Kilkenny or Manchester?

Neither is a beach destination. Both are inland, with cold sea about an hour away. The difference is in how you get there and what you find. From Kilkenny you drive to Tramore and the coves of the Copper Coast. From Manchester the train takes you to the dunes and pinewoods at Formby or the promenade at Blackpool, and the trip is more about fish and chips than swimming.

Manchester has far more choice. You can eat dim sum in one of Britain's larger Chinatowns, have a cheap curry on Wilmslow Road in Rusholme, or graze the food halls in old mills in Ancoats. Craft breweries under the railway arches and good coffee in the Northern Quarter round it out.

Kilkenny is narrower but more rooted in its region. Local lamb, dairy and cheese go into gastropub steaks and chowders, and the most ambitious cooking happens in country-house kitchens outside town. The brewing history by St Francis Abbey and the fireside red ale add character, but you'll find little foreign cooking and almost no street food.

The two are about even here, but they tell different stories. Kilkenny is medieval and compact. In one walk along the Medieval Mile you take in the castle above the Nore, Rothe House, the Black Abbey and St Canice's Cathedral, whose round tower you can climb.

Manchester is the city of the cotton era and the Industrial Revolution. The neo-Gothic Town Hall, the John Rylands Library and the Science and Industry Museum are its main sights, along with a string of free galleries such as the Whitworth. Each place fills about two days.

This is one of the biggest gaps between the two. Manchester's nights grew out of its dance-music history. The warehouse bars and basement DJ rooms of the Northern Quarter, the long-established Gay Village on Canal Street and the dressier crowds of Spinningfields keep going late, and in term time students keep things busy midweek too.

Kilkenny's nightlife is the pub: low ceilings, snugs and a fire on High Street or Parliament Street. Weekends get lively with wedding and birthday groups. After closing time there's only a small nightclub, and midweek the town is quiet early.

Manchester has the bigger outdoors within easy reach. In under an hour the Hope Valley trains take you to Edale for the gritstone moors of Kinder Scout and the Mam Tor ridge, with no car needed. Heaton Park and the canal towpaths give you green space in the city itself.

Kilkenny's countryside is gentler. You get the easy wooded Nore Valley Way through Inistioge, modest climbs on Brandon Hill and quiet back roads for cycling. For the wilder Comeraghs or Wicklow you need a car.

Manchester sits at the centre of the northern rail network. Liverpool, Chester and York are all an easy train ride away, with the Lake District and Chatsworth within reach too, so you could fill a week of day trips without driving.

Kilkenny is a fine base for the monastic southeast: the Rock of Cashel, Jerpoint Abbey's cloister, Kells Priory and Viking Waterford. Apart from Waterford and Dublin, though, these places really need a hire car.

Manchester has much more for children, and much of it is indoors and free. The Science and Industry Museum has working engines and the Manchester Museum has dinosaurs. The Trafford Centre adds an aquarium and an indoor snow slope, and Chester Zoo is an hour away.

Kilkenny is calmer and easy to manage, with the castle lawns and playground in the middle of town. The best outings mean a short drive, to the tree-top trails near Castlecomer or down into Dunmore Cave, and there are no big rainy-day attractions.

In both places you can walk the centre, and Kilkenny's sights all lie on a single 1km street. The difference starts at the edge of town. Manchester's Metrolink trams, dense buses and two main stations reach Salford Quays, the suburbs and the hills without a car. In rural Kilkenny the buses are sparse, so you will need to hire a car or join a tour.

Manchester is northern England's main shopping city. It has high-street names around Exchange Square, designer labels on King Street and the vintage and record shops of the Northern Quarter, as well as the huge Trafford Centre.

Kilkenny's strength is craft. The old castle stables sell pottery, glass and knitwear made in the region, and there are small boutiques and delis along High Street. It's an afternoon's browsing, and for fashion you would go to Dublin.

Manchester is easier on the wallet. Most of its big museums are free, and curry houses, Chinatown and the food halls make cheap meals easy to find. Hotel rates jump on match and concert nights, though.

Kilkenny has Irish prices for pints and dinners. Rooms in the centre get expensive at weekends and during festivals, and the hire car you need for the county adds a real cost.

Manchester is in a different league for live music and theatre. It has a deep gig circuit, from Northern Quarter back rooms up to a huge arena. The Hallé and the BBC Philharmonic play at the Bridgewater Hall, and the Royal Exchange stages theatre in the round inside the old cotton trading hall.

Kilkenny offers fiddle and bodhrán sessions in pub corners most nights, and a few festivals. The August arts festival brings classical concerts to St Canice's Cathedral, and there are comedy and roots music weekends in early summer.

Kilkenny is the better place to slow down. The spas are in country-house estates with pools and parkland just outside town, and weekday mornings by the Nore are peaceful.

Manchester is loud. Its spas are mostly in hotels, and Victoria Baths is a heritage building to look round, not to swim in. Many visitors take the train to Buxton or the Peak District to get some quiet.