Seattle or New York?

New York has real ocean beaches you can reach by subway. Coney Island's boardwalk and the longer, surfier Rockaways have Atlantic water warm enough for a swim through high summer, and Jones Beach is about an hour further out.

Seattle's Sound beaches, Alki and Golden Gardens, are for sunsets and bonfires rather than swimming, because the water stays cold. Summer swimming happens at the lifeguarded lake beaches on Lake Washington. In both cities a beach day is a pleasant break, not a reason to go.

New York's strength is sheer range. Communities cook their own food across whole neighbourhoods: Fujianese in Flushing, Tibetan in Jackson Heights, Polish in Greenpoint, Italian on Arthur Avenue. On top of that come a deep fine-dining scene and cheap classics like the slice, the bagel and deli pastrami.

Seattle eats more narrowly but very well from its cold waters. Oysters, Dungeness crab and wild salmon are the core, Pike Place Market is the place to graze, and the Chinatown-International District covers Vietnamese and Japanese cooking. Add serious coffee and Washington wine, but expect a much smaller choice of top restaurants.

New York's museums alone could fill a week: the Met, MoMA, the Guggenheim and the Frick on Museum Mile, the Cloisters above the Hudson. Then come landmarks the whole world knows, from the Statue of Liberty to Grand Central, and nineteenth-century streets like SoHo's cast-iron blocks and the tenements of the Lower East Side.

Seattle is young, and most of its sights are modern. The Space Needle and Chihuly's glass at Seattle Center, the Museum of Pop Culture and the huge Museum of Flight are the highlights, and Pioneer Square adds brick blocks rebuilt after the 1889 fire. It makes a good few days, not a cultural pilgrimage.

New York doesn't really close. You can go from speakeasy cocktail bars and dives in the East Village to West Village wine bars and skyline rooftops, and at weekends the warehouse parties in Williamsburg and Bushwick run past dawn while the trains keep running all night.

Seattle's night is good but shorter. Capitol Hill's Pike and Pine strip is the centre, Ballard has brewery taprooms, and the beer and cocktails are made to a high standard. Last call comes at 2am, there are few clubs, and the city goes quiet early away from the main strips.

This is where Seattle clearly leads. Mount Rainier is on the skyline, the Cascade trails around Snoqualmie Pass are under an hour away, and the Olympic Peninsula's rainforest is across the water. In town, Discovery Park's bluffs and paddling on Lake Union keep you outdoors, and the ferry rides sometimes bring orcas into view.

New York's outdoors is mostly designed parkland: Central Park, Prospect Park and the High Line. The one real draw is that Breakneck Ridge in the Hudson Highlands is a train ride away with no car needed, and the October colour there is the highlight of the year.

From New York the trains open up a lot. Philadelphia's Independence Hall, Princeton and New Haven are easy by rail, and up the Hudson there are Gilded Age estates, Dia Beacon and the Storm King sculpture park.

Seattle's best days out are on the water: a short ferry to Bainbridge Island, or a longer run to Port Townsend's Victorian harbour. Woodinville's tasting rooms and Tacoma's Museum of Glass are close by. Vancouver, Victoria and Leavenworth tempt, but each is too far for a comfortable day.

New York has slightly more to offer children, and its big draws are bigger. The dinosaur halls at the Natural History museum, the Bronx Zoo and the aircraft carrier on the Hudson are hard to match, but subway stairs, small hotel rooms and the Midtown crowds tire young ones quickly.

Seattle is calmer and easier going. Seattle Center puts the science centre, a children's museum and the summer fountain together, the Museum of Flight rarely disappoints, and there are lake beaches and playgrounds everywhere. The steep downtown streets and the long wet season are the drawbacks.

New York is easier to get around. The Manhattan grid is simple to follow on foot, and the all-night subway reaches four boroughs, so a car is never needed. Its weak points are the airport transfers and the many stairs.

Seattle is the other way round on arrival. Link light rail runs straight from the airport to downtown and Capitol Hill, and one card covers trains, buses, the monorail and the ferries. Beyond that line, though, buses to Ballard or Alki are slow, the hills and water stretch distances, and the national parks need a car.

New York is one of the great shopping cities. Flagships on Fifth Avenue, luxury houses on Madison, Bergdorf Goodman and Macy's, fashion in SoHo and boutiques in Nolita all fit into one trip, with vintage, records and rare books across the river in Brooklyn.

Seattle shops more practically. The big outdoor gear stores reflect its mountain habits, Pike Place has makers' stalls, and Capitol Hill, Fremont and Ballard are good for vintage and design. Serious luxury shopping means heading over the lake to Bellevue.

Neither city is cheap, but New York costs more. Manhattan rooms are small and expensive all year, and theatre, cocktails and observation decks add up fast. Free sights help a great deal, including the Staten Island Ferry, the High Line and the bridges, as do the cheap tables in Queens and Chinatown.

Seattle's costs are high too, especially for hotels in summer, but the overall bill is usually somewhat lower. Teriyaki shops and the Pike Place counters keep meals cheap, and visiting outside summer brings room prices down further.

New York has more live performance than anywhere else. There are Broadway musicals and Off-Broadway stages, the Met Opera, the Philharmonic and City Ballet at Lincoln Center, the world's orchestras at Carnegie Hall, and jazz in Village basements and Harlem rooms every night of the week.

Seattle offers more than its size suggests. Seattle Opera and Pacific Northwest Ballet share McCaw Hall, and the symphony plays at Benaroya Hall. Its real character is in rock: as the city of Hendrix and grunge, its band clubs in Belltown and Capitol Hill are where it feels most at home.

Neither city is a place to rest, but they relax you in different ways. New York has an actual bathing culture: the century-old Russian and Turkish baths in the East Village, the banyas at Brighton Beach and big Korean spas in Queens. Between sessions, though, the noise and pace work against rest.

Seattle has no bathhouses to speak of beyond a few in the suburbs, and its hot springs are a long drive away. What it offers is a slower daily rhythm, with long coffee-house mornings, the Japanese Garden and quiet rainy afternoons.