Lille or Stuttgart?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Lille at least puts the sea within a day's reach. Malo-les-Bains at Dunkirk is about an hour away by train. It is a wide, windy North Sea beach where the water stays cold even in August, and the dunes of the Opal Coast further on are better for walking than swimming.

Stuttgart is much further from any shore. Swimming there means outdoor pools, some fed by mineral springs, or a trip of more than two hours to Lake Constance.

The two eat about equally well, but Lille is a city of beer and Stuttgart a city of wine. In Lille, wood-panelled estaminets serve carbonnade cooked in ale, welsh and anything topped with Maroilles cheese, with Meert's waffles and the Wazemmes market on the sweet and street side.

In Stuttgart, vineyards inside the city limits supply the Trollinger poured with Maultaschen and Käsespätzle, and seasonal Besen taverns open in growers' homes. Stuttgart also has the deeper fine-dining tier. In both cities, food from beyond the region is limited.

The two are about level, but the sights are very different. Lille's appeal is older and more painterly: the Palais des Beaux-Arts with its Flemish masters and relief maps, the carved Flemish baroque streets around the Vieille Bourse, and La Piscine's art collection inside an Art Deco pool.

Stuttgart lost most of its old core to bombing, so its strengths are the Mercedes-Benz and Porsche museums, the Staatsgalerie and the modernist houses of the Weissenhof Estate. Pick Lille for old streets and paintings, and Stuttgart for design and engineering. Both are covered well in two or three days.

Lille is the better night out. Its huge student population fills the cheap bars of Rue Masséna and Rue Solférino from Thursday onwards, and Vieux-Lille's brick cellars offer beer cafés and cocktail bars for a calmer evening. For clubbing, people have long crossed the nearby border into Belgium.

Stuttgart centres on the bars of Theodor-Heuss-Strasse at weekends, plus a scattering of basement clubs. It goes quiet early on weekdays and only really lets loose during the Cannstatter Volksfest and the summer wine village.

Stuttgart is the clear winner for time outdoors. It sits in a basin of wooded hills and vineyards, so a walk from the centre soon reaches wine trails and the forests of the Rotwildpark. The Swabian Jura escarpments and the northern Black Forest are both about an hour away.

Lille's surroundings are flat and farmed. You get the Citadel park, level towpath cycling along the Deûle and short climbs in the Monts de Flandre. Its one dramatic landscape, the chalk cliffs of Cap Blanc-Nez, takes a long day to reach.

Both are excellent bases, but Lille's reach is international. Brussels is about half an hour away by fast train, Ghent, Bruges and Paris roughly an hour, and London is possible for an ambitious day. Arras, Amiens Cathedral, the Louvre-Lens and the First World War battlefields cover the French side.

Stuttgart's excursions are mostly to towns and castles in the region: Ludwigsburg's palace, Tübingen, Heidelberg, Hohenzollern Castle and the spire at Ulm. Strasbourg is the one long day across a border.

Stuttgart is the easier city with children, and Wilhelma is the main reason. Its zoo and botanical garden among Moorish-style pavilions fills a whole day. On top of that come the Killesberg park railway, outdoor pools, the rack railway and the fairy-tale garden at Ludwigsburg.

Lille offers a morning at the small zoo and playgrounds in the Citadel park, plus the Forum des Sciences. Its biggest draws for children, Pairi Daiza and Nausicaá, mean leaving the city. Pushchairs struggle with Lille's cobbles and Stuttgart's hills alike.

Both have flat, compact centres you can walk, but Lille is slightly the simpler of the two. Its two main stations stand side by side within walking distance of the old town, and the automated VAL metro and the tram cover the rest.

Stuttgart's centre is just as walkable, but beyond it the city climbs steeply. You will use the Stadtbahn, the S-Bahn, a rack railway or the steep Stäffele stairways, all under one integrated ticket.

Lille is the city for browsing and Stuttgart the one for brands, and neither is the better shop overall. Lille's interest lies in the narrow streets of Vieux-Lille, with independent fashion, design shops, delicatessens and the city's few luxury labels. Every September the Braderie fills kilometres of streets with antiques and junk for a weekend.

Stuttgart's Königstrasse is one long pedestrian run of high-street names, and Breuninger is the place for designer fashion. The outlet village at Metzingen is about half an hour away. Crafts and markets are thin by comparison, so there is less to stumble upon.

Neither city is cheap, but Lille is the gentler on a budget. Its hotels are reasonable for most of the year, and estaminet meals, beer and the metro are all fairly priced. Room prices in Lille jump only during the Braderie and the big trade fairs.

Stuttgart's hotel prices follow business travel, so it pays to come at a weekend or in a quiet month. Beer gardens and taverns are good value, but smart restaurants and central hotels push the costs up.

Stuttgart is in a different league here. The Stuttgart Ballet, one of Europe's most respected companies since John Cranko's era, shares the state theatre with an opera company known for bold productions. The Liederhalle adds symphonic music and a strong Bach tradition, and ballet tickets go early.

Lille offers a dependable season instead: the grand Opéra de Lille, the Orchestre National de Lille and the Théâtre du Nord, with touring rock and pop acts at the Zénith and the Aéronef. It is good for a spare evening, but few people plan a trip around it.

Stuttgart has a real bathing culture that Lille lacks. The springs of Bad Cannstatt and Berg are among Europe's most productive mineral sources, and they feed the Mineralbad Cannstatt and the Mineralbad Leuze, with warm, naturally carbonated pools indoors and out, plus saunas.

In Lille, relaxing means hotel spas and slow afternoons on the café terraces of Vieux-Lille. For a proper thermal bath you need the short train ride to Saint-Amand-les-Eaux.