Cambridge or The Hague?

Cambridge has no beach at all. Swimming there means the 1920s lido on Jesus Green or a dip in the Cam at Grantchester Meadows, and reaching the Suffolk or Norfolk coast takes about an hour and a half by car.

The Hague has the sea within the city limits. Scheveningen's long, sandy beach and promenade are about fifteen minutes from the centre by tram, and quieter Kijkduin lies to the south, backed by dunes. The water is the same chilly North Sea, so expect sunbathing and short swims rather than long hours in the water.

The Hague has the more interesting table, mostly because of its Indonesian kitchen, from a full rijsttafel to quick plates of rendang and sate, plus herring carts in early summer and seafood by Scheveningen harbour. That gives a visitor a cuisine to seek out, which Cambridge cannot offer.

Eating in Cambridge centres on old riverside and lane-side pubs with ales and Sunday roasts, the daily stalls on Market Hill and scones in tea rooms. Mill Road adds Asian and Mediterranean cooking. It is a pleasant few days of eating, but there is nothing regional to go looking for.

The two are broadly level, but they reward different interests. In Cambridge the buildings are the main attraction: college courts, chapels and libraries such as King's College Chapel, Trinity's Great Court and the Wren Library, with the Fitzwilliam and the smaller university museums alongside. Bear in mind that several colleges charge for entry and close around exams.

The Hague's strength is painting and the business of the state. The Mauritshuis holds Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring and Rembrandt's Anatomy Lesson, the Kunstmuseum has the world's largest Mondrian collection, and the Binnenhof and Peace Palace show its role as the seat of government and of the international courts. Either city fills two or three days well.

Neither is a party city, and in both the answer to a big night out is a train ride, to London from Cambridge and to Rotterdam or Amsterdam from The Hague. What differs is the rhythm. Cambridge evenings revolve around historic pubs and riverside gardens, and its small student clubs go quiet in the summer break.

The Hague is a city of café terraces, on the Plein after office hours and on the Grote Markt at weekends. Summer is its liveliest season, when the beach pavilions at Scheveningen move from sundowners to music and dancing.

Both are flat, but The Hague has more varied country close by. The dunes of Meijendel and the Westduinpark, the old Haagse Bos forest and the long beach give walkers, cyclists and kitesurfers real space, in any season.

Cambridge's outdoors is gentler and smaller in scale: punting through the Backs, water meadows on the way to Grantchester, the big town commons, and the birds and wild ponies of Wicken Fen further out. It suits a pleasant afternoon rather than a trip built around landscape.

Both make excellent bases, and The Hague edges ahead because so much is so near by train. Delft and Leiden are about fifteen minutes away, Rotterdam under half an hour, and Amsterdam, Haarlem and Utrecht under an hour. Kinderdijk's windmills and the Keukenhof gardens are within easy reach too.

From Cambridge, the big prize is London, under an hour by train, with Ely Cathedral a quarter of an hour away and Norwich further up the line. Many of the other gems, though, such as Lavenham's timber-framed streets, Audley End and the National Trust estates, are easier to reach by car.

The Hague is the stronger choice with children. Madurodam's miniature country, the beach and pier at Scheveningen, the sea aquarium, Museon and the Duinrell water park in Wassenaar add up to several full days, and the trams take pushchairs easily. A wet day does push everyone indoors, though.

Cambridge is safe, green and easy to manage with young children, and punting, the whale skeleton at the free Museum of Zoology and the aircraft at Duxford go down well. Beyond those, the colleges are quiet places for adults and there is no theme park, so it suits a short stay better than a long one.

Getting around is easy in both, but in different ways. In Cambridge nearly everything is within walking distance in a flat, largely pedestrian centre, and a hired bicycle covers the rest. Buses are ordinary, the station is a walk of about twenty-five minutes from the centre, and the country estates really need a car.

The Hague is more spread out, but frequent trams link the Binnenhof with Scheveningen, Madurodam and the Peace Palace, and cycle lanes run almost everywhere. Its two main stations put Delft, Leiden and Rotterdam within commuting distance, so you can do without a car altogether.

The Hague offers more to browse. Antique dealers, galleries and boutiques line the Denneweg and Noordeinde, the glass-roofed Passage dates from the 1880s, and the huge Haagse Markt is piled with fabrics, spices and produce from the city's many communities.

Cambridge's speciality is books, from old academic booksellers to second-hand dealers in the lanes, with independent shops on Green Street and Trinity Street and the daily market on Market Hill. Elsewhere it is mostly high-street names in the Grand Arcade, which is fine for shopping between sights but not worth a trip in itself.

Neither is cheap, but Cambridge is harder on the budget. It has few central hotels and steady demand from the university, so rooms are expensive, especially in summer. Free museums and free evensong help, and a college room out of term can be the best deal, but the famous colleges charge for entry.

The Hague is priced at full Northern European levels too, yet central hotels empty of government travellers at weekends, which often brings better rates. Indonesian and Surinamese eateries, picnics from the Haagse Markt and cheap trams or bicycles all keep daily costs down.

The two are evenly matched, and each has one standout. In Cambridge it is choral music: evensong by the choirs of King's, St John's and Trinity, open to anyone during term. Student comedy in the Footlights tradition, the Arts Theatre and the long-running summer Folk Festival round it out.

In The Hague it is dance, with Nederlands Dans Theater performing at home, backed by the Residentie Orkest and early-music concerts from the Royal Conservatory. Most theatre there is in Dutch, which rules much of it out for visitors, and neither city has a resident opera company.

The Hague has the clearer offer: large Dutch sauna complexes where you can spend a whole day moving between steam rooms, cold plunges and quiet gardens, though nudity is usually expected. Its calm streets of embassies and government offices, with little late-night noise, make it easy to unwind.

Cambridge has no spa tradition beyond hotel and day spas. Its rest comes from slower pleasures: drifting in a punt, sitting in the Botanic Garden or walking to Grantchester for tea in an orchard. Plan for early mornings or the edges of town, because King's Parade fills with tour groups in summer.