Heidelberg or Lille?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Lille at least has the sea within reach. The wide North Sea sand at Malo-les-Bains in Dunkirk is about an hour away by train and good for a bracing day out, even though the water stays cold. Heidelberg's nearest sea is several hours away, so swimming in summer means the outdoor pools or the gravel-pit lakes on the Rhine plain.

Lille eats better, mostly because its cooking has a strong identity of its own. The estaminets of Vieux-Lille serve slow-cooked Flemish dishes such as carbonnade and potjevleesch, Maroilles cheese turns up everywhere, and beer bars and brewery taps make drinking part of the meal. The Sunday market at Wazemmes adds a multi-ethnic side.

Heidelberg's Baden cooking is heartier and simpler, and the tourist places along the Hauptstrasse are uneven. Its real strength is wine: Riesling and Pinot from the Bergstrasse and the Palatinate, best drunk in the village taverns, in Neuenheim or in the Altstadt side streets.

Lille has the edge in depth. The Palais des Beaux-Arts, with its Flemish masters, Goya and relief maps, is a major museum. La Piscine in Roubaix and the LaM add enough art to fill two or three days, alongside the Flemish baroque of the Grand Place and the Vieille Bourse.

Heidelberg is the more picturesque set piece: the red sandstone castle ruin above a well-preserved baroque old town, the Old Bridge, and the Student Prison of Germany's oldest university. It is compact and memorable, but most visitors have seen it in a day or two.

Lille has more going on at night. Rue Masséna and Rue Solférino fill with cheap student bars on Thursday nights, the brick cellars of Vieux-Lille hold beer cafés and cocktail bars for a calmer crowd, and the Belgian clubs are close for a later finish.

In Heidelberg, evenings centre on the Untere Strasse and the old student taverns with their carved tables. They are lively in term time but quiet outside it, and for a proper club night people take the train to Mannheim or Frankfurt.

Heidelberg is far better for time outdoors. Woodland starts at the edge of the old town, the funicular climbs the Königstuhl at 568m to hours of forest trails, and the Heiligenberg has Celtic ramparts among its trees. The Neckar valley cycle path and the sandstone crags of the Palatinate Forest are within easy reach.

Lille is surrounded by flat farmland, so time outdoors means the Citadel park loop, level canal towpaths and short walks on the low Monts de Flandre. Real scenery, on the chalk cliffs of the Opal Coast, takes a long day.

Both are excellent bases, but Lille's rail links put it ahead. Brussels is about half an hour away by fast train, Ghent and Bruges around an hour, and Paris an hour by TGV. Arras, Amiens and the First World War battlefields add range on the French side.

Heidelberg's outings are closer and quieter: the cathedrals of Speyer and Worms, the palace gardens at Schwetzingen, the castle villages up the Neckar and the wine villages of the Palatinate. Frankfurt and Strasbourg are possible too, but there are fewer big cities to choose from.

Heidelberg is the easier choice for families. The funicular ride is fun in itself, there is a small fairy-tale park on the Königstuhl and a zoo by the Neckar, and at the Technik Museum Speyer, about half an hour away, children can climb into a submarine and a space shuttle. A theme park in the Palatinate is under an hour away.

Lille copes well enough, with a small zoo and playgrounds in the Citadel park and a hands-on science centre reached by metro. Its biggest draws, Pairi Daiza and Nausicaá, are further away, and both old towns are cobbled and awkward with a pushchair.

Lille is a little simpler to get around. Its flat centre is easy to walk, both main stations are a short walk from the old town, and the automated VAL metro and the tram reach Roubaix and the museums further out.

Heidelberg's Altstadt is easy to walk along the Hauptstrasse, but the station is a tram ride to the west and the cobbled castle approach is steep, so most people let the funicular do the climbing. One fare system covers the whole Rhine-Neckar area, which makes trips around the region by train straightforward.

Lille has more to offer. Rue Neuve, Rue de Béthune and the Euralille mall cover the chains, and the narrow streets of Vieux-Lille hold independent fashion, design shops and delicatessens. Each September the Braderie turns the whole city into a huge flea market.

In Heidelberg, shopping is essentially the long Hauptstrasse, with chains at one end and souvenirs, cuckoo clocks and beer steins at the other. Bergstrasse wine is the best thing to take home, and serious fashion means a train to Frankfurt.

Neither city is a bargain, and day-to-day costs are similar. The difference is in rooms: Heidelberg has few hotels for the number of visitors, so congresses, graduations and summer weekends push many travellers to stay in Mannheim, while Lille's rooms are reasonable for most of the year outside the Braderie and the trade fairs. Heidelberg's regional transport ticket makes its day trips good value, and in Lille the cheap metro and fairly priced estaminet meals keep days in the city easy on the budget.

Both have more on stage than their size suggests, so the difference is in kind. Lille's grand Opéra and the Théâtre du Nord, one of France's national theatres, give it weight, along with the Orchestre National de Lille and touring rock and pop acts. Heidelberg's highlights are seasonal: chamber music at the Heidelberger Frühling in spring and the open-air castle festival in summer, plus frequent church concerts and a larger opera house twenty minutes away in Mannheim.

Heidelberg is the more restful choice. It has no baths of its own, but the Kraichgau's thermal bath complexes are within half an hour and Baden-Baden about an hour away. The town itself is easy to slow down in, on the Neuenheim meadows or the forest paths above the Philosophers' Walk.

Lille's nearest thermal bath is at Saint-Amand-les-Eaux. Otherwise, relaxing there means hotel spas and tea rooms in Vieux-Lille, and while the pace is easygoing, few people come to the city to rest.