Glasgow or Edinburgh?

Edinburgh at least has sand within the city. Portobello's long beach and promenade are a short bus ride from the centre, and the wide East Lothian beaches at Gullane and North Berwick make a good outing. Glasgow's nearest sand is about an hour away by train, at Largs, Troon or Ayr on the Firth of Clyde.

In neither city is the water the point. The sea stays cold all summer on both coasts, and you are far more likely to walk the shore than swim, although Edinburgh's cold-water swimmers at Portobello and Wardie Bay keep up a real local habit.

Neither city is worth the trip for food alone, but they eat well in different ways. Edinburgh relies on the Scottish larder and on whisky. Its most ambitious cooking is in Leith, the New Town and Stockbridge, and its bars have long lists of single malts and staff who will guide a tasting.

Glasgow's character comes from its immigrant kitchens: a deep curry-house tradition, plus the cafés, ice cream parlours and chip shops that Italian families shaped. Eating in its neighbourhoods, in Finnieston, the West End and the South Side, is more relaxed and cheaper than anything near the Royal Mile.

Here Edinburgh is clearly ahead. The castle on its rock, the Royal Mile running down to Holyroodhouse and the Georgian crescents of the New Town turn the whole centre into one World Heritage townscape, and the national museum and galleries are right in it.

Glasgow's appeal is Victorian rather than medieval or Georgian: grand sandstone streets, the huge free collection at Kelvingrove, the Burrell's medieval art and Chinese ceramics, and the buildings of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. There is plenty to see, but no landmark as famous as Edinburgh's, and more of it has to be sought out.

Glasgow is the better night out by a wide margin. Nights start early and run hard across the Merchant City, Sauchiehall Street and the West End, and the city's underground techno and house nights draw DJs from across Europe.

Edinburgh is a pub city, with fine Victorian bars on Rose Street and old drinking dens in the Grassmarket. Outside August it goes quiet fairly early, and the few clubs on the Cowgate are mostly a student affair. During the festivals the gap narrows.

Both cities are excellent bases for the outdoors, but the landscape lies in different places. Edinburgh's wild ground is inside the city: Arthur's Seat rises to 251m a short walk from the Royal Mile, and the Pentland Hills offer ridge walking within half an hour.

Glasgow's strength is how far you can easily get. Loch Lomond is about 40 minutes away, the West Highland Way starts on the northern edge of the city, and ferries from the Clyde coast reach the mountains of Arran. Expect to get wetter on the Glasgow side.

The lists overlap a good deal. Each city is less than an hour from the other by train, and both reach Stirling and Linlithgow Palace easily. The difference is direction: from Edinburgh the pull is east and south, to St Andrews, the Borders abbeys and Rosslyn Chapel, while from Glasgow it is west, to Burns country and Culzean Castle in Ayrshire, the islands of Bute and Arran, and New Lanark by the Falls of Clyde.

Both are easy with children for a few days, largely thanks to big museums with hands-on galleries. Edinburgh has a zoo, the castle with its cannons, Dynamic Earth, Camera Obscura and the sands at Portobello, though the Old Town's steps and cobbles are hard going with a buggy.

Glasgow has no zoo or aquarium in town. The trams and tall ship at the Riverside Museum, the Spitfire hanging in Kelvingrove and the Science Centre make up for a lot, but the rain means planning more days indoors.

Edinburgh is the easier city to explore on foot. The Old Town, the New Town, Calton Hill and Holyrood Park all lie within about 2km of each other, and the Lothian buses and the tram from the airport cover the rest, although the hills and stairways take effort.

Glasgow's grid-plan centre is easy to walk too, but its sights are more spread out. The circular Subway covers only a small part of the city, and buses run by several companies with separate fares can confuse a visitor, so the suburban trains are often the most useful option.

Glasgow is the stronger shopping city. Buchanan Street, Sauchiehall Street and Argyle Street form a pedestrian loop of department stores and big names, Princes Square adds upmarket fashion, and Byres Road has vintage and independent shops. The Barras adds a rough-edged weekend market.

Edinburgh's shopping is smaller and is mostly about what to take home: cashmere, tweed, kilts from specialist makers and single malts, with independent shops on Victoria Street and in Stockbridge. It is good for Scottish goods, but for a shopping trip Glasgow wins.

Edinburgh is the dearer of the two, and nearly all of the gap is the cost of a bed. Its expensive weeks are fixed on the calendar: the August festivals and New Year send central rooms to their highest prices of the year and fill them months in advance, so many visitors end up in Leith or travelling in from outside the city. The upside is that those dates are easy to avoid, and November and the quiet weeks after New Year cost far less. Entry to the castle and the palace soon mounts up, but the national galleries and the climb up Arthur's Seat are free.

Glasgow costs less to stay in through most of the year. Meals and drinks are priced much as in Edinburgh, though curry houses and pub lunches make it easy to eat cheaply. Its dear nights are harder to predict, because they follow whatever is filling the arenas by the Clyde, Hampden or the conference halls, so check the city's events before you fix your dates. Even more of the sightseeing is free here, and for anyone using Glasgow as a base, the train tickets for days out are usually the biggest extra cost.

Both are serious performing arts cities, and they share Scottish Opera, Scottish Ballet and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, but their high points differ. Edinburgh's is August, when the Fringe and the International Festival fill churches, cellars and halls with comedy, theatre and music from morning until after midnight.

Glasgow's strength is louder and lasts all year: a deep gig circuit running from the Barrowland Ballroom to small rooms where bands play early shows, with Celtic Connections in winter. Go to Edinburgh for the festivals and to Glasgow for the bands.

Neither is a place to come for rest, though Edinburgh offers a little more. Portobello's Victorian Turkish baths are in a public swim centre, the Royal Commonwealth Pool is a fine place to swim, and outside August a morning in the Botanic Garden or along the Water of Leith is calm. Glasgow's Victorian Turkish baths are run mainly for members of their swimming clubs, so a quiet day there usually means a hotel spa or a trip out to the lochs.