Amsterdam or Zurich?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Zurich gets far more swimming out of a summer. The lake is clean and warms up nicely in July and August. Bathing houses at Utoquai and Mythenquai, and the Letten river baths where people drift down the Limmat, make a swim easy to fit around a day of sightseeing.

Amsterdam's swimming is mostly a trip to the coast. Zandvoort and Bloemendaal have proper sand and dunes half an hour away, but the North Sea is cold and windy, so most people walk the beach rather than swim. In Zurich you swim from lawns and wooden decks, and in Amsterdam you walk on sand.

The two are much the same for eating out, but the appeal differs. Amsterdam's best food came in through its trading history: Indonesian rijsttafel, Surinamese roti, herring from street stalls and the Albert Cuyp market. Its real strength is the drinking culture of brown cafés, jenever tasting rooms and the early-evening borrel.

Zurich is more polished and conventional, with veal in cream sauce and rösti, fondue in old guild houses and very fine chocolate. It has little street food and few markets, so Amsterdam suits grazing better, while Zurich suits a sit-down meal in a wood-panelled room.

Amsterdam is in another league for sights. The Night Watch, the world's largest Van Gogh collection and the Stedelijk are all on the Museumplein. The Anne Frank House and the 17th-century canal ring add history that is hard to match anywhere, and it all takes three or four days to see properly.

Zurich is rewarding on a smaller scale. The Kunsthaus, the Swiss National Museum and the Rietberg are strong collections, and the Chagall windows in the Fraumünster and the Grossmünster's Reformation history give the compact Altstadt some depth. Two or three days covers it.

Both cities take electronic music seriously. Amsterdam has more going on and more variety, with clubs open all night in old industrial buildings and across the IJ in Noord, the Amsterdam Dance Event every October, and canal-side terraces in the Jordaan and De Pijp for a quieter evening.

Zurich's scene is centred on Langstrasse and Zurich West, with the Street Parade on the lake shore each August and summer drinks in the bathing houses. Weeknights are quiet, though, and the price of a round keeps most nights out short.

Here Zurich is far ahead. The lake leads the eye to the snow-capped Glarus Alps, the Uetliberg has forest trails a short train ride from the centre, and Rigi, Pilatus and ski areas such as Flumserberg are all within a day's reach.

Amsterdam's countryside is flat and quiet: wide skies over Waterland, windmills, the Amsterdamse Bos, and bison in the coastal dunes of Zuid-Kennemerland. It is lovely by bike, but there are no hills or wild landscapes.

Both cities are excellent bases thanks to fast, frequent trains. The difference is in the kind of outing. From Amsterdam you get historic Dutch towns close together: Haarlem, Leiden, Delft, The Hague's Vermeers, Rotterdam's modern architecture, plus windmills at Zaanse Schans and Kinderdijk and the Keukenhof bulb fields in spring.

From Zurich, the trips mix towns with scenery. Lucerne's wooden bridges, the arcaded old town of Bern, the abbey library at St Gallen and the Rhine Falls near Schaffhausen are all easy without a car, and the mountains are never far away.

Both cities are safe and easy with children. Zurich is the calmer of the two, with its large zoo and indoor Madagascar rainforest, shallow lake lidos in summer, and Technorama and the Swiss Museum of Transport for a day out.

Amsterdam has Artis, the hands-on NEMO science museum, canal boats and pancake houses. Parents have to watch for fast bikes, unfenced canal edges and steep stairs in canal houses, which Zurich's orderly streets mostly spare them.

Both are easy, but Zurich is close to faultless. Trams, S-Bahn, funiculars, the Uetliberg railway and even the lake boats are all on one integrated ticket, the services run on time, and the main station connects straight to the airport and the rest of the country.

Amsterdam's flat, compact centre is just as walkable, and trams, the metro and the free IJ ferries cover the rest. It is really a city for cycling, though. That is a pleasure for anyone confident on a bike, and for walkers it means a constant watch on the bike lanes.

The two cities are about level for shopping but suit different shoppers. Amsterdam is better for browsing small independent shops: the boutiques and vintage shops of the Nine Streets, galleries in the Jordaan, and markets such as Waterlooplein and the floating Bloemenmarkt.

Zurich is about luxury. Bahnhofstrasse is lined with watchmakers and jewellers, there are design shops in the old railway viaduct arches, and chocolate is the souvenir to take home. Beyond that the range is narrow.

Neither city is cheap, but Amsterdam is much easier on the wallet. Its rooms are expensive, but eating, drinking and getting around cost no more than elsewhere in Northern Europe, and staying in Haarlem or Utrecht helps.

Zurich is one of the most expensive cities in the world to visit, with simple hotels, a casual lunch and a drink all priced high. Supermarket picnics by the lake, the free lidos and a visitor card soften it a little, but your money goes noticeably further in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam has the richer stage overall, and it is strongest in classical music. The Concertgebouw, known worldwide for its acoustics and home to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, has concerts on most days of the season. The Muziekgebouw on the IJ and the Bimhuis inside it cover contemporary music and jazz, and Paradiso, a former church, and the Melkweg bring in international touring bands. The Holland Festival adds ambitious international work each June.

Zurich's high point is opera. The Opernhaus on the lake shore is one of Europe's most respected houses for opera and ballet, and the Tonhalle Orchestra plays in a restored nineteenth-century hall. The Rote Fabrik by the lake and venues in Kreis 4 and 5 put on jazz, indie and electronic acts. Most theatre is in Dutch in one city and German in the other, so visitors are better off choosing music.

Zurich is the better place to slow down. The thermal pools and rooftop pool in the old Hürlimann brewery vaults are a real draw. In winter the wooden lake and river baths open as saunas with cold-water dips, and Baden's Roman hot springs are twenty minutes away.

Amsterdam has no bathing tradition, only large, mixed day spas on the city's edges. Quiet moments come from an early walk along the canals or an afternoon in the Vondelpark, but the busy centre makes it hard to unwind.