Liverpool or Manchester?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Liverpool at least has the coast on its doorstep. Merseyrail runs out to Crosby, where Gormley's iron figures stand on the tidal flats, and on to the dunes at Formby. New Brighton and the marine lake at West Kirby are across the river.

Manchester has to borrow the same shore, with Formby or the promenade at Blackpool an hour or more away by train. On either side the sea is cold and the tide goes a long way out, so the beach is for walking and sunsets rather than swimming.

Neither city is a reason to travel for food, and the two are close, but they lean different ways. Liverpool has a dish of its own in scouse, served in pubs with pickled red cabbage. Its most interesting eating is on Bold Street and in the street-food halls of the Baltic Triangle.

Manchester has more range than identity: the South Asian restaurants of Rusholme's Wilmslow Road, one of Britain's larger Chinatowns, and food halls in converted Ancoats mills. Its strongest card is drink, with craft breweries under the railway arches, while Liverpool's pride is its Victorian gin palaces and backstreet locals.

Liverpool has the more memorable set of sights. The Three Graces and the Grade I warehouses of the Royal Albert Dock make a waterfront with real presence, and the maritime and slavery museums give it weight. Add St George's Hall, the World Museum and the two cathedrals, and you have two or three full days.

Manchester tells the story of the cotton era instead, through the neo-Gothic Town Hall, the John Rylands Library and the Science and Industry Museum on the old railway station site. It rewards anyone curious about industry and politics, but nothing there matches Liverpool's river frontage. Both cities have fine Pre-Raphaelite paintings, at the Walker and at the Manchester Art Gallery.

Both are serious cities for a night out, but Manchester has more depth. The Northern Quarter's grid of warehouses is packed with cocktail bars, dive bars and small DJ rooms. The Gay Village on Canal Street is one of Europe's oldest, and in autumn and winter big warehouse raves keep up the city's dance-music pedigree.

Liverpool's nights are more about the crowd. Concert Square and Seel Street fill at weekends, with stag and hen groups much in evidence, and Mathew Street is the louder tourist strip. The Baltic Triangle and Lark Lane are its options for something less rowdy.

Manchester has the hills, and that is the real difference. The Hope Valley line reaches Edale in under an hour for walks onto Kinder Scout, the West Pennine Moors lie to the north, and Heaton Park gives the city a huge stretch of woodland and grass.

Liverpool's outdoors is flatter and by the water: Sefton Park and its palm house, the Mersey promenade, the Formby pinewoods with their red squirrels, and the Wirral Way out to the Dee estuary. Real mountains are about two hours away.

Manchester sits at the centre of the northern rail network, and that gives it the longer list. York, Chester and Liverpool are each about an hour or so by train. Closer in, the Peak District adds Buxton, Bakewell and Chatsworth, and Haworth and Saltaire are within reach too.

Liverpool does well with Chester, Port Sunlight and the Southport promenade, and Manchester is under an hour away. Beyond Conwy and Llandudno on the North Wales coast, though, the choice quickly runs thin.

Both cities work with children, largely because so many museums are free, so the difference is in the kind of day. Liverpool offers the World Museum's dinosaurs and planetarium, a flat, pedestrian waterfront and the Mersey ferry, with Knowsley Safari Park on the edge of town.

Manchester leans indoors. It has working engines at the Science and Industry Museum, an aquarium and an indoor snow slope at the Trafford Centre, and stadium tours for young football fans. Chester Zoo is an easy outing from either city, and in both centres late weekend evenings are best avoided.

Both centres are compact enough to walk, so the difference is in how you get further out. Liverpool relies on Merseyrail's underground loop and coastal lines, plus the ferry. That suits trips to Crosby, Formby and the Wirral but leaves Sefton Park and Anfield to the buses.

Manchester has the Metrolink trams to Salford Quays, Old Trafford and the airport, and its centre is flatter than Liverpool's climb to Hope Street. Its weak spot is crowded trams on big event days.

Manchester is the stronger choice for a shopping trip, as the main retail city of northern England. It has designer labels on King Street and in Spinningfields, two upmarket department stores and the vast Trafford Centre. The Northern Quarter adds the indoor stalls of Afflecks, with record and vintage shops nearby.

Liverpool covers the high street well through the open-air streets of Liverpool ONE, and Bold Street has its own vintage clothes and records, but there is little luxury fashion. Beatles memorabilia is the Liverpool souvenir, and football shirts sell in both cities.

Liverpool is the slightly cheaper stay. Hotels are generally easier on the budget than in Manchester, pubs serve good-value meals, and the small centre means you spend little on transport.

In both cities, free museums keep sightseeing cheap and eating out costs the usual British amount, though Manchester's curry houses and Chinatown make a cheap meal easy to find. Rooms in both rise sharply on match weekends and big concert nights, and in Liverpool also around the Grand National at Aintree.

Music runs deep in both cities, but Manchester has the fuller programme. The Hallé and the BBC Philharmonic both play at the Bridgewater Hall, the gig circuit runs from tiny back rooms to a huge arena, and the Royal Exchange puts on theatre in the round inside the old cotton trading hall.

Liverpool has the Cavern on Mathew Street and live bands most nights, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic in its art deco hall, and respected home-grown theatre at the Everyman and the Playhouse. Neither city has a resident opera company.

Neither city is a place to rest, though Liverpool offers a few more quiet moments: an unhurried ferry crossing, a walk in Sefton Park, an afternoon in the free galleries. The coast and the Wirral are close by for a gentler base.

Manchester is the more relentless of the two, and its grand Victoria Baths are a heritage visit rather than a place to swim. For real rest from there, take the train to Buxton or out into the Peak District.