Edinburgh or St Andrews?

Neither place is for swimming, since both face the same cold North Sea. St Andrews comes out a little ahead because its sand is right on the doorstep. You can walk out of the medieval centre onto West Sands, with its dunes and links, and sheltered East Sands by the harbour suits children.

In Edinburgh you take a bus out to Portobello's Victorian promenade, or travel half an hour to an hour to reach the wide East Lothian beaches at Gullane and Yellowcraig.

Edinburgh offers much more choice. Ambitious kitchens in Leith, the New Town and Stockbridge cook west-coast shellfish, Highland beef and game, and the whisky bars, with staff who guide tastings, are a draw in their own right.

St Andrews keeps things simple: cafés, bakeries, a few good restaurants cooking East Neuk crab and Fife lamb, and the summer ice cream queues. The real treat is fish and chips eaten on a harbour wall in the villages down the coast.

Edinburgh is in a different league. The whole centre, from the castle down the Royal Mile to Holyroodhouse and across to the Georgian crescents of the New Town, is a World Heritage Site, and the National Museum and the national galleries add several days of free viewing.

St Andrews has a strong medieval story of its own, with the vast ruined cathedral, St Rule's Tower, the castle's siege tunnels and the university, founded in 1413. It is compact, though, and a day or two covers it.

Edinburgh offers a proper night out, mostly in pubs. There are wood-panelled bars on Rose Street, old dens in the Grassmarket, cocktail basements off George Street and the late clubs of the Cowgate, and in August the whole centre stays up.

St Andrews has pubs, golfers' lounges and a students' union that keeps things lively in term. In summer the town is in bed early, and those who want more head to Edinburgh.

Edinburgh has the wilder landscape close at hand. Arthur's Seat rises with crags and lochs a short walk from the Royal Mile, the Water of Leith runs wooded to the sea, and the Pentland Hills offer ridge walking within half an hour.

Around St Andrews the scenery is gentler and coastal. The Fife Coastal Path runs past sea stacks and caves, wading birds gather on the Eden estuary, and seals haul out below Tentsmuir's pine woods. Real hills there mean a drive.

Both make good bases, but for different trips. From Edinburgh, Waverley's trains make Glasgow, Stirling and Linlithgow simple outings, and the Borders abbeys and Rosslyn Chapel fill other days without a car.

St Andrews looks east and north instead. The pantiled East Neuk harbours, Falkland Palace and Dundee's V&A and the ship Discovery are all close, but Glamis, Scone and Culross are far easier with a car than by bus.

When the rain comes in, Edinburgh has the indoor answers: the hands-on galleries and dinosaurs of the National Museum, Dynamic Earth under its tented roof below Arthur's Seat, and the optical illusions of Camera Obscura. On drier days there are the castle's cannons, the hillside zoo and Holyrood Park to run in, though the Old Town's steps and cobbles are hard going with a buggy.

St Andrews is a beach-and-rock-pool place for a calmer few days. Sandcastles on East Sands, the small aquarium on the Scores, the crawl through the castle's siege tunnels and the miniature railway at Craigtoun Park fill the time, and older children can roam safely in a town this small. A wet spell leaves fewer fallbacks.

Edinburgh is easier for a visitor who arrives without a car. The main sights lie within about 2km of each other, buses are dense, a tram runs from the airport to Leith, and Waverley sits in the middle of town for day trips. The cost is the hills, with steep closes and cobbles.

St Andrews is even easier on foot, just a few parallel streets running down to the cathedral. Leaving town is harder, though: the nearest station is at Leuchars, about 8km away, and the countryside really calls for a car.

Edinburgh's shopping is a capital's mix of high street and Scottish craft, while St Andrews is a small town that specialises in golf. In Edinburgh, Princes Street has the chains, George Street the upmarket labels, and curving Victoria Street and Stockbridge's Sunday market the independents. Specialist kiltmakers and whisky shops with deep selections of malts are what most visitors come for.

St Andrews makes a pleasant afternoon's browse along Market Street and South Street: clubs, clothing and Old Course souvenirs, with some cashmere and good bookshops alongside.

Both are expensive, and in both the cost comes from rooms. Edinburgh's hotels peak sharply in August and at Hogmanay, while St Andrews' scarcer rooms peak around golf tournaments and graduation weeks.

They save money in different ways. Edinburgh's free national museums and its free hill views help a lot. In St Andrews the sights cost little, but a round on the famous courses is a major expense, and staying in the East Neuk villages can bring the bill down.

This is one of the widest gaps between the two. Each August, Edinburgh's Fringe, International Festival and Military Tattoo fill the city from morning to past midnight.

The rest of the year Edinburgh still has two national orchestras, Scottish Opera and Scottish Ballet at the Festival Theatre, and new drama at the Traverse. St Andrews has the Byre Theatre, chapel choirs and student concerts in term, and it goes quiet in the summer break.

Neither is a spa destination, and the restful moments come in different forms. Edinburgh has the Victorian Turkish baths at Portobello and the modernist Commonwealth Pool, but in August the centre is too crowded to unwind.

St Andrews has no public baths. Instead it offers a slower pace all year, with long walks on West Sands and full spas at the golf resorts that non-residents can use. Both places have a habit of cold sea dipping off their beaches.