Cornwall or Lake District?

Cornwall has real beaches and the Lake District does not. Surfers head for Fistral, Watergate Bay and Gwithian, swimmers look for the sheltered coves near Falmouth and Fowey, and Porthcurno and Kynance Cove have the famous white sand. The Atlantic stays cold, but a day on the beach is the point of being here.

In the Lakes, a swim is a dip from a jetty or a shingle shore on Buttermere or Ullswater, usually in the middle of a walk. The Cumbrian coast has long beaches, but they face the cold Irish Sea and are better for a stroll than a swim.

Cornwall eats better, mostly because of the sea. Crab, lobster and hake are landed at Newlyn, Padstow, St Ives and Porthleven have serious seafood kitchens, and pasties and cream teas are the everyday standby.

In the Lake District you eat in the fireside pub: Herdwick lamb, Cumberland sausage and local ale, with sticky toffee pudding or Grasmere gingerbread after. The country-house dining around Cartmel and Windermere is excellent, but there is little between that and pub food, and nothing to match Cornwall's fresh fish.

Cornwall has the wider set of sights: St Michael's Mount, Tintagel, the old mining engine houses at Botallack, and the art of Tate St Ives and the Hepworth sculpture garden, with the Eden Project as a modern contrast. The Lake District's heritage is quieter and mostly literary, built around Wordsworth at Dove Cottage, Beatrix Potter at Hill Top and Ruskin at Brantwood, plus the stone circle at Castlerigg.

In both, the sights are spread across the region rather than gathered in one town, so each fills an afternoon rather than a whole trip.

Neither is a place for big nights out, but Cornwall has more going on. In summer, surfers and stag and hen groups fill Newquay's bars and clubs, and Falmouth's students keep a smaller scene going. In the Lake District an evening means a pint by the fire in Ambleside or Keswick, and most people go to bed early so they can be on the fells in the morning.

Both are superb outdoors, but the Lake District has the edge for anyone who wants to get up high. Helvellyn by Striding Edge, Scafell Pike from Wasdale and the Fairfield Horseshoe are proper mountain days, and there is paddling and sailing on Windermere and Ullswater below.

Cornwall's landscape is the coast rather than the hills. It has the cliff path around Penwith and the Lizard, Bodmin Moor inland, surf at Bude and Sennen, and seals and summer dolphins offshore. There are no mountains, so it offers sea where the Lakes offer height.

The two are level on day trips, but the outings are different in kind. In Cornwall, a day out mostly means going from one harbour town to the next, such as Mousehole, Port Isaac or Fowey, and from Penzance the Isles of Scilly make a long day.

The Lake District offers more variety: Hadrian's Wall and Carlisle's castle to the north, Furness Abbey and the Yorkshire Dales to the south, and the Ravenglass steam railway within the region. In both, these trips are much easier by car.

Cornwall has the edge with young children, mostly because the beach gives every day an easy plan. Porthminster at St Ives, Gyllyngvase at Falmouth and the sands around Padstow and Polzeath are sheltered enough for small swimmers, the flat Camel Trail makes a gentle family bike ride, and caravan parks and self-catering cottages keep the practical side simple. The cost comes in the school summer break, when beach car parks fill and queues build on the main roads.

The Lake District works best for children who like being outside whatever the weather. A trip on a Windermere or Ullswater steamer, the aquarium at the foot of Windermere and short walks round Tarn Hows or along the Buttermere shore suit small legs, while older children can move on to climbing and ghyll scrambling. Windermere and Ambleside are the easiest bases, and the pubs and cafés are relaxed about children.

In both, driving is hard work in summer, and in both a railway makes a car-free stay in one base possible. Cornwall's branch lines reach St Ives, Falmouth and Newquay, though many beaches beyond them lie down narrow lanes between high hedges.

In the Lakes, buses and steamers link Windermere, Ambleside, Grasmere and Keswick, and many walks start from a bus stop. The western valleys are the exception: reaching them takes a car over the steep Hardknott and Wrynose passes.

Cornwall has more to browse, mainly the galleries and potteries of St Ives and the independent shops of Falmouth, Fowey and Penzance's Chapel Street. The Lake District's one strength is outdoor gear in Ambleside and Keswick, useful if your boots let you down, alongside wool goods and slate crafts. Neither is worth a trip just for the shopping.

Both cost about the same, and both are expensive in the school summer break, when cottages in the popular villages book out. The ways to save differ. In Cornwall, you can keep costs down with pubs, pasties and self-catering, and by going in spring or autumn. In the Lake District, hostels, bunkhouses and campsites make a cheap walking trip easy, and winter is noticeably cheaper.

Cornwall has the more memorable stage: the Minack Theatre, cut into the cliffs above Porthcurno. It also has touring shows at Truro's Hall for Cornwall, male voice choirs and Padstow's May Day celebration.

The Lake District's answer is Keswick's Theatre by the Lake with its season of repertory plays, plus Kendal's mountain festival of outdoor films each November. In both, folk sessions in the pub are the everyday live music.

Both are places to slow down rather than to take the waters, and neither has a bathing tradition. Cornwall has spa hotels above Watergate Bay and Carbis Bay, and wood-fired saunas on the beach that go with a cold sea dip.

The Lake District has lakeside spas on Windermere and Ullswater, and a swim in a cold tarn takes the place of the sea, with walking by day and a fire at night. Both lose much of their calm in the summer peak.