Galway or Kilkenny?

Neither is a beach destination, but Galway at least has the sea at its door. Salthill's prom, the Blackrock diving tower and the sheltered cove at Silver Strand are all a walk from the centre, and the year-round swimmers make a cold dip feel like a local ritual.

Kilkenny is inland, so the nearest sand at Tramore or along the Copper Coast is an hour's drive away, and swimming in the Nore is something locals do rather than something set up for visitors. If a sea swim is on your list at all, Galway is the only one of the two where it fits into an ordinary day.

Galway eats from the Atlantic: Galway Bay oysters, mussels, smoked salmon and chowder. The Saturday market by St Nicholas' and a small, ambitious fine-dining scene add to that, and the Oyster Festival is in September.

Kilkenny's strengths are local dairy, lamb and cheese, the cooking in country-house kitchens just outside town, and a long brewing story told at the old brewery site by St Francis Abbey. Both offer little beyond Irish and modern European cooking, but a food-minded visitor finds more to seek out in Galway, especially if seafood is the point.

Kilkenny wins on how much of its past survives in one place. Its medieval street plan is almost intact, and a single walk down the Medieval Mile takes in the castle above the Nore, Rothe House, the Black Abbey's stained glass and St Canice's Cathedral, whose round tower you can climb.

Galway's medieval town of the Tribes survives only in pieces: the Spanish Arch, Lynch's Castle and St Nicholas'. Its charm lies more in the Latin Quarter lanes and the riverside walk past the Claddagh. Neither has major museums, but Kilkenny gives a heritage-minded visitor far more to look at.

Nights out in both towns centre on the pub, but Galway does it on a bigger and younger scale. Its two universities fill the centre even midweek in term time, and race week at Ballybrit and the arts festival keep the town packed and loud for days.

Kilkenny's old bars on High Street and Parliament Street are atmospheric. Still, the town fills up mainly on Friday and Saturday, often with wedding and birthday groups, and winds down early midweek and out of season. Neither has real clubbing or many cocktail bars.

Nature is where Galway pulls furthest ahead. Within about an hour you have the bogs, lakes and Twelve Bens of Connemara, the bare limestone of the Burren, the Cliffs of Moher and the stone-walled Aran Islands, and Lough Corrib runs north from the city for kayaking and boat trips.

Kilkenny's countryside is softer. There are riverside paths along the Nore, the wooded Nore Valley Way through Inistioge, and modest climbs on Brandon Hill and the Blackstairs. It is good walking and cycling country, but for anything wild you have to drive to the Comeraghs or Wicklow.

As bases for day trips the two are about even, but the trips are quite different. From Galway you head out for landscape and island life: the ferry to Inis Mór and the cliff fort of Dún Aonghasa, Kylemore Abbey and Clifden in Connemara, and Cong between its two loughs.

Kilkenny's outings are about stone and history: the Rock of Cashel, Jerpoint's carved cloister, Kells Priory in its fields and Waterford's Viking quarter, with Dublin under two hours away by train. From either town, most places beyond the few that trains reach need a car or a tour.

Both are small, safe and easy-going with children, and neither has much built for them. Galway's advantage is the seafront at Salthill, with the national aquarium, playgrounds and a summer funfair. Kilkenny has the castle lawns and playground, plus tree-top courses and zip lines in the forest park near Castlecomer.

Galway's wetter weather leaves families short of indoor options, and in both towns the centre on a busy weekend night is best avoided with young children.

Both centres are made for walking. Galway's runs from Eyre Square down Shop Street to the Spanish Arch, with city buses and a half-hour walk along the prom to Salthill. Kilkenny's is the kilometre of the Medieval Mile, and the station is a short walk away.

The difference lies in the surrounding region. Galway's trains go east to Dublin and south to Limerick, but Connemara and the Aran ferry mean coaches or a car on narrow, winding roads. Kilkenny's abbeys and river villages are closer together, but the rural buses that serve them are sparse.

Galway has a little more for browsing. One pedestrian street runs from Eyre Square to Quay Street with good bookshops, music shops and Irish design, and you can buy the Claddagh ring in the city where it began, with Aran knitwear on sale all over the centre.

Kilkenny's speciality is craft. The castle's former stables were the starting point of a national design movement in the 1960s and still sell regional pottery, glass and woollens, and potters, weavers and silversmiths have studios around the county. Neither town has luxury or serious fashion shopping.

Both are expensive, as you'd expect in one of Europe's pricier countries, and meals and pints cost the same Irish rates in each. Kilkenny is slightly easier on rooms, with reasonably priced guesthouses on the edge of town midweek. Galway has few hotel rooms for the number of visitors, and they are booked months ahead for race week and the arts festival.

In both towns the centre costs nothing to walk around. The real extra expense is getting out into the countryside by hire car or tour.

Galway is the stronger town for live performance on an ordinary night. Traditional sessions run across the Latin Quarter most nights of the year and buskers fill Shop Street. It also has serious theatre: Druid, founded here in 1975, the Town Hall Theatre and An Taibhdhearc, the Irish-language national theatre.

Kilkenny has trad in a few pubs and a small theatre, so its appeal is its festivals. The August arts festival brings classical concerts to St Canice's, there is a comedy festival in early summer, and a roots music weekend in May. If your visit falls in one of those weeks, the gap narrows.

Neither town has a bathing tradition, and in both a spa usually means a country-house hotel. Galway's way to unwind is bracing and outdoors: a cold swim off Blackrock or a windy walk along the prom, with seaweed baths on the coast within a drive.

Kilkenny's calm is gentler, with quiet weekday mornings in the castle park or by the Nore and the river villages beyond. Both centres get noisy at night, so if rest is the point, stay out in Connemara or the Kilkenny countryside.