Inverness or Manchester?

Neither city is a place to swim, but Inverness at least has the coast on its doorstep. The long sands at Nairn and the shore at Rosemarkie and Chanonry Point make a breezy afternoon out, and you may see dolphins.

Manchester is inland, and Formby's dunes or Blackpool's promenade are an hour or more away by train. In both places the sea stays cold enough that hardly anyone goes in without a wetsuit.

Inverness eats well within a narrow range. A handful of good restaurants cook Highland produce such as langoustines, venison and smoked salmon, the pubs serve Cullen skink and steak pie, and whisky is the real drinking culture. A few nights covers it.

Manchester has far more variety, though less of a regional larder. It has Chinatown, the South Asian kitchens of Rusholme, food halls in old Ancoats mills and a craft-beer scene under the railway arches. For a week of eating your way around, it is the clear choice.

Inverness has few sights of its own: the red sandstone castle above the Ness, the cathedral across the river and a compact museum with Pictish stones. Its most moving site, Culloden battlefield, lies outside town, and most of the region's castles mean a drive.

Manchester fills a fuller couple of days without leaving the city. Its sights tell the story of the first industrial city: the neo-Gothic Town Hall, the John Rylands Library, the Science and Industry Museum and a run of mostly free galleries, from the Pre-Raphaelites to the People's History Museum.

An evening in Inverness means a pub and a slow malt around Church Street or the riverside. On weeknights the town is quiet well before midnight, because most visitors are up early for the glens.

Manchester is one of Britain's big nights out. It has cocktail and dive bars in the Northern Quarter's old warehouses, the long-established Gay Village on Canal Street, the dressier crowds of Deansgate and warehouse raves in the colder months. Weekends run late and loud, which some visitors come for and others will find a drawback.

This is where Inverness pulls clearly ahead. Loch Ness starts twenty minutes away, Glen Affric and the Cairngorms are about an hour off, and you can watch bottlenose dolphins from the shore at Chanonry Point. Torridon and the road to Skye are within a long day.

Manchester is better placed than most big cities. Trains reach Edale and Kinder Scout in under an hour, and canal towpaths lead out of Castlefield. Still, this is moorland walking from a city base, not wild Highland scenery all around you.

Outings from Inverness are mostly to single sites rather than towns: Urquhart Castle, Cawdor, Fort George, the Clava Cairns and the Speyside distilleries. Most of them are much easier to reach by car or on a tour.

Manchester has the stronger choice, with whole cities in easy reach by train. Liverpool's waterfront, Chester's Roman walls and York Minster are all close, as are Chatsworth, Buxton and the Lake District towns. You can fill a week with varied days out without a car.

Both cities work well enough with children, in different ways. Inverness offers outdoor treats: Loch Ness boat trips, castle ruins, dolphin spotting and the snow leopards at the Highland Wildlife Park. The Aquadome is the rainy-day plan, and the town itself is small and calm.

Manchester leans indoors, with hands-on galleries at the Science and Industry Museum, dinosaurs at the Manchester Museum, and the aquarium and snow slope at the Trafford Centre. Chester Zoo is about an hour away. Its centre gets rowdy on weekend nights, which is not a concern in Inverness.

Both centres are flat and easy to walk. The difference shows once you leave them. Inverness has scenic rail lines and buses along Loch Ness, but the glens and distilleries lie down single-track roads, so most visitors hire a car or book tours.

Manchester's Metrolink trams run to Salford Quays, Old Trafford and the airport, buses fill the gaps and two main stations handle day trips. A car is useful only for the remoter parts of the Peak District.

Shopping in Inverness takes an hour or two. You have the small independent shops in the Victorian Market's covered arcade, the high-street chains, and a second-hand bookshop in a former church. There is no luxury fashion and very little design.

Manchester is the main shopping city of northern England. It has department stores and designer labels around King Street and Spinningfields, record and vintage shops in the Northern Quarter, the stalls of Afflecks and the vast Trafford Centre. It does lack local crafts, though, so for tweed, knitwear, Celtic silver or a good Highland malt to take home, Inverness has the more distinctive souvenirs.

Neither city is cheap, and costs come out much the same, for different reasons. In Inverness the main costs are rooms in summer and the car hire or tours you need to see the Highlands. The landscape itself is free, and rooms come down a lot in the quieter seasons.

In Manchester, room prices jump on football, concert and conference dates. Free museums and cheap meals in Rusholme and Chinatown help keep a city stay affordable.

Inverness has Eden Court for touring theatre, dance and the Christmas pantomime. Its more distinctive side is traditional music, with fiddle and accordion sessions in pubs and Gaelic song at festivals and the summer Highland Games.

Manchester is in another league for live performance. The Hallé and the BBC Philharmonic play at the Bridgewater Hall, and the gig circuit runs from Northern Quarter back rooms to a huge arena. For theatre there is the Royal Exchange, a theatre-in-the-round inside the old cotton trading hall.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, but Inverness is the easier place to unwind. In town, the Aquadome has pools and a sauna, and the country-house hotels on the outskirts have spas. The riverside paths and the Ness Islands footbridges make a calm walk on a long summer evening.

Manchester's spa options are limited to hotel spas and a few day spas in the centre. They are fine for a treatment slotted between museums or shopping, but they are not a break in themselves. Its grandest bathing building, the Edwardian Victoria Baths, is a heritage visit, so you can admire the tiles and stained glass but not swim there.