Manchester or Rotterdam?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Rotterdam at least has a proper strand on its own transport network. Hoek van Holland is wide and sandy, backed by dunes, with big ships passing close offshore, and the metro runs all the way there.

From Manchester the coast is a separate day out, an hour or more by train to the pinewoods at Formby or the promenade at Blackpool. In both places the cold water and wind mean you walk the shore rather than swim.

The two are evenly matched, and both get their character from immigrant cooking more than from any local cuisine. Manchester has curry along Wilmslow Road in Rusholme, a large Chinatown and food halls in old Ancoats mills. Rotterdam has Surinamese roti, Turkish bakeries and Cape Verdean kitchens, with the Markthal and the Binnenrotte market as easy starting points.

The difference is in the drinking and the setting. Manchester's real strength is its pubs and beer culture. Rotterdam's best meals often come with a waterside terrace in Katendrecht or the old warehouse quarters.

Rotterdam has the edge, because the city itself is the exhibit. Since the bombing of 1940 it has rebuilt itself as a showcase of modern architecture: the Erasmus Bridge, the tilted Cube Houses, the mirrored Depot Boijmans and the towers of the Kop van Zuid. Delfshaven and the SS Rotterdam add a little older history.

Manchester's sights tell the story of the first industrial city, through the Town Hall, the John Rylands Library, the Castlefield mills and the Science and Industry Museum. Its galleries are good and mostly free, but the appeal is narrower and depends on an interest in Victorian building and political history.

Going out is a main reason to visit Manchester, and it is clearly the livelier city. The Northern Quarter's warehouse grid of cocktail bars and DJ basements, the long-established Gay Village on Canal Street and the dressier Deansgate crowd keep the city busy, with students filling it through the week in term time.

Rotterdam is quieter and more local. Its bar streets, the Witte de Withstraat and the Oude Haven, empty early outside weekends. Its strong side is the club scene that grew from gabber, with techno and house nights in harbour venues.

Manchester is far better for anyone who wants real landscape. The gritstone edges and moors of the Peak District begin on its eastern fringe, Edale and Hayfield are easy starting points for Kinder Scout, and Heaton Park is a large green space inside the city. Expect mud and low cloud on the tops.

Rotterdam's outdoors is flat and watery: the lake and woods of the Kralingse Bos, bike rides along dykes into the polders, and canoeing in the Biesbosch creeks. It is pleasant, but there is nothing to climb.

Both are superb rail hubs, but Rotterdam's outings are closer together and more varied. Delft is a quarter of an hour away, The Hague barely further, Amsterdam, Utrecht and Leiden about an hour, and Kinderdijk's windmills can be reached by water bus. You can even cross into Belgium for Antwerp, or Bruges and Ghent on a long day.

Manchester's range is excellent by English standards: Liverpool, Chester and York, plus Chatsworth and Buxton in the Peak District. The hops are a little longer, though, and the list stays within northern England.

Rotterdam is the easier city with children. It is flat and safe, with wide pavements, trams and cycle lanes everywhere, and Blijdorp zoo and the hands-on harbour area at the Maritime Museum are right in town. Boat trips and water taxis keep younger ones happy.

Manchester relies more on free indoor museums, with dinosaurs at the Manchester Museum and working engines at the Science and Industry Museum, plus attractions at the Trafford Centre. Its biggest draws, such as Chester Zoo, mean a day out, and the centre is rowdy on weekend evenings.

Rotterdam has the better system. Metro, trams and buses work on a single tap-in card, water buses cross the Maas, and separate cycle paths run almost everywhere. Its weak point is a spread-out postwar centre with long, windy walks between sights.

Manchester is the opposite case. Its compact, flat centre is easy to cover on foot from Castlefield to Piccadilly, and the Metrolink trams handle Salford Quays and the airport. Beyond that, buses and a confusing road layout make it less smooth.

Manchester offers more, as the main shopping city of the north. It has designer labels on King Street, high-street names around Exchange Square and the vast Trafford Centre. Above all it has the Northern Quarter, where Afflecks, the record shops and the vintage rails have defined the city's alternative style for decades.

Rotterdam does solid high-street shopping along the Lijnbaan and at the Bijenkorf, with independent shops on the Meent and the Nieuwe Binnenweg and a large Binnenrotte market. Luxury labels are thin.

Costs are broadly similar, and the savings come in different places. In Manchester the free museums and galleries keep the days cheap, and curry houses and Chinatown keep meals low. Hotel rates jump on match and concert nights, though.

Rotterdam's rooms are reasonable for the Netherlands, especially in business districts at weekends, but eating out and drinking are on the high side. Market stalls and Surinamese snack shops help, and staying here is a sensible way to see pricier Dutch cities by train.

Manchester is the stronger city for live performance. Its gig circuit runs from tiny Northern Quarter back rooms to a huge arena, the Hallé and the BBC Philharmonic both play at the Bridgewater Hall, and the Royal Exchange stages theatre in the round inside the old cotton hall, all in English.

Rotterdam's highlights are the Rotterdam Philharmonic at De Doelen and the North Sea Jazz Festival each July, one of the world's great jazz gatherings. Much of its theatre needs Dutch. Neither city has a resident opera company.

Rotterdam wins here, thanks to the Dutch sauna tradition. Large complexes on the edge of the city and in nearby towns have saunas, steam rooms, outdoor pools and gardens. Be aware that the sauna areas are usually textile-free.

Manchester has no bathing culture at all. Victoria Baths is a handsome Edwardian building to look round, not to swim in, so for real rest you would take the train to Buxton or the Peak District.