Amsterdam or Lille?

Neither city is a place to plan a beach trip, but Amsterdam has the easier access to the sea. Zandvoort and Bloemendaal are about half an hour away by train, and in town there are the IJburg shore and the Sloterplas lake for a dip on a hot day.

From Lille, the nearest sand is the wide, windy beach at Malo-les-Bains, about an hour away, and the Opal Coast dunes are further still. The cold North Sea limits swimming on both sides, so here a trip to the coast means a walk in the wind.

The two eat equally well but in very different ways. Amsterdam's best meals come from its trading past, with Indonesian rijsttafel and Surinamese roti, along with herring and stroopwafels at street stalls and markets. The drinking culture is its real charm, with jenever tasting rooms and borrel in old brown cafés.

Lille is closer to home cooking. In the wood-panelled estaminets of Vieux-Lille you get carbonnade cooked in beer, potjevleesch and the welsh, with pungent Maroilles cheese in almost everything. Belgian and northern French ales take the place of wine, and Meert's waffles and the Wazemmes market cover the sweet and the everyday.

Amsterdam is in another league for sightseeing. The Rijksmuseum's Dutch masters, the world's largest Van Gogh collection and the Anne Frank House are each worth the journey, and the UNESCO-listed canal ring is a pleasure to walk. Plan three or four days to do it justice.

Lille has one major museum, the Palais des Beaux-Arts, which is very good, and a handsome old quarter of Flemish baroque around the Vieille Bourse and the belfry. La Piscine in Roubaix, set inside an Art Deco swimming pool, is its most memorable extra. Two or three days covers it.

Amsterdam offers far more for a big night out. Clubs with all-night licences in old industrial buildings and across the IJ in Noord give it a real place in electronic music, and the Amsterdam Dance Event takes over the city each October. Quieter nights happen on the canal-side terraces of the Jordaan and De Pijp.

Lille's evenings are friendlier and smaller. Students pack the cheap bars of Rue Masséna and Rue Solférino on Thursdays, and Vieux-Lille has beer cafés and cocktail bars in brick cellars. Locals who want to stay out until dawn have traditionally crossed into Belgium.

Both sit in flat country, but Amsterdam has more to do outdoors close to the centre. A free ferry across the IJ takes you into Waterland, where you can cycle past meadows and wooden villages, and the Amsterdamse Bos and the Kennemerland dunes, with their bison, are close by.

Around Lille the land is farmed and built up. The Citadel park and the towpaths along the Deûle allow easy rides, and the low Monts de Flandre give short walks with views. The Opal Coast cliffs, its one dramatic landscape, take a long day to visit.

Both are excellent bases, and the difference is where you end up. Amsterdam's trips stay within the Netherlands' close network of towns: Haarlem, Delft and Leiden, the Mauritshuis in The Hague, windmills at Zaanse Schans and Kinderdijk, and the Keukenhof bulb fields in spring.

Lille's trips cross borders. Brussels is about half an hour away, Ghent and Bruges are about an hour, Paris is an hour by TGV and London can be done by Eurostar. Add Amiens cathedral and the battlefields of Ypres and the Somme, and the outings vary more in country and character.

Amsterdam gives children much more within the city. Artis is one of Europe's oldest zoos, NEMO is built for hands-on play, and canal boats, pancake houses and city farms fill the gaps. The fast bikes and unfenced canal edges mean you need to keep hold of small hands.

Lille is pleasant with children but quieter. A morning at the small Citadel zoo and its playgrounds, a rainy hour in the natural history museum and the Forum des Sciences cover the city. The bigger outings, Pairi Daiza and the Nausicaá aquarium, are out of town, and the cobbles of Vieux-Lille are hard going with a pushchair.

Both have flat, walkable centres, and Amsterdam has the fuller network around its centre. Trams serve the canal ring and the museums, a metro runs north to south, free ferries cross to Noord, and a direct train reaches Schiphol quickly. Renting a bike is the local way to get about, if you can cope with busy lanes.

In Lille you mostly walk. Lille Flandres and Lille Europe stations stand next to each other near the old town, which makes day trips easy, and the automated VAL metro and the tram reach Roubaix and Tourcoing.

Amsterdam has more variety and more character. The Nine Streets and the Jordaan are full of boutiques and vintage shops, PC Hooftstraat covers luxury, and the Albert Cuyp, Waterlooplein and floating flower markets add colour. Delft blue, cheese and design pieces make easy souvenirs.

Lille is solid for a regional city, with high-street chains on Rue Neuve and the Euralille mall, and more interesting independents in Vieux-Lille. Its standout is the Braderie each September, when the whole city becomes a huge flea market for a weekend.

Lille is clearly the cheaper stay. Hotels are reasonably priced most of the year except during the Braderie and big trade fairs, and estaminet meals, beer, the metro and museums all go easy on the budget.

Amsterdam is costly, mostly because of accommodation. Rooms around the canal ring are among the most expensive in Europe and come with a hefty tourist tax, and meals and museum tickets add up. Staying in Haarlem or Utrecht and eating at markets helps, but it will still cost more than Lille.

Amsterdam has a stage that attracts visitors from far away: the Concertgebouw, with its famous acoustics and resident orchestra. The opera and ballet on the Amstel, contemporary music and jazz at the Muziekgebouw and Bimhuis, and touring bands at Paradiso and the Melkweg give it range. Theatre is mostly in Dutch.

Lille offers a reliable local season rather than a reason to travel. It has the Opéra on the Place du Théâtre, a national orchestra and the Théâtre du Nord, and touring acts play the Zénith and the Aéronef. Most theatre is in French.

Amsterdam does better here, thanks to its large sauna and wellness centres on the edge of the city, which are mixed and nude in the Northern European way. An early morning on a quiet canal or a ferry across the IJ makes a good pause, though the crowded centre doesn't.

Lille relies on hotel spas and long afternoons in Vieux-Lille's tea rooms. For a proper soak, go to the thermal baths at Saint-Amand-les-Eaux, a short train ride away.