Isle of Skye or Yorkshire Dales?

Neither place is for a beach vacation, and the water is cold in both. Skye at least has a real coastline, with the white coral sand at Claigan near Dunvegan and the black-sand bays of Talisker and Staffin.

The Dales are inland, so swimming there means river pools on the Wharfe near Grassington and Burnsall, or the falls of the Swale at Keld. On Skye, wild swimmers go to the icy Fairy Pools in Glen Brittle instead.

The two eat about equally well, but the food is very different. Skye's best meals come from the sea lochs: langoustines, scallops and Loch Harport oysters, often served in a few well-known country restaurants around Dunvegan and Sleat, with whisky from the distillery at Carbost to go with them.

In the Dales the table is pastoral: Wensleydale cheese from Hawes, bitter from the Masham breweries, Dales lamb and game, with ambitious dining pubs in Wharfedale. Ordinary choice is thin in both, but from the Dales you can drive to Harrogate or York for variety. On Skye, Portree is as far as it goes.

The Dales have clearly more to see. Skipton Castle, Bolton Castle above Wensleydale, Richmond's Norman keep and cobbled square, and the ruins of Bolton Priory and Jervaulx are spread among stone market towns. The Ribblehead Viaduct and the lead-mining remains of Swaledale add the industrial side.

Skye's story of clans, crofting and Gaelic is told at a few scattered places: Dunvegan Castle, Armadale and the Museum of the Isles, and the thatched cottages at Kilmuir. Portree is pretty but has no historic quarter to explore, and two days covers it.

In both places the night out is a pub, and both are quiet well before midnight. On Skye it is the bar in Portree's square or an inn at Sligachan or Carbost, full of climbers planning tomorrow over a dram. The Dales offer the same fireside pint in village pubs, with Skipton a little livelier at weekends and Leeds close enough for a proper night out, which Skye simply has no answer to.

Both are walking country, but Skye is the grander of the two. The Black Cuillin are true mountains of bare gabbro, and the Quiraing, the Old Man of Storr and the cliffs at Neist Point are stranger and more dramatic than anything in the Dales. The sea adds kayaking, boat trips into Loch Coruisk, otters, sea eagles and summer whales.

The Dales' strength is limestone: Malham Cove, Gordale Scar, the Three Peaks above Ribblesdale and one of Britain's great cave systems around Gaping Gill. The fells are rounded rather than rugged, the weather is kinder and there are no midges to speak of. Cyclists also have climbs like the Buttertubs.

This is where the Dales pull far ahead. York and its Minster, Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal, Ripon, Harrogate, Durham, Haworth and Saltaire are all within an easy drive, and the Lake District is reachable from the western valleys. The Settle to Carlisle railway is a good day out in its own right.

From Skye, outings depend on ferries and the weather. Eilean Donan and Plockton are over the bridge, Raasay is a short crossing away and Harris is a long day by boat from Uig, but there is no sizeable town anywhere within easy reach.

The Dales are much easier with children. Show caves with stalactites near Ingleton, paddling by the river at Bolton Abbey, the falls at Aysgarth, a steam railway, farm parks and castles all give a day some structure, and older children can try caving or gorge scrambling.

Skye has real adventures, from dinosaur footprints at Staffin to seal-spotting boats out of Portree. But almost nothing is built for children, many famous walks are steep or run along cliff edges, and long drives and midges wear young ones down.

Both really need a car, but the Dales are kinder without one. The Settle to Carlisle line has stations at Settle, Horton and Ribblehead close to good walks, trains reach Skipton, and distances between villages are short. Many walks start straight from the door of a village base.

On Skye, buses from Portree are too sparse to reach trailheads in time, and the single-track roads make every journey slower than the map suggests. In summer, queues on the Trotternish loop and full car parks at the Fairy Pools add to the strain.

Neither is a shopping trip, though the Dales offer a bit more. Skipton's street market and the weekly markets in Richmond and Hawes, with cheese, antiques and wool crafts, make a pleasant rainy afternoon, and Harrogate and York are near. Skye's shopping is the more personal sort: potters, weavers and silversmiths selling from studios down farm tracks in Waternish and Sleat, plus tweed and whisky to take home.

The Dales are the cheaper of the two. Cottages and inns cost what you would expect in rural England, but there is more of everything, and bunkhouses, youth hostels and campsites are easy to find.

Skye's beds are scarce, so even simple summer rooms are expensive and book up far ahead. Meals outside Portree are few and dear, and the car and fuel add up over long island drives. Both landscapes are free to enjoy, and spring and autumn ease the bill on Skye.

The Dales have a little more on, and more of it is formal. The Georgian Theatre Royal in Richmond, a tiny playhouse from 1788, still stages plays, and the Swaledale and Grassington festivals bring summer concerts to churches and halls.

Skye's offer is narrower but very much its own: Gaelic song, fiddle and pipe sessions in Portree pubs, ceilidhs in village halls, and concerts at the Gaelic college Sabhal Mòr Ostaig in Sleat. Outside summer, both are hit and miss.

For rest with some pampering, the Dales do better, mostly thanks to Harrogate next door, where the Victorian Turkish Baths with their tiled steam rooms make a fine end to a walking week. Several country inns in the Dales also have spas. Skye has only a few hotel treatment rooms and the odd sauna on the shore. Its restorative side is solitude instead: a cottage on a sea loch in Waternish and long light evenings with nothing to do but watch the weather.