Cambridge or York?

Neither city should be picked for the sea, but York gets you to a proper beach more easily. Scarborough's two sandy bays are about an hour away by direct train, with Filey and Whitby beyond, so a seaside day out fits easily into a stay.

From Cambridge the Suffolk shingle and the Norfolk sands take about an hour and a half by car. Its real swimming is closer to home, at the 1920s Jesus Green Lido or in the Cam at Grantchester Meadows.

The two eat at much the same level, both built around old pubs, ales and Sunday roasts, but York has more regional flavour. Its tearooms serve fat rascals, its roasts come with Yorkshire pudding, and the Shambles Market sells local cheese and pies.

Cambridge has no dish of its own, but Mill Road gives it a wider spread of Asian and Mediterranean cooking than York's narrow international range. It also has a small fine-dining tier by the river commons.

These two are evenly matched for sights, and both need two or three days, but the history they show is very different. Cambridge is about the university: eight centuries of colleges, King's College Chapel's fan vaulting, the Wren Library and an unusually rich set of university museums led by the Fitzwilliam.

York is a city of layers rather than one institution. The Minster's medieval glass, the walls you can walk on, Jorvik's excavated Viking street, Clifford's Tower and the vast National Railway Museum tell a story running from Roman times onwards.

An evening out means the pub in both, and neither is a clubbing city. Cambridge's rhythm follows the university terms, busy in autumn and spring and quiet in summer, with riverside pub gardens at their best on long evenings and London on the train for anything bigger.

York's old inns along Stonegate and the river make for a better ale crawl, but Micklegate fills with stag and hen parties at weekends. Serious nights out mean the short train ride to Leeds.

York wins clearly on landscape. The heather moors begin about 40km away, the limestone Dales lie an hour west, and the Cleveland Way runs along high sea cliffs, which makes it a real base for walkers and cyclists, ideally with a car.

Cambridge's outdoors is gentle and close at hand: punting through the Backs, meadow walks to Grantchester, the big commons in town and birdwatching at Wicken Fen. There is no relief and no dramatic scenery anywhere nearby.

Both are excellent bases, and the difference lies in where you are headed. Cambridge's trump card is London in under an hour, along with Ely's cathedral fifteen minutes away, the Suffolk wool towns of Lavenham and Long Melford, and Norwich.

York looks north instead. Durham's cathedral, spa-town Harrogate and Leeds are all quick by rail, and Castle Howard, Fountains Abbey, Rievaulx and the steam railway out of Pickering are best reached by car or coach tour.

Both are small, flat, safe cities that hold children well for a few days, with York slightly ahead. Its walk-around locomotives, Jorvik's Viking street and the walls themselves turn history into an adventure, and older children enjoy the ghost walks.

Cambridge's best family day is the aircraft-filled airfield at Duxford, along with punting, the whale skeleton in the free zoology museum and Wimpole's farm. The colleges themselves are hushed and grown-up.

Equally easy on foot, both cities have flat, largely pedestrian centres where cars are more hindrance than help. Cambridge is a bicycle town, and a hired bike is the natural way to reach Grantchester, though the station sits a longish walk from the centre.

York's station is just fifteen minutes' walk from the Minster and is a major hub for onward trains. In both cities, the countryside beyond the rail lines is easier with a car.

Shopping is a side pleasure in both, with no luxury street in either. In Cambridge the speciality is books, from academic booksellers to second-hand dealers in the lanes, with the daily Market Hill stalls and Mill Road's vintage shops alongside.

York's appeal is the setting: boutiques, jewellers and antiques dealers in the timber-framed streets of Stonegate and Petergate. Its Christmas markets are a reason to visit in their own right, though the Shambles leans heavily towards souvenirs.

York is the gentler on the wallet, mainly for rooms. Staying midweek or just outside the walls brings costs down noticeably, pub meals are reasonable, and the railway museum, the walls and the Museum Gardens are all free, although the Minster and Jorvik charge.

Cambridge's limited hotel stock keeps rooms expensive, and eating out is priced like the wealthy south-east. The Fitzwilliam, most university museums and chapel evensong cost nothing, and an out-of-term college room can be the best way to save.

Cambridge offers the richer evenings. Its college choirs are famous worldwide, and evensong in King's or St John's during term is the highlight. Add the Arts Theatre, the ADC and Footlights tradition of student plays and comedy, concerts at the Corn Exchange and the long-running summer Folk Festival.

York has a smaller programme with its own character: the historic Theatre Royal and its pantomime, early music in a medieval church, and the periodic Mystery Plays performed on wagons in the streets. Evensong at the Minster is free too.

Neither city has a bathing culture of its own, and both are calmest early and late, away from the crowded summer streets. Cambridge's rest is pastoral: drifting in a punt, the Botanic Garden, college gardens and tea in a Grantchester orchard.

York offers the walls at dawn and long afternoon teas. It also has a real spa half an hour away by train, where Harrogate's Royal Baths keep a Victorian Turkish bath with Moorish tiled hot rooms.