Dublin or Inverness?

Neither city is a place to swim, but Dublin's coast is easier to use. Dollymount, Sandymount, Killiney and Portmarnock are sandy and on or near the DART, and the year-round dips at the Forty Foot and Seapoint turn a cold swim into a local ritual.

The sands near Inverness, at Nairn and Rosemarkie, need a short drive, and the firth is a touch colder still. What Inverness offers instead is wildlife: a walk out along the spit at Chanonry Point is about dolphins, not about getting in the water.

Both kitchens rest on fine local produce, seafood, beef and lamb in one and venison in the other, but Dublin gives you more places to eat it. The modern bistros of Dublin 2 and Dublin 8, a respectable international range and the Saturday market in Temple Bar make several days of eating out easy, and stout and whiskey distilleries round it off.

Inverness has a handful of good riverside restaurants, dependable pub cooking such as Cullen skink and steak pie, and a serious malt whisky habit. Choice runs out after a few nights, and the better tables need booking in summer.

Here Dublin is clearly the richer city. Trinity's Long Room, the Chester Beatty Library, the free national museums and gallery, two medieval cathedrals and Kilmainham Gaol are all within walking distance, set among Georgian squares that carry the city's literary past.

In Inverness the red sandstone castle, the cathedral across the Ness and a compact museum with Pictish stones fill a morning. Its most important historic site is Culloden battlefield, a short drive east, and seeing most of the rest of the region's history means driving out of town.

Both cities spend their evenings in the pub, but Dublin does it on a far bigger scale. Old pubs with snugs around Baggot Street, younger late bars on Camden and Wexford Street and the crowds of Temple Bar make weekends busy, though clubs close early.

In Inverness the evening centres on a few wood-panelled and whisky bars around Church Street, and weeknights are quiet before midnight. It suits a slow dram after a day in the glens, not a big night out.

Inverness wins clearly on landscape. Loch Ness and the Great Glen start twenty minutes away, Glen Affric's Caledonian pine forest and the Cairngorms' high plateau are about an hour off, and Torridon and the road to Skye are within two hours. This is wilder, higher country, with skiing around Aviemore in winter.

Dublin is greener than most capitals. It has deer in Phoenix Park, and the Howth cliff path and the walk from Bray Head to Greystones are both reachable by train. The Wicklow hills and Glendalough are lovely, but they are rounded and gentle next to anything north of Inverness.

Dublin offers more variety in a day out. The passage tombs at Newgrange and Knowth, the Hill of Tara and Trim Castle lie to the north, with Glendalough to the south. Medieval Kilkenny and even Belfast, another city in another country, are reachable by train, so prehistory, monasteries and towns can all go on the list.

From Inverness the outings are mostly to single sites: Urquhart Castle, Cawdor, Fort George, the Clava Cairns and the Speyside distilleries. They are good, but there is no other sizeable city within reach. From both bases, a car or a tour makes the rural sites much easier.

Both are easy, friendly places to bring children, and in both the weather is the limit, so plan for wet days. Dublin's draws are urban: the zoo in Phoenix Park, the free natural history museum and Dublinia's Vikings, with family pub lunches thrown in.

Inverness leans outdoors, with monster hunting on Loch Ness boat trips, dolphins at Chanonry Point and the snow leopards at the Highland Wildlife Park, and the Aquadome for rainy days. More of it means a drive.

Dublin is the easier city without a car. Its flat centre is pleasant to walk, two Luas tram lines and the DART cover the city and the bay, and one card works on all of them. The weak point is the buses, which crawl to the airport at rush hour.

You can cross the centre of Inverness on foot in twenty minutes, and its station runs scenic lines to Kyle of Lochalsh and Thurso. The glens and distilleries, though, are down single-track roads with sparse buses, so most visitors hire a car or book tours.

Dublin has much more to browse: Grafton Street with Brown Thomas, the Powerscourt Townhouse arcade and the design shops around Drury Street, with Aran knitwear, linen and crystal to take home.

In Inverness the shopping takes an hour or two at the Victorian Market and on the high street. The things to take home are tartan, tweed, Celtic silver and malt whisky, and the one browse worth lingering over is a second-hand bookshop in a former church.

Both are expensive, but Inverness is easier on the wallet. Its rooms climb steeply in summer but fall back in the shoulder seasons and winter, and walking in its landscape, the main attraction, costs nothing. Car hire, tours and distillery visits are where the extra costs build up.

Dublin's hotel rooms are among the priciest in Europe, especially at weekends, and a round in a city-centre pub adds up fast. The free national museums and staying near a DART or Luas stop outside the centre help bring the bill down.

For theatre and music, Dublin is in another league. It has the Abbey and the Gate for drama, musicals at the Gaiety, the national orchestra at the National Concert Hall and an autumn theatre festival, plus traditional sessions in pubs most nights.

Inverness relies on Eden Court for touring theatre, dance and concerts. Its stronger side is fiddle and accordion in the pubs and Gaelic song at the summer Highland Games.

Dublin's idea of wellness is cold and bracing: a sea dip at the Forty Foot or Seapoint, often followed by a sauna on the seafront. Beyond that, calm means a quiet Georgian square or a long walk in Phoenix Park, because the capital isn't built for slowing down.

Inverness relaxes more gently, with country-house hotel spas around Loch Ness and the Aquadome's pools and sauna in town. Its real asset is the slow pace of a riverside town, though there are no thermal baths here either.