Baden-Baden or Lille?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Lille at least gets you to the sea. Malo-les-Bains at Dunkirk is about an hour away by train and makes a windy, bracing day on the North Sea sand.

Baden-Baden is far from any coast. A hot afternoon there means a Rhine-plain gravel pit or an outdoor pool, and the water you actually come for is in the thermal baths.

Lille eats better. Its Flemish estaminets serve carbonnade, potjevleesch and welsh, Maroilles cheese turns up everywhere, and beer bars and brewery taps fill the evenings. Wazemmes market on Sundays adds a multi-ethnic mix that Baden-Baden doesn't have.

Baden-Baden's strength is wine rather than range. You can drink Riesling and Pinot Noir in the Rebland taverns and eat Flammkuchen, venison and Black Forest gateau. But the centre is mostly hotel dining and cake cafés, and the celebrated restaurants are a drive away in the hills.

Baden-Baden's main sight is the town itself. You come to see the Belle Époque spa resort: the Kurhaus, the Trinkhalle, the Lichtentaler Allee and the hillside villas, with the Museum Frieder Burda and the Fabergé museum as extras. That fills a day or two.

Lille has more depth. The Palais des Beaux-Arts is a major museum of Flemish and Dutch masters, Vieux-Lille's Flemish baroque streets lead to the Vieille Bourse and the UNESCO-listed belfry, and La Piscine and LaM are a metro ride out. It easily holds you for longer.

This is one of the sharpest differences between the two. Baden-Baden's evenings revolve around the gilded Kurhaus casino and hotel bars, the crowd is older and the streets are quiet by late evening.

Lille's large student population keeps Rue Masséna and Rue Solférino loud on Thursdays, and Vieux-Lille has beer cafés and cellar bars for a calmer drink. For clubs, Lille looks across the Belgian border, while Baden-Baden sends you to Karlsruhe or Strasbourg.

Baden-Baden has real landscape on its doorstep. Fir forest, the Merkur summit with views to the Vosges, climbing on the Battert cliffs, vineyard walks on the Panoramaweg, and further in the moorland of the Hornisgrinde at over 1,100m.

Lille's countryside is flat and gentle: the Citadel park loop along the Deûle, level towpath cycling and short climbs on the Monts de Flandre. The best scenery near Lille, the Opal Coast cliffs, is a long day away.

Both make excellent bases, but Lille's fast trains put more within reach. Brussels is half an hour away, Ghent and Bruges about an hour, and Paris an hour by TGV. Arras, Amiens and the First World War battlefields are close on the French side.

Baden-Baden's outings rely more on a car but are rich all the same. Strasbourg and the Alsace wine route, Heidelberg, Freiburg, and the UNESCO sites at Speyer and Maulbronn are all around an hour away.

The two are equally manageable with children, and in both the big family days are out of town. From Baden-Baden that means Europa-Park, one of Europe's largest theme parks, about an hour south. The town itself is refined and adult, and the Friedrichsbad doesn't admit young children.

Lille's Citadel park has a small zoo, playgrounds and flat paths for scooters, and there's a hands-on science centre by metro. Pairi Daiza and the Nausicaá aquarium make bigger outings, though the cobbles of Vieux-Lille are hard going with a pushchair.

Lille is the easier place to get around without a car. Its centre is flat, both main stations are a walk from the old town, and the automated VAL metro and the tram reach Roubaix and Tourcoing.

Baden-Baden's centre is small but hilly in places, and the station is a bus ride out in Oos. The Black Forest High Road, the wine villages and Alsace are far simpler with a hire car.

Lille gives you more to browse. There are chains on Rue Neuve, the Euralille mall, and independent fashion and design shops in Vieux-Lille. The Braderie each September turns the streets into a vast flea market.

Baden-Baden's shopping is polished but narrow. Jewellers, watchmakers and boutiques on Sophienstraße and Lange Straße cater to a well-off spa clientele, and beyond those there are few markets or department stores.

Lille is the cheaper stay. Hotels are reasonable outside fair weeks, estaminet meals and beer are fairly priced, and the metro and museums cost little.

Baden-Baden was built for the wealthy and still feels that way. Grand hotels set the price level and every bath visit costs money, though simple guesthouses and wine taverns soften the bill.

The two are roughly level here, with Baden-Baden slightly ahead for big-name classical music. The Festspielhaus brings in leading international orchestras and opera, and the town's links with Brahms and Clara Schumann are part of its character.

Lille's programme is broader. The Opéra de Lille, the national orchestra and the Théâtre du Nord are joined by contemporary dance in Roubaix, and the Zénith and Aéronef bring rock and pop, which Baden-Baden largely lacks.

Rest is the whole point of Baden-Baden. The Romans used its hot springs, the domed Friedrichsbad leads you through a silent sequence of hot rooms and pools, and Caracalla adds outdoor thermal pools and a large sauna area.

Lille has no bathing culture of its own. Relaxing there means hotel spas and tea rooms, and the nearest thermal bath is a train ride away at Saint-Amand-les-Eaux.