Antwerp or Basel?

Neither city has a beach, but Basel offers real swimming. In summer you can walk up the Kleinbasel bank and float back down the Rhine past the Münster, then sunbathe on the gravel by the old bathing huts. The current is strong, though, so this suits confident swimmers.

Antwerp's tidal Scheldt is for looking at, not swimming in. Sint-Annastrand has sand but no swimming, and the North Sea resorts are a long train ride away for cool water.

Antwerp is the better city for eating and drinking. Its Flemish cooking is more distinctive, from stoofvlees and mussels to frites from proper friteries. Brown cafés by the cathedral pour Trappist ales and the local bolleke. The modern restaurants of Het Zuid and Het Eilandje add an ambitious top tier.

Basel cooks carefully but has few dishes of its own beyond Läckerli and the Fasnacht flour soup. It borrows from Alsace and Baden, and everyday meals feel expensive for what they are. The Markthalle and trips across the border are the best ways to eat well there.

The two are close in depth but strong in different eras. Antwerp is about Flemish Baroque wealth: Rubens altarpieces in the cathedral, his house and studio, the Renaissance printing house at Plantin-Moretus, plus Central Station and the Art Nouveau streets of Zurenborg.

Basel leans towards collecting and modern design. The Kunstmuseum has Holbein, the Fondation Beyeler has Impressionist and modern art, and there are the Tinguely and Vitra museums and buildings by Herzog & de Meuron, all around a red sandstone Münster and a painted town hall.

Antwerp goes out far more. Bars have no fixed closing time, so cafés in the old centre and student streets stay full late, warehouse clubs keep a long house and techno tradition alive, and the gay scene is one of the best known in the Low Countries.

Basel is quieter and costs more. Summer evenings centre on drinks on the riverside steps of Kleinbasel, with a few weekend clubs. Fasnacht is its one great exception, three days of drums, piccolos and lanterns in late winter.

Basel is much the better base for the outdoors. The wooded Jura ridges begin just south of the city, the Black Forest climbs above 1,400m within an hour and the Vosges lie across the French border. All three have marked trails, and the Rhine paths make easy cycling into two countries.

Around Antwerp the land is flat and built up, with the port taking much of the riverside. The Kalmthoutse Heide and the dyke rides through the polders are pleasant, but they are a cyclist's afternoon rather than a reason to come.

Both cities are superb bases for day trips, but the trips differ. From Antwerp, trains reach a run of medieval art cities, Mechelen, Ghent, Bruges, Leuven and Brussels, as well as Rotterdam, Delft and the Kinderdijk windmills in the Netherlands.

Basel adds variety of landscape and country. In about an hour you can be among the half-timbered wine villages of Alsace, in Freiburg on the edge of the Black Forest, or in Lucerne and Bern, with the Rhine Falls a little further.

For families the two are evenly matched, and each has a fine old zoo a short walk from the main station. Antwerp's extras are urban: the MAS rooftop, the Steen, the free foot tunnel under the Scheldt, and cafés that are relaxed about children, though grey weather means planning indoor days.

Basel offers the toy museum, the current-driven Rhine ferries and the free Lange Erlen animal park, and Europa-Park is the big day out. The river is too strong for small children, and high restaurant prices and quiet Sundays take some planning.

Basel is easier still. Hotel guests travel free on the green trams, some lines run on into Germany and France, and little ferries cross the Rhine. Trains to three countries leave from one station.

Antwerp works well too, with a centre you can walk in half an hour, a premetro under the busiest stretches and shared bikes on good cycle lanes. You have to buy tickets, though, and keep an eye on cobbles and tram tracks.

Antwerp is a real shopping destination, and fashion is the reason. The boutiques of the Nationalestraat, the Kammenstraat and Het Zuid carry conceptual Belgian labels shaped by the fashion academy. There are also antiques on the Kloosterstraat, the diamond quarter and the Meir for the high street.

Basel's Freie Strasse and Gerbergasse have watches, chocolate and international chains, plus a few design shops on the Spalenberg. Its Christmas market by the Münster is the main shopping draw, and many locals shop across the German border.

Antwerp is far easier on the budget, though it is not cheap. Sit-down dinners follow high Belgian price levels, but rooms cost less than in the capitals nearby, frites and café beers stay reasonable, and lunch menus help.

In Basel, almost everything costs Swiss prices, and rooms become scarce and costly during big fairs such as Art Basel. The free tram pass and cheaper meals in Germany and France soften the bill but don't close the gap.

Both cities have more on stage than you would expect for their size, and the strengths differ. Antwerp stands out for contemporary dance at deSingel, the Flemish opera and ballet company and early music at AMUZ, although most of its theatre is in Dutch.

Basel's Theater Basel puts bold opera, ballet and drama under one roof, and the Stadtcasino's fine acoustics serve two orchestras. Its season stops in July and August, when life moves to the river.

Basel is the better choice for a slow, restorative trip. The saline thermal baths at Rheinfelden are about twenty minutes away, the mineral spas of southern Baden are just over the border, and the calm riverside and quiet Sundays set an easy pace.

Antwerp is a city for museums and shopping rather than rest. Flemish sauna culture is solid, but the big wellness complexes are mostly reached by car, so unwinding there usually means a park or a brown café.