Isle of Skye or Lake District?

Neither is a place for a beach vacation, but the Lake District gives swimmers a little more to work with. Its lakes and tarns, from the shallows of Buttermere to Derwentwater, are calm and a few degrees milder on a still summer day, so a wild swim fits easily between walks.

Skye's shores are for looking at more than swimming. The white coral sand at Claigan near Dunvegan and the black bays of Talisker and Staffin are beautiful to walk on, but the Atlantic stays icy, and the Fairy Pools are for a quick plunge rather than a proper swim.

The Lake District has more choice at both ends. Slate-floored inns serving Cumbrian ales and Herdwick lamb are in every valley, the southern Lakes around Cartmel and Windermere have country-house cooking people travel across Britain for, and Grasmere gingerbread and sticky toffee pudding add local character.

Skye's strength is narrower but distinctive: langoustines, scallops and Loch Harport oysters, with whisky from the old distillery at Carbost. The trouble is how few places there are. Outside Portree, restaurants are far apart, summer tables need booking and many places close for winter.

The Lake District has the richer heritage, built around writers and artists: Dove Cottage in Grasmere, Hill Top near Hawkshead and Brantwood on Coniston Water. Behind them lie older layers in the Castlerigg stone circle and the Roman fort on Hardknott Pass.

Skye's story is clans, crofting and Gaelic, told at Dunvegan Castle, the Clan Donald ruins at Armadale and the thatched cottages at Kilmuir. It is moving history, but scattered and quickly seen, with no historic town to anchor a stay.

Both end the day in a pub, neither has clubs, and both go quiet early. The difference is scale. Ambleside, Keswick, Bowness and Kendal give the Lakes several small towns with a choice of bars. On Skye, Portree's handful around the harbour is all there is. Elsewhere on the island, a night out means the bar of the nearest inn, at Sligachan or Carbost, with a dram of island whisky.

Both are among the finest walking country in Britain, and they differ in character rather than quality. Skye is wilder and shaped by the sea: the jagged gabbro of the Black Cuillin, the landslip pinnacles of the Quiraing and the Old Man of Storr, the cliffs at Neist Point, and wildlife from sea eagles and otters to minke whales.

The Lake District is mountains around water. England's highest summits rise above long glacial lakes, with classic routes up Striding Edge and Scafell Pike, and in summer there is sailing and paddleboarding on Windermere and Ullswater. It has more gentle days and easier access, while Skye has the harsher weather and the fiercer midges.

The Lake District has much more within reach. Kendal, Cockermouth and Cartmel are inside the region, and Carlisle's castle, Hadrian's Wall, Lancaster and the Yorkshire Dales all make a comfortable day out.

From Skye, outings depend on the ferries and the weather. You can cross the bridge to Eilean Donan and Plockton, take the short crossing to Raasay, or make the long trip from Uig to Harris. These are lovely days, but the places are small, and no sizeable town lies within easy reach.

The Lake District is much better set up for children. The steamers, the Eskdale miniature railway, the Beatrix Potter sites, the Windermere aquarium and short walks like Buttermere's shore give plenty of easy days, and older children can try ghyll scrambling and canoeing.

Skye works only for outdoorsy families. Hunting for dinosaur footprints at Staffin and seal-spotting boats from Elgol are real highlights. But long drives, steep cliff paths, summer midges and almost nothing indoors make it hard work with small children.

Neither is easy without a car, but in the Lake District you can manage without one. Trains reach Windermere, and buses and lake steamers link Ambleside, Grasmere and Keswick, so a car-free stay in the central Lakes works. Only the western valleys need a car and the steep Hardknott and Wrynose passes.

On Skye a car is essential. Buses from Portree are sparse, and the single-track roads with passing places make every journey slower than the map suggests, with summer queues on the Trotternish loop.

Neither is a place to shop, but the Lake District has more practical choice. Ambleside and Keswick are full of shops selling boots and waterproofs, and Kendal has an ordinary high street. Shopping on Skye is more personal: potters, silversmiths and weavers sell from their own studios around Waternish, Dunvegan and Sleat, with tweed and whisky to take home.

Both are expensive in summer, but the Lake District is easier on a budget. On Skye, rooms are scarce and book up long in advance, cheap meals are rare outside Portree, and you cannot avoid the cost of a hire car and fuel.

The Lakes have a wider choice of places to stay and a long tradition of youth hostels, bunkhouses and campsites. Their buses also make a car optional in the central valleys. In both, the landscape costs nothing and prices ease outside the main season.

Skye's live culture is Gaelic song and traditional music in small rooms. In summer there are fiddle and pipe sessions in Portree pubs, ceilidhs in village halls where visitors join the dancing, and concerts at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the Gaelic college in Sleat. The Highland Games in Portree add piping competitions each August. Skye has no theatre, opera or concert season, though, and outside summer it is often a matter of luck whether anything is on.

The Lake District offers more, and it is easier to plan around. Theatre by the Lake in Keswick runs a repertory season of plays beside Derwentwater, Kendal's arts centre mixes theatre, music and film, and the town's mountain festival brings films and talks each November. Folk sessions in pubs fill the gaps, but you will not find opera or an orchestra in either.

For a restful stay with some pampering, the Lake District is better equipped. Lakeside hotels around Windermere and Ullswater have spas and pools looking over the water, and a weekend of walking by day and soaking in the evening is a classic way to stay. Skye offers a plainer kind of rest: hardly any spas, but a cottage on a sea loch in Waternish or Sleat and long, quiet evenings watching the weather.