London or York?

Neither city is a place for a beach vacation, but London has more for swimmers. The lidos at Brockwell Park and Parliament Hill and the Hampstead Heath ponds give it a real fresh-water swimming culture. Brighton's pebble beach and the sandier Kent shores at Margate and Whitstable are an easy train ride away.

York has nowhere to swim in the city. Its seaside is the North Yorkshire coast, with the sandy bays of Scarborough about an hour away and Filey and Whitby beyond. The North Sea there is colder than the Channel off Brighton, so any dip will be short.

London is far stronger for eating, because its range comes from the communities that live there: Bangladeshi cooking on Brick Lane, Punjabi food in Southall, Caribbean and West African kitchens south of the river. On top of that come a deep fine-dining scene and weekend markets in old yards and railway arches.

York's pleasures are narrower and more traditional: afternoon tea with a fat rascal, Yorkshire pudding with the Sunday roast, cheese and pies at the Shambles Market, and Yorkshire ale in old pubs. It satisfies for a few days, but there is little international cooking, and the streets around the Minster lean towards tourist menus.

London has far more depth. The British Museum, the National Gallery, the V&A and the two Tates are each worth a day and mostly free, and the landmarks, from the Tower to Wren's St Paul's, need a week just to begin.

York wins on concentration rather than scale. The Minster's medieval glass, a circuit of the walls, Jorvik's excavated Viking street and the abbey ruins in the Museum Gardens show you two thousand years of history in a centre you can cross in twenty minutes.

The gap here is wide. In London you choose a whole district: Soho for late cocktail bars and its long-established gay scene, Shoreditch, Hackney and Dalston for clubs and warehouse parties, and Brixton and Peckham for big venues and rooftop bars.

A night out in York means working your way through centuries-old inns on Micklegate, Stonegate and the riverside, which is a pleasure in itself. Weekends bring stag and hen parties, weeknights end early, and clubbers take the train to Leeds.

The two are broadly level, but the green is of a different kind. London's nature is inside the city: the skyline views from Hampstead Heath, the deer of Richmond Park, Kew and the Thames Path. The gentle Chilterns and the Downs are an hour or so away by train.

York's own green spaces are modest, mostly riverside paths and the open Strays, but wilder country lies close by. There is the heather of the North York Moors, the sea cliffs at Robin Hood's Bay and the limestone scars and waterfalls of the Dales, though most of it is easiest to reach by car.

Both are good bases, but London's rail hub reaches further. Oxford, Cambridge, Windsor, Bath, Canterbury and Brighton are all simple train rides, enough for several very different outings in a single week.

York's outings are good too, from Durham's cathedral and spa-town Harrogate by train to Castle Howard and Fountains Abbey by road. More of them, though, depend on a car or a coach tour.

London keeps children busy for longer. The dinosaur halls of the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the Young V&A are free, and the parks have playgrounds and boating lakes. The zoo in Regent's Park, the London Eye and the theme parks outside the city add more. The drawbacks are long distances and the stairs at many Tube stations.

York is smaller and easier with a buggy, since much of its centre is pedestrianised. The National Railway Museum's locomotives, Jorvik and the walls fill two or three good days, and Scarborough and the bigger attractions are an hour away.

London's network does more. The Tube, the Elizabeth line, buses with top-deck views and the Thames riverboats reach nearly everywhere on one contactless payment, though trips across a city this size take time and rush hour is packed.

York needs almost no transport inside the city: the flat centre is easy to walk, and the station is about fifteen minutes from the Minster on foot. The limits start beyond the walls, where buses to the moors and country houses are sparse.

London is in another class. It has the luxury houses of Bond Street, the flagships of Oxford Street, bespoke tailoring on Savile Row, the historic department stores, and independent shops from Marylebone to Spitalfields and the antiques of Portobello Road.

York is good for an afternoon among the independent boutiques, bookshops and antiques dealers of Stonegate and Petergate, and its Christmas markets are a draw in their own right. Luxury fashion barely features, and the Shambles leans towards souvenirs.

York is easier on the wallet, though not cheap by British standards. Staying midweek or just outside the walls cuts costs, pub meals are the best value, and walking everywhere costs nothing.

London is more expensive at almost every turn, from small central hotel rooms to theatre seats and pub rounds. Its saving grace is the free national museums. In York, by contrast, the Minster, Jorvik and the castle museums all charge for entry.

London is one of the world's two great theatre cities. It has the West End, the National Theatre, the Globe and the Royal Court, the Royal Opera House, five major orchestras and the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, so there is serious choice every night.

York's programme is steady but local: drama and the famous pantomime at the Theatre Royal, touring shows at the Grand Opera House, early music in a medieval church and free choral evensong at the Minster. Its distinctive extra is the periodic revival of the medieval Mystery Plays, performed on wagons in the streets.

Neither city is a restful retreat, and both send serious bathers out of town, London to Bath and York to Harrogate's Victorian Turkish bath, which is much closer. London has a little more within the city: surviving Turkish baths in Bayswater and Islington, spas in the grand hotels, and cold dips at the lidos and the Hampstead ponds.

York's calm comes from its pace rather than its facilities: early mornings on the walls, the riverside paths and a long afternoon tea, as long as you avoid the packed summer and December weekends.