Amsterdam or Haarlem?

Neither city is a place for a swimming vacation, and both share the same cool, windy stretch of North Sea. Haarlem is still the better place for a beach day. Zandvoort is about ten minutes away by train, and you can cycle through the dunes to the quieter sand at Bloemendaal aan Zee.

From Amsterdam the same beaches are about half an hour away, so they take more of a day. Within the city, the beaches at IJburg and lakes like the Sloterplas are where locals cool off on hot weekends, but they are a change of scene rather than a real seaside.

Amsterdam has more to eat, and most of the interest comes from its trading past: Indonesian rijsttafel, Surinamese broodjes, and herring and stroopwafels at the Albert Cuyp market. Its drinking culture also runs deeper, with centuries-old jenever tasting rooms as well as brown cafés. You need to eat in De Pijp, the Jordaan or Oost and stay away from the tourist food around Damrak.

Haarlem has reliable bistros, terraces around the Grote Markt and a good craft beer culture, which suits its brewing history. But it has no street food scene and few top restaurants. Expect good meals rather than memorable ones.

Amsterdam has some of Europe's great museums. Rembrandt's Night Watch, the largest Van Gogh collection anywhere and the Stedelijk all sit around the Museumplein, and the Anne Frank House and the UNESCO canal ring add to them. Seeing it properly takes three or four days.

Haarlem is smaller but just as authentic: St Bavo's and its Müller organ, the Frans Hals Museum, and Teylers with its 18th-century oval room. Its hofjes, the quiet almshouse courtyards, have a calm that central Amsterdam rarely has, and two easy days cover the town.

Here the gap is wide. Amsterdam ranges from candlelit brown cafés to all-night clubs in old industrial buildings and in Noord, and its electronic music scene is respected well beyond the Netherlands. Leidseplein is loud, while the Jordaan and De Pijp are where locals drink.

Haarlem's nights mean a terrace or a brown café around the Grote Markt and the Botermarkt. It is sociable and fairly early, with almost no clubbing. Many Haarlem visitors simply take the train into Amsterdam for a big night.

Haarlem is the better base for time outdoors, because the national park begins at the edge of town. It has dunes, woods and small lakes with ponies and Highland cattle, fallow deer in the water-supply dunes to the south, and kitesurfing on the coast.

From Amsterdam, the easiest escape is the ferry across the IJ to Waterland's meadows and wooden villages, with the Vondelpark and Amsterdamse Bos within the city. Both landscapes are entirely flat and often windy.

Both make excellent bases on the same dense rail network, and the difference is mainly which way you face. Amsterdam is better placed for Zaanse Schans, the old Zuiderzee villages such as Volendam and Marken, Utrecht, and Antwerp under two hours away.

Haarlem has Leiden twenty minutes south, a short bus ride to the Keukenhof, and Alkmaar's cheese market to the north. Its biggest advantage is that Amsterdam itself becomes an easy outing, and you return to quieter streets afterwards.

Children get far more to do in Amsterdam: Artis, one of Europe's oldest zoos, the hands-on NEMO science museum, canal boats, city farms and pancake houses. Fast bikes, unfenced canals and steep canal-house stairs mean you have to keep a close watch on young children.

Haarlem's car-free centre is calmer, and the dunes and beach give children space to run. Apart from the fossils at Teylers, though, little is built for children, so families end up taking the train to Amsterdam's zoo and NEMO anyway.

Amsterdam's network is fuller. Trams cover the canal ring and the museum quarter, a north-south metro line runs under the city, free ferries cross to Noord, and there is a direct train to Schiphol. The bike lanes are busy enough to need confidence.

Haarlem does not need much transport. You can walk across the centre in about twenty minutes, and quiet cycle paths lead to the dunes and beach, while trains and buses cover outings further afield.

Shopping in Amsterdam covers far more ground, from the boutiques and vintage shops of the Nine Streets to the luxury labels on PC Hooftstraat and De Bijenkorf on Dam Square. Markets such as the Noordermarkt, Waterlooplein and the floating Bloemenmarkt add more.

Haarlem is good for an afternoon of browsing in the independent fashion, design and book shops of Gierstraat and Kleine Houtstraat. It has no luxury street or department store to plan a trip around.

Neither is cheap, but Haarlem costs a little less overall. Accommodation is where Amsterdam is hardest on the budget, with some of Europe's costliest rooms around the canal ring and a heavy tourist tax on top.

Haarlem's hotels are few and fill early in tulip season and summer, so book ahead. Meals cost about the same in both places. If you stay in Haarlem, remember that regular train fares into Amsterdam add to the bill.

Amsterdam is in a different league for classical music. It has the Concertgebouw and its orchestra, the Dutch National Opera and Ballet on the Amstel, contemporary music and jazz at the Muziekgebouw and Bimhuis, and touring bands at Paradiso and the Melkweg.

Haarlem has a steady programme at the Philharmonie and the Stadsschouwburg. Its real speciality is organ music, with concerts on St Bavo's great instrument and a long-running international organ festival.

Neither city has thermal baths, and both depend on the Dutch sauna tradition of large, usually mixed day spas on the edge of town. The real difference is the pace. Haarlem's quiet canals at night and its dune walks are restful in themselves, while in Amsterdam you have to look for calm on an early-morning canal or in the Vondelpark, away from the crowded centre.