Cambridge or Lille?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Lille gets you to the sand more easily. Malo-les-Bains at Dunkirk is about an hour away by train. From Cambridge, the Suffolk shingle and the Norfolk sands take around an hour and a half by car. Both coasts face the same cold North Sea.

Cambridge does have fresh-water swimming that Lille lacks, at the 1920s Jesus Green Lido and in the Cam at Grantchester Meadows, which is pleasant on a hot afternoon.

Lille eats with a regional identity that Cambridge has no equivalent for. Its estaminets in Vieux-Lille serve slow-cooked Flemish dishes, pungent Maroilles cheese turns up everywhere, and a serious northern beer culture runs through the evening. The Sunday market at Wazemmes adds a multi-ethnic food scene.

Cambridge is solid but plain by comparison: old riverside pubs with ales and Sunday roasts, street food on Market Hill, scones in tea rooms and a spread of Asian and Mediterranean cooking on Mill Road. You run out of new things to eat sooner there.

Cambridge has the edge because of how densely its history is packed. Eight centuries of courts, chapels and libraries line the Backs, with King's College Chapel, Trinity's Great Court and the Wren Library a few minutes' walk apart. The free Fitzwilliam and a cluster of smaller university museums deepen the visit.

Lille's single best museum, the Palais des Beaux-Arts, is a match for anything in Cambridge, and the Flemish baroque streets around the Vieille Bourse and the belfry are a fine sight. Its other draws are more spread out, though, from Vauban's citadel to La Piscine in Roubaix and the LaM, which you reach by metro or tram.

Lille goes out far more. A huge student population fills the cheap bars on Rue Masséna and Rue Solférino, Vieux-Lille has beer cafés and cocktail bars in brick cellars for a calmer evening, and Belgium is close for a late night.

In Cambridge an evening means a historic inn or a riverside pub garden, with a few livelier bars on Regent Street and Mill Road. Its small student clubs go quiet in the summer break, so for a big night most people take the train to London.

Both sit in flat country, and both offer gentle outdoor time rather than scenery. They differ in where it is found. Cambridge has the more appealing green space in town: punting through the Backs, cattle on the water meadows to Grantchester, and Wicken Fen's birds and wild ponies a short way out.

Lille's in-town nature is the Citadel park and the canal towpaths. In the wider region, though, it has the low Monts de Flandre for short walks with views, and the chalk cliffs of Cap Blanc-Nez as a long day out, the one dramatic landscape within reach of either city.

Both are good bases, but Lille is exceptional. Brussels is about half an hour by fast train, Ghent and Bruges not much more, Paris around an hour, and London possible by Eurostar. Closer to home are Arras, Amiens Cathedral, the Louvre-Lens and the First World War battlefields.

Cambridge's range is more English and more rural: London in under an hour, Ely Cathedral a short hop, Norwich by train, and the Suffolk wool towns and National Trust estates, which are easier by car. From Lille you can visit three countries. From Cambridge you are seeing East Anglia.

With children the two are much alike: flat, compact and easy rather than built for kids. Cambridge's best outings are close to hand, with punting, the free Museum of Zoology and its whale skeleton, the Sedgwick dinosaurs and the historic aircraft at Duxford just south of town.

Lille offers a morning in the Citadel park, with its small zoo, playgrounds and seasonal rides, plus a hands-on science centre by metro. Its bigger draws, a large zoo park in Belgium and the aquarium at Boulogne, take a full day, and the cobbles of Vieux-Lille are hard going with a pushchair.

Both centres are flat and walkable, but Lille is easier once you leave them. Its two main stations stand beside the old town, and the automated VAL metro and the tram reach Roubaix and Tourcoing without a car.

Cambridge works best by bicycle, which is the local habit and the easy way to reach Grantchester. The station is a walk of about twenty-five minutes from the centre, the buses are ordinary, and the country estates are easier with a car.

Lille is the better shopping city. It has chain streets around Rue Neuve, the large Euralille mall, and independent fashion, design shops and delicatessens in Vieux-Lille. Every September the Braderie turns the city into a huge flea market.

Cambridge shops on a smaller scale, and its speciality is books, from academic booksellers to second-hand dealers in the lanes. Add Market Hill, the independents on Green Street and vintage shops on Mill Road, and it fits round sightseeing rather than filling a day.

Lille is easier on the budget. Hotel rooms are reasonable for most of the year, except during the Braderie and the big trade fairs, and estaminet meals, beer and the metro are fairly priced.

Cambridge is a costly place to sleep, because rooms are scarce and in demand from university visitors, and eating out is priced like the wealthy south-east. The free Fitzwilliam, free evensong and a centre you can walk soften the bill, and an out-of-term college room is often the best deal.

The two are broadly level, but they offer very different evenings. Cambridge's speciality is choral music: evensong sung by the choirs of King's, St John's and Trinity in candlelit chapels, plus student drama and Footlights comedy, and the long-running Folk Festival in summer.

Lille is the place for big-stage culture. Its grand opera house stages opera and dance, the Orchestre National de Lille plays a full symphonic season, the Théâtre du Nord is a national theatre, and the Zénith brings touring acts.

Neither city has a bathing culture, but Cambridge is better for simply slowing down. You can spend an afternoon in a punt, sit in the Botanic Garden or a college garden, walk across the meadows for orchard tea at Grantchester or swim at the lido, as long as you avoid King's Parade at its summer busiest.

Lille's rest comes from tea rooms and café terraces in Vieux-Lille. For a proper soak, the thermal baths at Saint-Amand-les-Eaux are a short train ride away.