Amsterdam or Venice?

Neither is a seaside destination, but Venice has the more usable shore. The Lido is a short vaporetto ride away, with kilometres of fine sand and shallow, warm water in high summer. The quieter Pellestrina and the resort strips of Jesolo and Sottomarina lie beyond it.

Amsterdam's nearest beach is the dune-backed sand of Zandvoort and Bloemendaal, half an hour by train. There the cool North Sea and frequent wind mean walking more than swimming. Closer in, the IJburg beaches and the Sloterplas lake serve for a quick dip on a hot day.

In both cities the best meals are away from the tourist core, Damrak in one and San Marco in the other, but the cooking is very different. Amsterdam's strengths come from its trading past: Indonesian rijsttafel, Surinamese roti, herring stalls and the Albert Cuyp market. Its real pleasure is drinking beer with bitterballen in old brown cafés.

Venice has less range but is more rooted in place. You eat cicchetti standing up in the bacari of Cannaregio and Castello, and lagoon seafood comes from the Rialto market, such as cuttlefish risotto blackened with its ink. Expect little beyond Venetian and Italian cooking.

Amsterdam's collections are superb and close together: Rembrandt at the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum and the Stedelijk around the Museumplein. Add the Anne Frank House and the UNESCO canal ring, and it can all be seen properly in three or four days.

Venice goes further because the city itself is the monument, six centuries of palaces and churches on water with nothing modern in view. On top of that come the Doge's Palace, the mosaics of San Marco, Titian in the Frari, Tintoretto at San Rocco, the Accademia and the Biennale. A week still leaves things unseen.

This is where the two differ most. Amsterdam runs from candlelit brown cafés to clubs with all-night licences, many in old industrial buildings or across the IJ in Noord. The Jordaan and De Pijp are good for drinking by the canals, and the Amsterdam Dance Event takes over the city every October.

Venice peaks early, with spritzes along the Fondamenta della Misericordia and in the bacari around the Rialto. Only Campo Santa Margherita keeps students out later. By midnight the canals are dark and silent, lovely for a walk but no use for dancing, which means a trip to the mainland or Jesolo.

Both sit in flat, watery country, so neither offers hills or wild landscapes, but the water shapes each differently. Around Amsterdam it means polders, dykes and windmills seen by bike in Waterland, with the Amsterdamse Bos and the bison-grazed dunes of Zuid-Kennemerland further out.

In Venice the outdoors is the lagoon itself, whose salt marshes near Torcello hold herons and flamingos and can be explored by kayak or in a Venetian rowing boat. The city has far less green space than the Vondelpark offers, though the Euganean Hills give gentle walks within an hour.

Both are excellent bases with fast trains, and the difference is in the scale of the places you reach. From Amsterdam the trips are to compact Dutch towns rarely more than an hour away: Haarlem, Delft, Leiden, Utrecht and The Hague with its Vermeer, plus the windmills at Zaanse Schans and Kinderdijk.

From Venice they are grand Italian cities, with Giotto's chapel in Padua, Verona's Roman arena and Palladio's Vicenza. The lagoon adds its own boat trips to Murano, Burano and Torcello, no train needed.

Amsterdam is much the easier city with children. Artis zoo, the hands-on NEMO, city farms, pancake houses and the Vondelpark playgrounds give plenty to do. The fast bikes and unfenced canals do mean holding small hands.

Children love the idea of Venice, with boats instead of buses and no cars, and the glass-blowing on Murano and the shallow Lido beach go down well. In practice, the stepped bridges, summer crowds and lack of parks make it best for a short stay with older children.

Amsterdam is the smoother city to move through. It has a flat centre, trams across the canal ring, a north-south metro, free ferries over the IJ and a direct train to Schiphol. A hired bike is the natural way to get around once you trust the busy lanes.

In Venice you walk or take a boat. Everything lies within a forty-minute walk, but alleys dead-end at canals, the stepped bridges punish luggage and wheelchairs, and the main vaporetto lines are slow and crowded.

Amsterdam has the broader range: boutiques and vintage shops in the Nine Streets and the Jordaan, luxury labels on PC Hooftstraat and a grand department store on Dam Square. Its markets run from the Waterlooplein flea market to the floating Bloemenmarkt for bulbs.

Venice is narrower but distinctive, and its shopping is built around crafts: Murano glass, Burano lace, papier-mâché masks, marbled paper and furlane slippers, best bought from workshops in Dorsoduro and Castello. Cheap imported copies fill the main routes, and there is no department store to fall back on.

Neither city is cheap, and in both most of the cost goes on rooms. In Amsterdam that means canal-ring hotels and a hefty tourist tax, and in Venice it means rooms around San Marco, especially in summer and at carnival. Amsterdam keeps its other costs down better, with reasonably priced transport and walking and cycling almost free, and Haarlem or Utrecht make cheaper bases.

In Venice the water buses are priced for visitors and many churches charge entry. Eating cicchetti at the counter keeps meals cheaper, and staying in Mestre or visiting in winter brings the room bill down.

Amsterdam has much more on stage. The Concertgebouw and its orchestra give world-class concerts most days of the season, and opera and ballet play at the opera house on the Amstel. The Muziekgebouw and the Bimhuis cover contemporary music and jazz, and Paradiso and the Melkweg bring in touring bands.

Venice has one great house in La Fenice, where Verdi and Rossini premiered operas, plus the Biennale festivals and nightly Vivaldi concerts in churches, some excellent and many routine. Beyond that, rock, jazz and independent music are thin on the ground.

Amsterdam's way to unwind is the sauna, which the Dutch take seriously. The large day spas on the city's edges are mixed and nude in the Northern European way. Away from them, an early hour on the quieter canals or a ferry across the IJ slows the pace, though the central streets stay crowded with visitors and bikes.

Venice has no sauna or bathing culture of its own. In the city that leaves hotel spas in palazzi and on the Lido, with thermal pools that have been used since Roman times about an hour away at Abano Terme. Its real calm is quiet: with no traffic, Castello, Cannaregio and Giudecca are hushed early and late, away from the daytime crush at San Marco.