Cambridge or Dusseldorf?

Neither city has a beach, so swimming should not decide this choice. Cambridge is a little nearer the coast, about an hour and a half from the Suffolk shingle and Norfolk sand, though the North Sea is cold. From Düsseldorf the Dutch coast is a long day's travel away.

The real difference is where you swim on a hot day. In Cambridge it is the 1920s Jesus Green Lido or the Cam at Grantchester Meadows. In Düsseldorf the Rhine is too dangerous to swim in, so people go to Unterbacher See, a lake with lawns and bathing areas on the edge of the city.

Düsseldorf is the better city to eat in. It has a real local tradition of Altbier poured in small glasses in old brewhouses, served with sauerbraten, blood sausage and the sharp local mustard. It also has a completely different second strand in the ramen counters, izakaya and Japanese bakeries around Immermannstrasse, and Carlsplatz market adds snacks and produce.

Cambridge eats comfortably but has no cuisine of its own. Its best meals are a Sunday roast in a beamed pub by the river, street food on Market Hill or scones in a tea room, with Mill Road for Asian and Mediterranean cooking. You will have covered it in a few days, while Düsseldorf gives a food-minded visitor reasons to stay longer.

Cambridge has by far the richer historic core. Its colleges line the Backs with courts, chapels and libraries built over eight centuries. King's College Chapel, the Wren Library and the Round Church are a short walk from the Fitzwilliam, whose art and antiquities would suit a much larger city.

Düsseldorf's strength is modern art: Klee at K20, the net under the glass dome at K21, the Kunstpalast and the influence of its famous art academy. Wartime bombing left little old fabric, though, so apart from Benrath Palace and the ruins at Kaiserswerth the city offers the Rhine promenade and the Gehry buildings of the Medienhafen rather than centuries of architecture.

Evenings out are much livelier in Düsseldorf. The Altstadt packs a few hundred pubs and brewhouses into a handful of streets. On weekend nights the crowds drink Altbier standing in the lanes until well past midnight, stag groups included, and at Carnival the whole city goes out for days.

In Cambridge a night out centres on the pub: historic inns, riverside gardens and a few livelier bars on Regent Street and Mill Road. Its small clubs cater to students and go quiet in the long summer break, which is when many visitors come.

Cambridge's outdoors is gentle and almost completely flat. You can punt through the Backs, follow the water meadows to Grantchester past grazing cattle, or cross Midsummer Common and Jesus Green in the middle of town. Wicken Fen has birds, dragonflies and wild ponies, and the low chalk hills at Wandlebury give a short woodland walk, but there is no real high ground within reach.

Düsseldorf gives you more room to roam. Long cycle paths run along the Rhine meadows to Kaiserswerth, Grafenberg forest has shady walks and the wooded Neandertal is close by. The hills of the Bergisches Land begin within half an hour, and the Siebengebirge and the volcanic Eifel are near enough for a proper day's hiking, though nothing here is dramatic either.

Both cities make excellent bases, and the difference is in what lies around them. Day trips from Cambridge are English and historic: London is under an hour away for a museum or a show, and there are the cathedrals at Ely, Peterborough and Norwich, the house at Audley End and the timber-framed wool towns of Suffolk. Some of these are easier by car.

Düsseldorf sits in a dense region where almost everything is a quick train ride away. Cologne is under half an hour, and Bonn, the Brühl palaces, the Zollverein colliery, Aachen and even Dutch Maastricht are all easy day trips. It suits travellers who prefer a variety of cities to country houses.

Both are safe, compact and easy with children, but Düsseldorf has more to fill the days. In town there is the Aquazoo, the Rheinturm's tilted windows, the free game park in Grafenberg forest and the Rhine's river beaches. Phantasialand and Movie Park Germany are about an hour away for a big day out.

Cambridge works well for a shorter stay, with punting, the whale skeleton at the Museum of Zoology, the Sedgwick's dinosaurs and the historic aircraft at Duxford. It has no theme park or large zoo, and the hushed colleges will not hold young children's attention for long.

Both centres are flat and easy to walk, so you need little transport in either. Cambridge is the smaller of the two and the more geared to bicycles. Almost everything is a short walk apart and a hired bike gets you to Grantchester, but the station is a fair walk from the centre and the country estates need a car.

Düsseldorf has trams, light rail and a fast rail link to the airport. One regional network carries you on to Cologne and the Ruhr, once you have worked out the fare zones.

Düsseldorf is much the stronger city for shopping. Luxury flagships, jewellers and arcades line the canal along the Königsallee, and the city's long-standing fashion trade keeps its department stores big. Flingern's design shops and the stationery and homeware of the Japanese quarter add something less predictable.

Shopping in Cambridge is small-scale and fits around sightseeing: the daily market on Market Hill, high-street names in the Grand Arcade, and its one real speciality, books, from academic booksellers to second-hand dealers.

Neither city is cheap, but Cambridge costs more. It has few hotels and they are always in demand, and eating out is priced like the wealthy south-east of England. The free Fitzwilliam, free evensong, a centre you can walk round and college rooms out of term help a little.

Day to day Düsseldorf is easier on the budget, with fair-value brewhouse meals and inexpensive noodle lunches. Avoid the big trade fairs, though, when room rates jump and hotels fill up.

Düsseldorf has the fuller programme. There is opera and ballet at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, the symphony orchestra in the domed Tonhalle, leading German-language theatre at the Schauspielhaus and a tradition of political cabaret. Plays there are mostly for German speakers, but the music needs no translation, and the city's Kraftwerk heritage gives it a place in electronic music.

In choral music, Cambridge has something Düsseldorf cannot match. During term anyone can hear the choirs of King's, St John's or Trinity sing evensong in the candlelit chapels. The Arts Theatre, student comedy in the Footlights tradition and the long-running Folk Festival fill out a smaller calendar.

The two cities offer quite different kinds of rest. In Cambridge you mostly find it outdoors and without booking anything: drifting past the Backs in a punt, sitting in a college garden or the Botanic Garden, or walking out to Grantchester for tea in an orchard. For pampering there is little beyond hotel spas, day spas and the lido. The centre is not always peaceful either, because summer day visitors crowd the lanes around King's Parade, so the calm hours are early and late.

Düsseldorf has the same unhurried walks, plus the German sauna, and that gives it the edge for a restful stay. Saunas are an ordinary part of life there, built into public pools and leisure baths, and visitors should know that men and women usually share them and wear nothing. Bigger thermal bath complexes make an easy day out, and Aachen's old spa quarter with its hot springs is a slightly longer trip. In town, the shade of the Hofgarten and the Japanese garden in Nordpark are good places to slow down, as long as you stay away from the Altstadt on weekend nights.