Lille or The Hague?

Neither city is a swimming destination, but The Hague at least has a beach of its own. Scheveningen's wide sand, pier and summer pavilions are a short tram ride from the centre, so an evening on the beach is easy, and Kijkduin gives a quieter alternative backed by dunes.

From Lille, the sea is a day out: about an hour by train to the windy beach at Malo-les-Bains in Dunkirk, or further to the dune beaches of the Opal Coast. It is the same cold North Sea in both places, but only The Hague lets you work it casually into an ordinary day.

Lille has the stronger and more rooted food culture. Its estaminets in Vieux-Lille serve carbonnade, potjevleesch, waterzooi and the cheese-laden welsh, Maroilles finds its way into everything, and beer is taken as seriously as wine is elsewhere in France. Old pastry shops and the Wazemmes Sunday market round it off.

The Hague's best eating comes from somewhere else entirely: Indonesian cooking, from a full rijsttafel to quick plates of rendang and sate, is a real reason to eat there. Outside that, and the herring carts and fish stalls at Scheveningen, meals are pleasant but plain.

The two are about level for culture, but the strengths differ. Lille's centrepiece is the Palais des Beaux-Arts, a large museum covering Flemish masters through to Goya and Delacroix, set in a Flemish baroque old town whose Vieille Bourse and belfry are sights in their own right. La Piscine in Roubaix and the LaM add to it on the metro.

The Hague works on a smaller, more concentrated scale. The Mauritshuis holds a few world-famous Vermeers and Rembrandts in intimate rooms, and the Binnenhof and Peace Palace give the city its stately, governmental character. Mondrian, Escher and Panorama Mesdag fill out a stay that is about masterpieces and institutions more than streetscape.

Lille goes out harder. Its huge student population fills the cheap bars of Rue Masséna and Rue Solférino on Thursday nights, Vieux-Lille's brick cellars offer beer and cocktails for an older crowd, and the Belgian clubs over the border are close.

The Hague winds down earlier. Its evenings centre on after-work terraces on the Plein and the bars around the Grote Markt, with summer sundowners at the Scheveningen beach pavilions as the liveliest it gets. Anyone after a real late night heads to Rotterdam or Amsterdam.

The Hague has much more open country on its doorstep. The protected dunes of Meijendel, the Westduinpark and the old Haagse Bos forest all begin within the city, and the coast adds beach walks, the dune cycle path towards the bulb fields, and kitesurfing on windy days.

Lille's surroundings are flat farmland, so outdoor time there means the Citadel park, level towpaths along the Deûle and short walks on the low Monts de Flandre. The chalk cliffs of Cap Blanc-Nez are the real scenery, but they are a long day away.

Both are excellent bases, and the difference is in where they send you. Lille crosses borders: Brussels, Ghent and Bruges in Belgium, Paris by TGV, even London by Eurostar, plus the cathedrals of Amiens and Tournai and the First World War sites around Ypres, Vimy and the Somme.

The Hague keeps you in the Netherlands, but almost everything is remarkably close. Delft and Leiden are a quarter of an hour away, Rotterdam and Gouda not much further, and Amsterdam, Kinderdijk's windmills and the Keukenhof bulb fields are all an easy day out.

The Hague is much better set up for children. Madurodam is a ready-made family day, Scheveningen adds sand, a pier and a sea aquarium, Museon suits school-age children, and Duinrell's rides and water park lie just outside town. Trams take pushchairs easily, and the city is calm throughout.

Lille copes well but offers less: the Citadel park with its small zoo and playgrounds, the natural history museum and the Forum des Sciences. Its best family outings, Pairi Daiza and Nausicaá, need a trip out of town, and the cobbles of Vieux-Lille make pushchairs hard work.

Lille is a city for walking. The Grand Place, Vieux-Lille, the Palais des Beaux-Arts and both main stations, Lille Flandres and Lille Europe, are all a short stroll apart, so even a day trip by train starts on foot. The driverless VAL metro and the tram to Roubaix and Tourcoing cover anything further out.

The Hague means more moving about, because the beach, Madurodam and the Peace Palace are some way from the Binnenhof. Frequent trams link them, and a bicycle does the rest, on separate lanes and dune paths along the coast. In practice neither city is harder to manage than the other, and in both a car only gets in the way.

Lille has one weekend that brings in shoppers from well beyond the city. In early September the Braderie turns its streets into a vast flea market of antiques and junk. The rest of the year there are chains on Rue Neuve, the Euralille mall by the stations, and independent fashion, design shops and delicatessens in Vieux-Lille.

In The Hague the stop with the most character is the Haagse Markt, piled with fabrics, spices and produce from the city's many communities. Beyond the market, the antique dealers and galleries of the Denneweg and Noordeinde and the 1880s Passage arcade are better for browsing than for big buying. For an ordinary shopping trip the two are close, and The Hague is the quieter and more polished of the pair.

Lille is the easier city on a budget. Hotels are reasonable for most of the year, except during the Braderie and big trade fairs, and estaminet meals, beer, the metro and the museums all cost what you would expect in an ordinary French city.

The Hague charges full Northern European prices, with a summer premium on seafront hotels. Weekend stays in the centre, cheap Indonesian and Surinamese eateries, market picnics and a hired bike all help to bring the cost down.

The Hague has the slight edge, mainly because Nederlands Dans Theater, one of the world's leading contemporary dance companies, is based there. The Residentie Orkest and the Royal Conservatory add to that, although most of the theatre is in Dutch and there is no opera company of its own.

Lille fills that gap with the Opéra de Lille, whose grand house stages opera and dance, along with the Orchestre National de Lille and the Théâtre du Nord. It is a dependable programme, if less of a draw for visitors.

The Hague is the better place to unwind. The large Dutch sauna complexes on its edges are built for a whole day of saunas, cold plunges, gardens and massage, as long as you are comfortable with the usual rule of nudity. The city's quiet embassy streets and empty winter beaches help just as much.

Lille has no bathing tradition, so relaxing there mostly means hotel spas and long afternoons in Vieux-Lille's tea rooms. The thermal baths at Saint-Amand-les-Eaux, a short train ride away, are the nearest proper spa.