Bristol or Lille?

Neither city is a beach destination, but the coasts they lead to are different. From Bristol you reach the muddy, silt-brown Severn estuary, where the tide at Weston-super-Mare retreats so far that swimming needs careful timing. Locals swim in the tidal pools instead, such as Clevedon's Victorian marine lake.

Lille is an hour by train from Malo-les-Bains at Dunkirk, a wide stretch of real North Sea sand. It is windy and the water stays cold, so it suits a bracing walk more than an afternoon of swimming.

Both cities eat well, but in very different ways. Bristol has no dish of its own. You graze through St Nicholas Market's stalls, the harbourside container kitchens and the bakeries and coffee roasters of Gloucester Road and Bedminster, with cider and craft taprooms doing the local work.

Lille has a cuisine of its own. In the wood-panelled estaminets of Vieux-Lille you get carbonnade, potjevleesch and the welsh, with Maroilles cheese in almost everything and Belgian-style ales alongside. Choose Bristol for variety and Lille for a sense of place on the plate.

Lille has the deeper sights. The Palais des Beaux-Arts is a major fine-art museum by any standard, and the Flemish baroque of the Vieille Bourse, the Grand Place and the UNESCO-listed belfry make the old town a sight in itself. La Piscine in Roubaix adds a memorable second museum.

Bristol's appeal is its maritime and engineering history: Brunel's SS Great Britain, the Clifton Suspension Bridge over the gorge, St Mary Redcliffe and the Georgian crescents of Clifton. Its Banksy street art has no equivalent in Lille, but its art collections are more modest.

Bristol is the stronger night out. The city that gave the world trip hop and a good share of drum and bass still fills warehouses and railway arches around Temple Meads, and there is a club on a boat in the harbour. Stokes Croft adds scruffy, creative bars, and weekend nights go on late.

Lille is friendly and student-heavy, with cheap bars on Rue Masséna and Rue Solférino and cellar bars in Vieux-Lille for a calmer evening. Its clubs are modest, though, and for a really late night people have traditionally crossed into Belgium.

Bristol wins easily outdoors. Within the city you have the Downs above the limestone Avon Gorge, Leigh Woods and the deer park at Ashton Court, plus a traffic-free railway path to Bath. Cheddar Gorge, the Mendips and the Wye Valley are each about an hour or less away.

Around Lille, French Flanders is flat and farmed. The Citadel park and the Deûle towpaths are pleasant for a level ride, but the only real scenery is the chalk cliffs of Cap Blanc-Nez, a long day away on the Opal Coast.

Both are excellent bases, but Lille's position at a crossroads gives it more reach. Brussels is half an hour away by fast train, Ghent and Bruges are around an hour, and Paris is about an hour by TGV. Closer to home there are Arras, Amiens cathedral and the First World War battlefields of the Somme and Ypres.

Bristol's range is more English and more rural. Bath is a quarter of an hour away by train, Wells and Glastonbury are to the south, and Cardiff is across the Severn. By car you can reach the Cotswold villages, Stonehenge and Avebury.

Bristol is better set up for children. The SS Great Britain is designed with young visitors in mind, and the We The Curious science centre and the aquarium sit together on the harbourside, linked by little ferries. A wildlife park lies on the city's edge, and the Downs give space to run. The steep hills are hard work with a pushchair.

Lille has the Citadel park, with its small zoo, playgrounds and flat paths, plus a science centre reachable by metro. Its biggest family outings, Pairi Daiza and the Nausicaá aquarium, mean leaving the city.

Lille is much easier to get around. The centre is flat, the two main stations stand side by side a walk from the old town, and the driverless VAL metro and the tram reach Roubaix and Tourcoing.

Bristol's core around the harbour and Queen Square is walkable, and the yellow ferries are a pleasure. Clifton is a steep climb, though, and with no metro or tram the rest of the city depends on buses that get stuck in traffic.

Lille offers a little more. Alongside the chains on Rue Neuve and the Euralille mall, the narrow streets of Vieux-Lille hold independent fashion, design shops and delicatessens. The September Braderie turns the whole city into a vast flea market for a weekend.

Bristol's best shopping is more bohemian: the record shops, delis and vintage clothes on Gloucester Road, the boutiques up Park Street and the curios at St Nicholas Market. Cabot Circus covers the chains.

Lille is the gentler on the wallet. Rooms are reasonable for most of the year, estaminet meals and beer are fairly priced, and the metro is cheap.

Bristol is one of the dearer English cities outside London, and weekend hotel rooms climb noticeably. Free museums and churches and a walkable centre take some of the edge off.

The two cities are evenly matched, with different strengths. Bristol is about live music and theatre. Bands, jazz and electronic acts play small venues in Stokes Croft and Old Market most nights, and the Georgian Bristol Old Vic is the oldest continuously working theatre in the English-speaking world.

Lille is the more classical of the two. It has a resident opera house on the Place du Théâtre, the Orchestre National de Lille's symphonic season and the Théâtre du Nord, which Bristol cannot match.

Bristol offers more ways to unwind. The Victorian lido behind Clifton's terraces makes a restful half day, and Bath's rooftop thermal pool, fed by Britain's only natural hot springs, is a quarter of an hour away by train.

Lille offers little beyond hotel spas and slow afternoons in Vieux-Lille's tea rooms. The nearest thermal bath is at Saint-Amand-les-Eaux, and its famous Art Deco pool now holds paintings rather than swimmers.