Lille or Utrecht?

Neither city gives you beach life, and the sea is about an hour's train ride from each. From Lille that means the wide, windy sand at Malo-les-Bains or the Opal Coast dunes, which are better for walking and sand yachting than for swimming.

Utrecht has one advantage in a warm spell: recreation lakes such as the Maarsseveense Plassen lie on the edge of the city. A freshwater swim there is far easier than a trip to the North Sea at Zandvoort.

Lille eats far better. Its estaminets serve real regional cooking: beer-braised carbonnade, potjevleesch and waterzooi, with pungent Maroilles cheese in almost everything. Serious beer bars, Meert's vanilla waffles and the multi-ethnic Sunday market at Wazemmes add to it.

Utrecht has no cuisine of its own. A meal there is remembered for its setting on the Oudegracht wharves rather than for the plate, though the Indonesian and Surinamese kitchens and the herring and cheese at the Vredenburg market are worth seeking out.

The two are close, but their strengths are different. Lille is the city for paintings. The Palais des Beaux-Arts holds Flemish masters, Goya and Delacroix, and La Piscine in Roubaix shows art inside an Art Deco swimming pool. Around them, Vieux-Lille's Flemish baroque brick and stone make a handsome backdrop.

Utrecht is stronger as a townscape. You can climb the Dom Tower, walk the two-level Oudegracht and visit the Rietveld Schröder House, a small masterpiece of modern design. Its museums are good but on a smaller scale.

Lille has the livelier night out. Rue Masséna and Rue Solférino are full of loud, cheap student bars. Vieux-Lille offers calmer cocktail and beer bars in old brick cellars, and the Belgian clubs are close by for a very late night.

In Utrecht the evening is mostly spent drinking at the canal edge, on terraces around the Neude and in brown cafés. It is pleasant, but there are few clubs, and anyone wanting a big night tends to take the train to Amsterdam.

Utrecht has much better countryside on its doorstep, and a bike is the way to reach it. Routes run past country estates and windmills along the Vecht, the Utrechtse Heuvelrug has wooded ridges and heath for walking and mountain biking, and the Loosdrecht lakes are good for sailing.

Lille's green time is gentler and closer to town: a loop around the Citadel park, level towpaths along the Deûle and short walks on the low Monts de Flandre. For real scenery you need a long day out to the chalk cliffs of Cap Blanc-Nez.

Both are excellent bases, and the real difference is direction. From Lille you cross borders: Brussels is about half an hour away, Ghent and Bruges are a little further, Paris is an hour by TGV and London is possible by Eurostar. Amiens cathedral and the First World War battlefields are within reach too.

Utrecht lets you see one country thoroughly. Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Delft and Gouda are all short train rides away, as are the Kinderdijk windmills and the Kröller-Müller Museum.

Utrecht is the more rewarding city for children. The national Railway Museum, in an old station, is one of the country's best children's museums, Miffy has her own museum for toddlers, and Kasteel de Haar looks like a storybook castle. The steady stream of bikes is the only thing to watch.

Lille manages a pleasant morning at the small Citadel zoo and its playgrounds, plus the Forum des Sciences by metro. Its bigger draws, Pairi Daiza and the Nausicaá aquarium, are outside the city, and the cobbles of Vieux-Lille are hard going with a pushchair.

Both centres are flat, compact and next to their stations, so neither needs a car. Lille's two stations stand side by side near the old town, and the driverless VAL metro and the tram reach the museums in Roubaix and Villeneuve-d'Ascq.

Utrecht is a little easier still. Utrecht Centraal is at the edge of the old town, trains and city transport share one tap-in card, and a rental bike gets you almost anywhere the Dutch way.

The two are about level, and both are best in their small old streets rather than their malls. Lille has more polish, with a few luxury labels and delicatessens in Vieux-Lille. Once a year, at the start of September, the Braderie turns the whole city into a vast flea market.

Utrecht's independent fashion, book and design shops line the Twijnstraat and the canal wharves. Its flower market on the Janskerkhof and textile market by the water add colour, but luxury brands are largely missing.

Lille is the cheaper stay. Hotel rooms are reasonable for most of the year, except during the Braderie and the big trade fairs, and estaminet meals and beer are fairly priced.

Utrecht's weak point is the bed. Hotels in the historic centre are few and charge big-city rates, and dinner with drinks at Dutch prices adds up quickly. A walkable centre, rental bikes and student lunch cafés help keep daytime spending down.

Utrecht has the richer music life. TivoliVredenburg stacks several halls on top of one another, often with classical, jazz and pop on the same evening. The Festival Oude Muziek is a major draw for lovers of early music, though the city has no opera house and its theatre is mostly in Dutch.

Lille is the better pick for opera. Its grand opera house on the Place du Théâtre stages opera and dance, the Orchestre National de Lille plays a full season and the Théâtre du Nord is one of France's national theatres.

Utrecht offers more ways to slow down. Large Dutch sauna complexes with steam rooms and outdoor pools sit in the green belt a short ride out of town, and the Pandhof cloister garden and the quiet canal wharves in the evening are easy places to unwind.

Lille has little beyond hotel spas, tea rooms and the café terraces of Vieux-Lille. The nearest real thermal bath is a short train ride away at Saint-Amand-les-Eaux.