Manchester or York?

Neither city is anywhere to come for beaches, and from both the coast is a day out about an hour away by train. Manchester faces the Irish Sea, with the dunes and pinewoods at Formby or the long promenade and rides at Blackpool.

York's coast is the North Sea at Scarborough, where there are two sandy bays, with Filey and clifftop Whitby a little beyond. The water is cold on both sides, so pack for a walk and fish and chips rather than a swim.

Manchester eats better mainly because it has more choice. Chinatown behind the art gallery, the cheap South Asian kitchens along Wilmslow Road and the food halls in old Ancoats mills cover far more ground than York can. Its craft breweries under the railway arches add a drinking scene with real depth.

York's strengths are traditional: afternoon tea with a fat rascal, Yorkshire ale in old inns, Sunday roasts and the stalls of the Shambles Market. Beyond that the range is narrow, and the streets nearest the Minster lean towards tourist fare.

York has the richer sights. The Minster's medieval glass, a walk along the city walls, the Viking street under Jorvik and the Yorkshire Museum among the ruins of St Mary's Abbey make a sequence few English cities can match, and it fills two or three full days.

Manchester's heritage belongs to the cotton era. The neo-Gothic Town Hall, the John Rylands Library, the Science and Industry Museum and the Pre-Raphaelites at the Manchester Art Gallery reward anyone interested in industry and politics, but none of them is a world-famous sight.

Manchester is the place to go out. The warehouse grid of the Northern Quarter holds cocktail bars, basement dives and small DJ rooms, Canal Street's Gay Village is one of Europe's oldest, and autumn and winter bring big warehouse raves.

In York, a night out means an ale-house crawl through centuries-old inns on Micklegate and Stonegate, which is a pleasure in its own right. Weekends bring stag parties and race-day crowds, weeknights end early, and anyone wanting a proper club takes the train to Leeds.

The two cities give you about the same amount of countryside, but you reach it in different ways. From Manchester the Peak District begins on the city's edge, and trains along the Hope Valley drop you at Edale for Kinder Scout and the Mam Tor ridge, so you can walk the hills without a car. Heaton Park adds a huge green space within the city.

York sits on the flat Vale of York with riverside paths and the open Strays. The North York Moors, purple with heather in late summer and ending in sea cliffs, and the limestone Dales are both close, but mostly easier by car.

Both make excellent bases, and the difference is in what lies around them. Manchester's rail links put Liverpool, Chester and York itself within easy reach, plus Buxton and Chatsworth in the Peaks and the Lake District towns further north. Almost all of it is easy by train.

York looks north and east instead. Durham's cathedral, spa-town Harrogate and Scarborough are quick by rail. Castle Howard, Fountains Abbey and Rievaulx are among England's finest outings, but they are best reached by car or on a coach tour.

When it rains, Manchester has more to fill a day with children. There are working engines at the Science and Industry Museum, dinosaurs and a vivarium at the Manchester Museum, and an aquarium, a Lego attraction and a real-snow slope at the Trafford Centre. Young football fans can tour Old Trafford or the Etihad, though the centre gets rowdy on weekend nights.

York is the easier city to manage with small children, because its compact centre is largely pedestrianised and safe. The hall of real locomotives at the National Railway Museum, the Victorian street in the Castle Museum and a loop of the walls fill a short stay. Two or three days is usually enough.

Manchester needs its trams once you leave the centre, while York can be seen almost entirely on foot. Manchester's flat core is walkable from Castlefield to Piccadilly, and the yellow Metrolink runs on to Salford Quays, Old Trafford and the airport, with a dense bus network filling the gaps. The trams get crowded when big events are on.

York is the slightly easier of the two. Nearly every sight lies inside or just outside the walls, the station is about fifteen minutes' walk from the Minster, and cycling is simple. Further out it falls short, because sparse rural buses leave the moors and country houses to drivers and tours.

Manchester is a proper shopping city. The big names cluster around Market Street and Exchange Square, King Street and Spinningfields carry designer labels, and the Trafford Centre draws the whole region. The Northern Quarter's record shops, vintage clothing and the multi-storey stalls of Afflecks give it a character York lacks.

York's appeal is the setting: bookshops, jewellers and antiques dealers in the medieval lanes of Stonegate and Petergate. Its December Christmas markets are a draw, but the Shambles is heavy on souvenirs, and serious fashion means a trip to Leeds.

Neither is a bargain, and they cost much the same overall, though the savings fall in different places. In Manchester most of the major museums and galleries are free, and Chinatown and the curry houses keep cheap meals easy to find. Hotel rates jump on home match days and big arena nights.

In York the Minster, Jorvik and the castle museums all charge entry, and rooms near the walls climb steeply at weekends, on race days and at Christmas. A midweek stay just outside the centre is the way to keep costs down.

Manchester is far ahead here. The Hallé and the BBC Philharmonic play at the Bridgewater Hall, the Royal Exchange stages theatre-in-the-round inside the old cotton trading hall, and the gig circuit runs from Northern Quarter back rooms to a giant arena. Music is central to how the city sees itself.

York's programme is smaller but has local character. There is pantomime at the Theatre Royal, early music in a medieval church, free choral evensong in the Minster and the occasional revival of the Mystery Plays on street wagons. Big touring shows go to Leeds.

York is the more restful of the two. Early mornings on the walls, the Museum Gardens and the riverside paths set a gentle pace when the crowds are elsewhere, and Harrogate's Royal Baths, with their Moorish-style Turkish bath, are half an hour away by train.

Manchester is loud and busy, especially at weekends, and Victoria Baths is open as a heritage building rather than for swimming. A calm day there means heading out to Buxton or the Peak District.