Antwerp or Colmar?

Neither is a place for swimming, but Antwerp at least has some water nearby. There is the sandy strip of Sint-Annastrand on the left bank of the Scheldt, and the cold North Sea at Blankenberge and Knokke makes a long day out by train. Colmar has no coast at all, so swimming in summer means the municipal pools or a small lake up in the Vosges near the Route des Crêtes.

Both cook rich regional food to about the same standard, and the real difference is what you drink with it. Antwerp is a beer city, with the bolleke of amber ale, long Trappist lists in the brown cafés, and stoofvlees and frites alongside. It also has a modern restaurant tier in Het Zuid and Het Eilandje.

Colmar's answer is Alsace wine, Riesling and Gewurztraminer from slopes you can see from town, poured with winstub dishes such as choucroute, baeckeoffe and tarte flambée. Beyond the regional cooking there is less choice than in Antwerp, and in both cities the most visited squares have the weakest menus.

Antwerp has more to see and more variety. You get Rubens in the cathedral and in his own house, the UNESCO-listed Plantin-Moretus printing house and the Royal Museum of Fine Arts. After that come the nineteenth century of Central Station and Zurenborg, and the MAS and Red Star Line museums on the docks.

Colmar's strength is more concentrated. Its old town holds together as a single townscape, and the Isenheim Altarpiece at the Unterlinden is worth the journey by itself. Two days covers Colmar well, while Antwerp easily fills two or three.

This is the widest gap between the two. Antwerp's bars have no fixed closing time, the student streets fill up, and there are house and techno clubs in old warehouses by the docks and one of the best-known gay scenes in the Low Countries. A weekend night there can run very late.

A night in Colmar is a long dinner and a glass of wine by the canals, and the streets go quiet early. Anyone staying there who wants a club has to take the train to Strasbourg.

Colmar is far ahead here. Within half an hour you can be walking through the vines between wine villages. Further up, the Munster and Kaysersberg valleys lead to the Route des Crêtes, glacial lakes and forested summits such as the Grand Ballon, with modest skiing in winter.

Antwerp's surroundings are flat and largely built over. The Kalmthoutse Heide heathland and bike rides along the dykes of the Scheldt polders are pleasant, but they fill half a day rather than giving you a reason to go.

Both are superb bases, but for different kinds of trip. From Antwerp the outings are to cities by fast train: Ghent, Bruges, Brussels, Leuven and Mechelen in Belgium, and Rotterdam, Delft and The Hague over the Dutch border.

From Colmar they are more rural. The wine villages of Eguisheim, Riquewihr and Kaysersberg sit a few kilometres apart, Haut-Koenigsbourg looks down from its ridge, and Strasbourg, Basel and Freiburg are easy by train. The villages need a car or a bike, whereas everything on Antwerp's list can be done by rail.

Children are equally well served, but in different ways. In Antwerp the main draws are in the city itself: the zoo next to Central Station, the free foot tunnel under the Scheldt, the Steen and the trams. That suits a family without a car, though the grey weather means having indoor plans ready.

Colmar is gentle in town, with boat rides through Petite Venise and storks on the roofs. Its bigger attractions, though, are spread across the countryside: the monkey park at Kintzheim, the stork park at Hunawihr and Europa-Park across the Rhine. Most of them need a car.

Both centres are easy on foot, but Antwerp's transport reaches much further. Trams and the premetro run out to Het Eilandje and Zurenborg, cycle lanes and shared bikes are everywhere, and Central Station puts Brussels, the Netherlands and the airport within easy reach.

Colmar is just as easy to walk, and its trains reach Strasbourg and Mulhouse quickly. The wine villages and the Vosges have only thin bus services, though, so a hired car or bicycle becomes part of the plan.

Antwerp is a real shopping destination, built on the avant-garde fashion academy whose designers' influence fills the boutiques of the Nationalestraat and Het Zuid. Add the Meir for high-street chains, the diamond quarter by Central Station and antiques on the Kloosterstraat. Colmar's shopping is about the region: wine bought from the producer, Soufflenheim pottery, table linen and gingerbread, at its best during the Christmas markets.

Colmar is the cheaper of the two day to day, with set lunches, regional wine and free or cheap tastings in the villages. Its rooms are the catch, though, and they get expensive in summer and during the Christmas markets. Sit-down dinners in Antwerp follow high Belgian price levels, which is partly made up for by rooms that cost less than in nearby capitals and a centre you can cross on foot.

Antwerp has a programme that runs all year. Opera Ballet Vlaanderen performs in the historic opera house, the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra plays in the Queen Elisabeth Hall, deSingel stages contemporary dance and AMUZ is given over to early music. Most theatre, though, is in Dutch.

Colmar's small municipal theatre has a modest season, and the town's music comes mostly in festival weeks: classical in July, jazz in autumn and the wine fair concerts. Outside those weeks, serious opera or orchestral music means a trip to Strasbourg or Basel.

Neither is a spa destination, and the difference lies in how you rest. Antwerp has the Flemish sauna habit, with large wellness complexes in the suburbs that are mostly reached by car, or else a quiet afternoon in a park or a brown café. Colmar has little beyond hotel spas, but its pace is slower, with quiet evenings by the canals and walks through the vines once the day-trippers have gone.