Lille or York?

Neither city is a beach destination, and from both the nearest sand is about an hour away by train. What differs is the kind of coast. From Lille you reach Malo-les-Bains at Dunkirk and the long, windy dune beaches of the Opal Coast and Belgium, which are better for walking and sand yachting than for swimming.

From York the day out is to Scarborough's two sandy bays, Filey or Whitby, which are traditional British seaside towns. The sea there is a few degrees colder still, so any swim is short.

Lille has the stronger food. Its estaminets in Vieux-Lille serve Flemish cooking with its own character: beer-braised carbonnade, potjevleesch, waterzooi and pungent Maroilles cheese in almost everything. The Belgian and northern French ales are taken as seriously as wine is elsewhere, and on Sundays the market at Wazemmes adds a multi-ethnic food market.

York's food is honest but narrower: afternoon tea with fat rascals, real ale in old pubs, Sunday roasts and pies from the Shambles Market. Beyond a few good modern British kitchens using Yorkshire game, the choice thins quickly, and many places around the Minster serve tourist fare.

York has the edge for sightseeing because so much history is packed into a small walled centre. The medieval glass of the Minster, the circuit of the walls, the Shambles, Jorvik on its excavated Viking street and the National Railway Museum cover two thousand years within a twenty-minute walk.

Lille's strength is narrower but excellent. The Palais des Beaux-Arts, with its Flemish masters and Goya, is a major art collection, and the Flemish baroque of the Vieille Bourse and Grand Place is handsome. Lille is the better trip for painting and York for layered history. Each fills two or three days.

Lille goes out harder. A large student population fills the bars of Rue Masséna and Rue Solférino, Vieux-Lille adds cocktail and beer bars in brick cellars, and the clubs across the Belgian border are close for a late night.

York's evenings revolve around its centuries-old inns on Micklegate, Stonegate and the riverside, which make a fine pub crawl. Weeknights end early, though, weekends bring stag and hen parties, and serious clubbing means taking the train to Leeds.

York is far better placed for the outdoors. The North York Moors begin about 40km away and the Yorkshire Dales, with their limestone scars and waterfalls, are an hour west. The Cleveland Way runs along the sea cliffs at Robin Hood's Bay, although a car makes most of this much easier.

Around Lille the land is flat and farmed. Canal towpaths, the Citadel park and the low Monts de Flandre make gentle outings. The real scenery, the chalk cliffs of Cap Blanc-Nez and Cap Gris-Nez, is a long day away.

Both make excellent bases, but Lille reaches further. Fast trains put Brussels, Ghent, Bruges and Antwerp within about an hour, and Paris is an hour away by TGV. On the French side there are the squares of Arras, the cathedral at Amiens and the First World War battlefields.

York's day trips stay in the north of England and are superb on their own terms: Durham's cathedral and castle, Harrogate, Castle Howard, Fountains Abbey and the Brontë village of Haworth. Many of its abbeys and country houses need a car or a coach tour, whereas Lille's major cities are all on the rail network.

York is the easier place to take children. The hall of locomotives at the National Railway Museum, Jorvik, the Victorian street in the Castle Museum and walking the walls all turn history into an outing, and the centre is largely free of traffic.

In Lille, the Citadel park's small zoo and playgrounds fill a pleasant morning, and a hands-on science centre is a metro ride away. The biggest family draws, Pairi Daiza and the Nausicaá aquarium, mean a trip out of town, and the cobbles of Vieux-Lille are hard going with a pushchair.

Both centres are flat and easy to walk, and neither needs a car. Lille's edge is its automated VAL metro and the tram to Roubaix and Tourcoing, along with two main stations side by side next to the old town.

York has no metro, which matters little inside the walls, where much of the centre is pedestrianised and cycling is easy. The difference shows on trips into the countryside, where sparse buses push visitors towards hire cars or tours.

Lille offers more choice: chains on Rue Neuve, the Euralille mall by the stations, and independent fashion and design in Vieux-Lille. Each September the Braderie turns the whole city into a vast flea market.

York's shopping is charming rather than deep, with boutiques, bookshops and antiques dealers along Stonegate and Petergate. The Shambles leans towards souvenirs and luxury fashion barely features. Its Christmas markets are the main seasonal draw.

Lille is easier on a budget. Hotels are reasonably priced for most of the year outside the Braderie and the big trade fairs, estaminet meals and beer are fairly priced, and the metro costs little.

York is dearer. Rooms inside the walls are in heavy demand, and rates climb steeply at weekends, on race days and at Christmas. Free sights such as the National Railway Museum and the walls help, as does staying midweek or just outside the centre.

Lille has the fuller programme. Its opera house stages opera and dance, the Orchestre National de Lille plays a full symphonic season, the Théâtre du Nord is one of France's national theatres, and the Zénith and Aéronef host touring bands.

York has no opera company or orchestra of note, but it has pleasures of its own: the Theatre Royal, one of England's oldest, early music in a medieval church, free choral evensong at the Minster, and the Mystery Plays, revived from time to time on wagons in the streets.

Neither city is a place to come for rest, but York does slightly better. Harrogate's Royal Baths, with a Victorian Turkish bath in Moorish tiles, are half an hour away by train, and early mornings on the walls or in the Museum Gardens are peaceful.

Lille's nearest thermal bath is in the small spa town of Saint-Amand-les-Eaux. Otherwise, relaxing there means hotel spas and long afternoons in Vieux-Lille's tea rooms and on its café terraces.