learn the reels, Gaelic song in the west and pipe bands at summer Highland games. Inverness's theatre takes touring shows, but opera and classical concerts are rare.

Neither has a bathing tradition, and both restore people through quiet rather than treatments. Devon's version is softer and more social: cliff-top and country-house spa hotels, Plymouth's Art Deco Tinside Lido, and south-coast coves where swimmers gather all year.

The Highlands offer deeper solitude: a cottage at the end of a single-track road, long summer evenings, loch dips and an open fire. Spa treatments are limited to a handful of lodges and country house hotels.