York and Lincoln are both about the same distance from Doncaster; approximately thirty miles. Both are beautiful cities, well-loved by tourists from all over the world, although I'd say more York is the better known, and more people visit that city.
I love both cities. I probably prefer York because I've visited it more often - it's only twenty minutes on the train, and there are two trains an hour. To visit Lincoln it takes an hour on the train and there's only one every two hours I think.
For me, the best thing about York is the City Walls; whenever I'm there I always try to walk along most of the three mile circuit. Lincoln has no city walls though, however it does have short sections of Roman wall surviving in gardens (York's Roman wall for the most part is buried beneath later masonry) and a splendid mediaeval castle - York's Clifford Tower is all that remains of two castles that were built in the city at various times.
Both cities have spectacular cathedrals, but York is larger (being the largest Gothic cathedral north of the Alps) and has more than half of the remaining mediaeval stained glass in the country. Both cities also have numerous mediaeval buildings, I think Lincoln might have slightly more…yet York has more old churches; literally dozens of them.
The best thing about Lincoln is its location right on the top of the Lincoln edge; meaning that the castle and cathedral loom spectacularly over the city from wherever you are.
Finally, I believe that York has more museums and galleries; including the National Railway Museum, which is free admission.
If there were to be special offers on the trains I'd love to visit both cities again; at the moment I'd choose Lincoln though, because I was looking at some photographs of the city on the Geograph website and noticed that there are some areas to the north and east of the cathedral that I don't know at all and would like to explore them.
To finish off this post here are a few more comparisons I can think of:
York is situated on the River Ouse and tourists are able to take boat trips down to the Archbishop of York's palace at Bishopthorpe, whereas Lincoln is situated on the Witham, an insignificant river; yet it does have Brayford Pool, a yachting marina.
Both cities are pretty poor when it comes to shopping - most of the shops and businesses are tailored to the tourist market though. Lincoln has a traditional indoor shopping centre in the city centre, whereas has a designer outlet in the suburbs.
Lincoln has a very busy and popular Christmas Market; York has the mystery plays.
