Cotswolds or Peak District?

Neither region has any beach life to speak of. Each has one summer swim worth knowing about. The Cotswold Water Park near Cirencester has a sandy lake beach and open-water swimming in flooded gravel pits. In the Peak District, the swim to go for is the heated open-air pool at Hathersage, because its cold, deep reservoirs are not for swimming.

The Cotswolds eat better. Village inns around Stow, Chipping Campden and the Coln valley cook to a high standard, and Cheltenham adds fine dining and international cooking around Montpellier. The catch is that the best meal is often a booked table a few miles from the busiest village.

Food in the Peak District is heartier and plainer: a good pub meal and a pint of real ale after a long walk, Bakewell pudding, and Hartington cheese. In the smaller villages the evening choice may come down to one or two pubs, and on summer weekends they fill up.

The Cotswolds have more to see, and much of it is gathered together. The wool-trade villages are the main sight in themselves, from Chipping Campden's High Street to Bibury's Arlington Row. The great wool churches, Blenheim Palace and the Roman remains at Chedworth and Cirencester add depth.

The Peak District has one house to match anything in the Cotswolds in Chatsworth, along with medieval Haddon Hall and Buxton's Georgian Crescent. Its other stories are about people and industry: Eyam's plague quarantine, the well dressings and Arkwright's mills at Cromford. These are spread over a wider area and fill a day or two rather than a week.

Both regions are quiet at night, and most evenings end by a pub fire. The difference is where you find a proper night out. In the Cotswolds it is Cheltenham, inside the region, with cocktail bars around the Promenade and Montpellier. In the Peak District, Buxton and Matlock have only a few later bars, so a real night out means travelling about an hour to Sheffield or Manchester.

This is where the Peak District pulls well ahead. Its Dark Peak is high, open gritstone moorland with Kinder Scout and the start of the Pennine Way, and its edges are known to climbers worldwide. The limestone dales of the White Peak, such as Dovedale and Lathkill Dale, hide caves for potholing.

Cotswold country is softer and more farmed, with rolling wolds, beech woods and dry-stone walls. Its best moments are on the western escarpment, where the Cotswold Way and viewpoints such as Broadway Tower look across to Wales. The walking there is lovely but never wild.

The Cotswolds have the stronger list of days out, and most of them are within an hour. Oxford, Bath, Stratford-upon-Avon and Warwick Castle are all close, and the cathedrals at Gloucester, Worcester and Wells and the abbey at Tewkesbury add more.

From the Peak District the choice is more urban and industrial. Manchester and Sheffield are easy by train, and the Potteries are within reach. A ring of grand houses lies just outside the park, including Hardwick Hall and Calke Abbey. York and Chester are possible, but they make for a long day.

The Peak District has more for children who like to be active. They can go underground in the show caves at Castleton, ride the cable car up to the Heights of Abraham, take a vintage tram at Crich and cycle on traffic-free railway trails. Alton Towers is a short drive away.

The Cotswolds offer a gentler trip that suits younger children. There are rhinos and giraffes at the Cotswold Wildlife Park, the model village at Bourton-on-the-Water, lambing at the farm parks and a steam railway from Winchcombe. In both regions, expect plenty of time in the car.

Both regions are easiest with a car, and both have the same summer problem of full car parks in the most popular villages. The difference is in the trains. In the Peak District, the Hope Valley line stops at Edale and Hathersage, so walks can start from the station platform. Cotswold stations such as Moreton-in-Marsh and Kemble mostly lead to thin rural buses, but neighbouring villages are close enough to link up on foot along the footpaths.

The Cotswolds are far ahead for shopping. Tetbury and Stow-on-the-Wold are known for antique furniture, silver and old prints, and Burford and Chipping Campden have galleries and homeware shops. Cheltenham offers proper high-street and boutique shopping.

In the Peak District, shopping is practical. Hathersage has outdoor gear for walkers and climbers, Castleton sells Blue John, a banded stone found only in its hills, and Bakewell has its weekly market. There is little else.

The Peak District is the cheaper of the two. Prices there are those of ordinary rural England, and youth hostels, bunkhouses and campsites make a low-cost walking trip easy.

The Cotswolds trade on character inns, manor-house hotels and stone cottages, all priced well above the national norm, and good pub meals cost more too. Sharing a self-catering cottage with a group or staying in Cheltenham helps. In both regions, the stately homes and attractions each charge for entry.

The Cotswolds offer more, mainly thanks to Cheltenham. Its Everyman Theatre and long-running festivals cover jazz, classical music and literature. Longborough stages summer opera in a converted barn, and the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford is about half an hour from the northern villages.

The Peak District's arts are centred on Buxton. Its Edwardian Opera House runs all year, and the July festival, with its fringe, briefly fills the town. Outside Buxton there is little beyond folk nights in pubs.

Both regions have a Georgian spa town, but only one still bathes in its own water. That is Buxton, where the Crescent spa uses the thermal springs and St Ann's Well gives water away for free. Cheltenham's Pump Room is now just a fine building.

Even so, the Cotswolds are the more relaxing stay. They have more country-house hotels with serious spas, and Bath's rooftop thermal pool is an easy trip from the southern wolds. In the Peak District, the calm is found mainly midweek, when the busy villages empty out.