Devon or Normandy?

Devon has the better beaches, largely because it has two kinds. The Atlantic-facing north gives you long dune-backed sands and surf at Woolacombe and Saunton. The south gives you sheltered estuary beaches around Bantham and Bigbury, plus coves such as Blackpool Sands.

Normandy's best seaside is the resort strip of the Côte Fleurie, with boardwalks and striped cabins at Deauville and Cabourg. Elsewhere the Alabaster Coast is shingle under cliffs, and the huge tides empty the shore for hours at a time. In both regions the water is cold, so a swim is brief or in a wetsuit.

Normandy eats better. Camembert, Livarot and Pont-l'Évêque, cream-and-cider sauces, Saint-Vaast oysters and calvados bought straight from Pays d'Auge farms give it a regional cuisine with real depth. Rouen and the harbour fronts of Honfleur and Granville are where it shows best.

Devon's strengths are its ingredients rather than its cooking. Brixham fish, Salcombe crab and the cream tea are all worth seeking out, and Dartmouth is the place to eat well. Good restaurants are thinner on the ground, though, and the resort seafronts mostly serve chips.

This is where the two regions are furthest apart. Normandy has Mont-Saint-Michel, the D-Day coast from Utah to Sword Beach, the Bayeux Tapestry and Rouen's cathedral and half-timbered streets. Caen's castle, Le Havre's rebuilt centre and Giverny add even more. A week there can be filled with first-rank sights.

Devon's high points are Exeter Cathedral, with its long Gothic vault, and Plymouth's Barbican with the Mayflower Steps. Beyond those, it offers country houses such as Castle Drogo, Greenway and A La Ronde. These are rewarding visits, but they make a pleasant backdrop rather than the purpose of a trip.

Both regions go quiet early, and the real going-out scenes in each are in two student cities: Exeter and Plymouth in Devon, Rouen and Caen in Normandy. The difference is in the evening itself. In Devon it centres on the pub, a harbourside pint in Salcombe or a fire in a Dartmoor inn. In Normandy it is a long dinner, with Deauville's casino and hotel bars for a smarter night in summer.

Devon has the wilder country. Dartmoor's tors, clapper bridges and ponies cover the middle of the county, and Exmoor's cliffs drop steeply to the sea. Both coasts carry the South West Coast Path, which reaches the red and white Jurassic Coast cliffs near Beer. It is also the better region for surfing and estuary sailing.

Normandy's best scenery lies along its edges. It has the chalk arches at Étretat, the granite headlands of Cap de la Hague and guided walks across the sands of the Mont-Saint-Michel bay. Inland, the hedged bocage is gentle cycling country with no high ground.

Both make good bases for outings, but the outings are different. From Normandy you can reach Paris by train in under two hours, add Saint-Malo and Dinan in Brittany, or take a summer ferry to Jersey. That gives it a capital city and a second country close by.

Devon's outings are mostly rural and mostly by car. You can cross into Cornwall for the Eden Project and Fowey, take the river boat down the Dart to Dartmouth, or sail to Lundy. From Exeter, Bath is the easiest train trip.

Devon is the more natural family choice, and has long been one of Britain's classic family counties. It has lifeguarded beaches and rock pools, Paignton Zoo, the aquarium in Plymouth and the steam line to Kingswear. Dartmoor's ponies and letterboxing keep older children busy.

Normandy is easy and calm with children but has fewer set pieces. The best are the walk-through submarine at Cité de la Mer in Cherbourg, the Cerza safari park and the ramparts of Mont-Saint-Michel. Drives between them are longer.

You will want a car in either region, but driving is far easier in Normandy. Its roads are good and rarely crowded, and trains from Paris reach Rouen, Caen, Bayeux and Cherbourg. Its one catch is size: the region is wide enough that two bases work better than one.

Devon's main-line trains, including the stretch along the sea wall at Dawlish, only link the larger towns. The rest is single-track lanes between high hedges, summer queues towards the beaches and tight parking in the harbour towns.

Neither region is a shopping destination, and in both the best things to take home come from farms. Normandy has a little more range, with Rouen's pedestrian streets, Deauville's fashion boutiques and old crafts such as Villedieu copper, Alençon lace and Rouen faience. Devon's offer is more homespun: the alternative high street in Totnes, Honiton's antiques and the galleries of Dartmouth and Salcombe.

Normandy is the cheaper of the two. Chambres d'hôtes, rented cottages and set lunches in market towns are reasonably priced, and many D-Day sites cost nothing. You pay more only in Deauville, Honfleur and around Mont-Saint-Michel, and car hire has to be added to most budgets.

In the school summer break, Devon's cottages and hotels get expensive, especially in Salcombe and the north coast surf villages. Torbay, Plymouth and the inland villages give much better value, and so do spring and autumn.

The two regions are on a par here, and in both a show is a good evening rather than a reason to visit. Devon's main stage is Plymouth's Theatre Royal, a large theatre for touring musicals and drama, along with Dartington's summer music and choral evensong in Exeter Cathedral. Normandy has a proper opera house in Rouen with its own orchestral season, and Coutances hosts the long-running Jazz sous les Pommiers festival in spring.

Normandy has a real spa culture, which Devon lacks. Thalassotherapy centres with heated seawater pools line its coast from Deauville to Granville. Inland, Bagnoles-de-l'Orne is a belle-époque spa town built around its own springs.

Devon has no bathing tradition of that kind. Its version of rest is spa hotels in country houses, cold-water swimming in the Art Deco Tinside Lido or in south coast coves, and slow days in estuary villages.