Edinburgh or Manchester?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Edinburgh at least has the sea on its doorstep. Portobello's long sands and promenade are a short bus ride from the centre, and the wide East Lothian beaches at Gullane and North Berwick are within an hour.

Manchester is inland, so reaching the coast means a train ride of an hour or more to the dunes at Formby or the promenade at Blackpool. The water on both coasts is cold enough that most visitors walk rather than swim. Only Edinburgh has a real cold-water swimming habit, at Portobello and Wardie Bay.

The two eat at much the same level, but in different ways. Edinburgh's best meals come from the Scottish larder: west-coast scallops and langoustines, Highland lamb and game in autumn, cooked in a small group of ambitious dining rooms in Leith and Stockbridge. Its real speciality is whisky, poured in bars that hold hundreds of single malts.

Manchester has no larder to match, but it has range and cheap eating that Edinburgh lacks: Chinatown, the South Asian restaurants on Wilmslow Road and the food halls in the old mills of Ancoats. Its drinking leans towards craft beer brewed under the railway arches rather than malt whisky.

In Edinburgh the city itself is the main attraction. The castle, the narrow closes of the Royal Mile and the Georgian New Town together form a World Heritage Site, with national galleries and museums, mostly free, to fill the gaps between them.

Manchester tells a narrower story, but an absorbing one: the story of the first industrial city, told through the neo-Gothic Town Hall, the John Rylands Library, the mills of Ancoats and the Science and Industry Museum. It repays an interest in cotton, politics and Victorian building, but nothing there stops visitors in their tracks the way Edinburgh's skyline does.

Manchester is the better night out by some distance. The old warehouses of the Northern Quarter hold cocktail bars, basement dives and small DJ rooms, and the Gay Village on Canal Street is one of the oldest in Europe. In autumn and winter, big warehouse raves bring in well-known DJs, and two universities keep weeknights busy in term time.

Edinburgh is a pub city, with wood-panelled Victorian bars on Rose Street, old drinking dens in the Grassmarket and harbour pubs in Leith. Outside August it winds down early, and the clubs along the Cowgate are a small scene.

Edinburgh has wild ground inside the city. Arthur's Seat rises to 251m a short walk from the Royal Mile, the Water of Leith runs through woods to the sea, and the ridges of the Pentland Hills are half an hour away. Boats from North Berwick go out to the gannets on the Bass Rock.

Manchester's centre is flat and built up, so green space in town means Heaton Park or the canal towpaths out of Castlefield. Its strength is the Peak District on the eastern edge: trains reach Edale in under an hour for Kinder Scout and Mam Tor, though the moorland is often under cloud and muddy.

Both cities are excellent bases. The difference is what lies within reach. From Edinburgh the outings are Scottish history and character: Stirling Castle, Linlithgow Palace, St Andrews and the Borders abbeys, with Glasgow under an hour away by train.

Manchester's rail hub points across northern England instead, to Liverpool's waterfront, the Roman walls of Chester and York Minster. Chatsworth, Buxton and the Lake District towns make greener days out.

Families will do about as well in either city, though the days look different. In Edinburgh the castle, Camera Obscura and Dynamic Earth are all central, and Holyrood Park and Portobello give children room to run. The Old Town's steps and cobbles are hard work with a buggy, though.

Manchester relies on indoor attractions, many of them free: the working engines at the Science and Industry Museum, the dinosaurs at the Manchester Museum, and the aquarium and snow slope at the Trafford Centre. Its biggest draws, Chester Zoo and Alton Towers, each need a whole day out.

Both centres are walkable, and Edinburgh puts a little more of what visitors want within a short stroll: the Old Town, New Town, Calton Hill and Holyrood Park all sit within about 2km of each other. The price is the hills, bridges and cobbled closes. Manchester's centre, by contrast, is flat.

Further out, Manchester's Metrolink trams run to Salford Quays, Old Trafford and the airport, while Edinburgh depends on its dense bus network and a single tram line. Both cities have central stations that make rail day trips easy.

Manchester is the stronger shopping city and the main one in northern England. It has the high-street names around Market Street, designer labels on King Street and the huge Trafford Centre on the edge of town. Its character is in the Northern Quarter, with record shops, vintage clothing and the many floors of stalls at Afflecks.

Edinburgh's shopping is smaller and is more about what you take home: cashmere, tweed, kilts from specialist makers and single malts. Victoria Street and Stockbridge have the independent shops.

Manchester is easier on the wallet, mainly because its hotel rooms are reasonable on ordinary weeknights. Edinburgh's central rooms are expensive all year and reach extreme levels in August and at Hogmanay. Cheap meals are easier to find in Manchester too, thanks to its curry houses, Chinatown and food halls.

Both cities keep their main museums free. In Edinburgh the biggest saving is to come in late autumn or winter, avoiding the Christmas weeks. In Manchester, check whether a home football match or a big concert falls on your dates.

These two are level in strength but opposite in rhythm. Edinburgh's performing life peaks in August, when the Fringe, the International Festival and the Military Tattoo take over the city. The rest of the year has the national orchestras at the Usher Hall, Scottish Opera and Scottish Ballet, and folk sessions in the pubs.

Manchester's offer is spread evenly through the year and leans on live music, from back rooms in the Northern Quarter to a huge arena. It also has the Hallé and the BBC Philharmonic at the Bridgewater Hall, and theatre in the round inside the old cotton exchange at the Royal Exchange.

Neither is a spa city, but Edinburgh gives you more chances to unwind. There are the Victorian Turkish baths at Portobello, saunas on the shore for cold-water swimmers, and quiet out-of-season mornings in the Botanic Garden or along the Water of Leith.

Manchester has hotel and day spas and little else, since Victoria Baths is a heritage visit rather than somewhere to swim. For real rest, take a train out to the Peak District or the old spa town of Buxton.