Antwerp or Brussels?

Neither city will give you a beach vacation, and the North Sea stays cool even at the height of summer. The difference is distance. From Brussels, Ostend or De Haan is a little over an hour by train, which makes a breezy day on wide sand fairly easy. From Antwerp the coast at Blankenberge or Knokke takes close to two hours, though the city has a strip of river sand of its own at Sint-Annastrand, which is for strolling rather than swimming.

Both cities serve the same Belgian core of mussels, beer stews, shrimp croquettes and frites from a paper cone. Antwerp's particular strength is its local amber ale in the round bolleke glass and a polished modern dining scene in Het Zuid and Het Eilandje.

Brussels goes further. It has its own lambic and gueuze beers, praline makers around the Sablon and a French-leaning way of cooking. Above all it has the immigrant kitchens of Matonge, Saint-Josse and Schaerbeek, which give it a variety Antwerp lacks. In both cities, avoid the tourist terraces on the main square.

The two are well matched, but they offer different things. Antwerp is the more coherent city. Rubens is the thread, from the cathedral altarpieces to his house and studio, and the UNESCO-listed Plantin-Moretus printing house and Central Station stand within an old centre that has kept its fabric.

Brussels has the single grander set piece in the Grand-Place, plus Bruegel and Magritte on the upper town hill and Horta's Art Nouveau houses in Saint-Gilles and Ixelles. Between them, though, office blocks break up the historic city, so it feels like a run of highlights rather than a whole.

Antwerp is the city for clubs, and Brussels the city for bars. Antwerp's house and techno nights run in old warehouses and under the railway near the docks, and it has one of the best-known gay scenes in the Low Countries. The brown cafés and student streets, with no fixed closing time, keep going well past midnight at weekends.

Brussels spends its evenings moving between bars. Crowds spill out around Saint-Géry and the Bourse, locals gather at Place Flagey and Châtelain, and lambics are poured in wood-panelled taverns. Its club scene is smaller and rests largely on one well-established techno club in the Marolles.

Brussels has the better outdoors on its doorstep. The Sonian Forest, a partly UNESCO-listed beech forest, offers real walking and cycling on the city's edge. The Ardennes valleys around Namur and Dinant add hills and kayaking within a long day out.

Antwerp is flatter and more industrial, with the port taking up much of the river. Its best escape is the Kalmthoutse Heide heathland to the north, along with dyke rides through the Scheldt polders.

Both are excellent bases, sitting in the same dense web of historic towns. Ghent, Bruges, Leuven and Mechelen are easy from either, and each makes a good day trip from the other. Where they differ is direction. Antwerp looks north, with Rotterdam, Delft, The Hague and the Kinderdijk windmills within a day. Brussels looks south and further afield, to Waterloo, Namur's citadel, Dinant, and Paris by high-speed train.

For families the two come out about even, with different strengths. In Antwerp, the zoo beside Central Station, the flat centre that works well with a pushchair, and small treats like the foot tunnel under the Scheldt make for low-effort days. Brussels has more headline attractions, including the Iguanodon hall at the Natural Sciences museum, the Atomium and Mini-Europe, and Walibi close by. Against that, it has cobbled, uneven pavements and heavier traffic.

Both are easy to get around without a car, but Antwerp is the gentler city on foot. It is flat, the walk from Central Station along the Meir to the river and Het Zuid takes about half an hour, and the cycle lanes make a shared bike natural. Brussels has a fuller metro and tram network that takes a tap of a bank card, but the climb between the lower and upper town is steep and the pavements are rough.

Antwerp is the more rewarding place to shop. The designers who came out of its fashion academy shaped the conceptual boutiques of the Nationalestraat and Kammenstraat. Add the antiques and interiors shops of the Kloosterstraat and the gem trade by Central Station, and the city has a clear identity.

Brussels is better for browsing than for serious buying. Chocolatiers line the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert and the Sablon, and the Jeu de Balle flea market and Marolles vintage shops reward an early start. Rue Antoine Dansaert has the Belgian designers, but the selection is thinner.

Neither is cheap, and the overall cost of a stay is much the same. The savings come in different places. Antwerp's rooms usually undercut those of the nearby capitals, and its compact centre means you rarely pay for transport. In Brussels, business hotels empty at weekends and room prices drop, and eating in the immigrant neighbourhoods keeps daily costs down.

Brussels has the bigger stage life. La Monnaie is known for adventurous productions, Bozar hosts the national orchestra, and the spring Queen Elisabeth Competition is a fixture of the classical calendar. Theatre and dance run in French as well as Dutch, which opens more of the programme to visitors, and the major rock and pop tours stop here.

Antwerp is strong for its size. Opera Ballet Vlaanderen performs in the opera house on the Frankrijklei, deSingel stages contemporary dance, and early music has a home at AMUZ. Most of its spoken theatre, however, is in Dutch only.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, and both are places for doing rather than resting. Antwerp has the large Flemish sauna complexes in its suburbs and countryside, mostly reached by car, and a calmer daily pace. Brussels offers North African hammams, Art Deco swimming pools and long walks in the Sonian Forest, against the louder background of a working capital.