Antwerp or Freiburg?

Neither city is a place for beach life, and the swimming they offer is quite different. Antwerp has a sandy riverbank at Sint-Annastrand where swimming in the tidal Scheldt is not possible, and the North Sea at Blankenberge or Knokke is a long day out to cold water.

Freiburg's swimming is fresh water: warm gravel-pit lakes on the Rhine plain within cycling distance, and cooler, more scenic Titisee and Schluchsee in the Black Forest about an hour away.

The two eat equally well but taste of different traditions. Antwerp is beer country, with stoofvlees, mussels, frites in paper cones and Trappist lists in the cafés round the cathedral, plus modern restaurant cooking in Het Zuid and Het Eilandje.

Freiburg leans to wine and a lighter, French-tinged Baden kitchen: Flammkuchen, Black Forest ham, mountain trout and Kaiserstuhl Pinot. The daily Münster market is its heart, though the choice repeats itself sooner than it does in Antwerp.

Antwerp has considerably more to see. Its golden-age wealth survives in Rubens's altarpieces and house, the UNESCO-listed Plantin-Moretus printing house and a major fine arts collection, and later layers add the domed Central Station, Art Nouveau Zurenborg and museums on the docks. That is two or three full days.

Freiburg's appeal is concentrated in the red sandstone Münster, the city gates and the Bächle running through rebuilt streets, with the Augustinermuseum for medieval art. It makes a pleasant day or two, but there is little beyond it.

Antwerp offers the fuller night out. Bars with no fixed closing time keep the brown cafés going past midnight, there is a long house and techno tradition in warehouse venues by the docks, and the city has one of the best-known gay scenes in the Low Countries.

Freiburg's evenings are friendly and student-driven: pubs and wine bars round the Martinstor, beer gardens, and summer nights on the squares and along the Dreisam. There are only a handful of clubs, and things quieten noticeably between terms.

This is where Freiburg is far ahead. The Schlossberg rises behind the old town, a cable car climbs to the Schauinsland ridge, and the Feldberg offers summer hiking and winter skiing about an hour away, with gorges, vineyard hills and Rhine-plain bike paths besides.

Antwerp is flat and built up. Its green space is city parks, the Kalmthoutse Heide heathland to the north and dyke rides through the Scheldt polders, which are fine for an afternoon on a bike but not a reason to go.

Both are excellent bases, and Antwerp has the edge because so much is close by rail. Mechelen, Brussels, Leuven, Ghent and Bruges are all easy train trips, and Rotterdam, Delft and Kinderdijk extend the range into the Netherlands without a car.

Freiburg's strength is crossing borders: Basel by train, Strasbourg and Colmar in France, and the half-timbered Alsace villages, which are much easier to reach by car. Nearer home, Staufen, Breisach and Baden-Baden round out a varied list.

Freiburg is the easier city with children. The trump card is Europa-Park, about 40 minutes away, and it is backed up by the free Mundenhof animal park, the Schauinsland cable car, toy boats in the Bächle and summer swimming lakes. Its weakness is a shortage of rainy-day options.

Antwerp works well too, with its historic zoo right beside Central Station, the foot tunnel under the Scheldt and the MAS rooftop, but its theme park needs a car and its frequent grey weather means planning around indoor visits.

Both are easy to get around on foot, by tram and by bike. Freiburg's largely car-free old town fits within a twenty-minute walk, and regional trains run up the Höllental into the Black Forest, often included on a guest card.

Antwerp spreads a little wider, from Central Station to Het Zuid, with an underground premetro on some tram lines. As Belgium's rail hub it has the stronger long-distance links to Brussels and the Netherlands.

Antwerp is one of the more interesting fashion cities in Europe, and Freiburg cannot compete. The legacy of its fashion academy fills the Nationalestraat and Kammenstraat with conceptual Belgian labels, and the diamond quarter, Kloosterstraat antiques and Vrijdagmarkt auctions add depth.

Freiburg's shopping is pleasant but limited: chain stores on Kaiser-Joseph-Strasse, independent shops in the Gerberau, cuckoo clocks and market wine and ham. Locals go to Basel for anything serious.

The overall cost is much the same, but the money goes in different places. In Antwerp the rooms are kinder than in nearby capitals, but sit-down dinners carry high Belgian prices, so lunch menus and frites stands are where to save.

In Freiburg it is the other way round. Rooms are scarce and pricey for a city of its size, sometimes pushing visitors out to Black Forest villages, while market snacks, wine taverns and a free Münster keep the daily spend low.

Antwerp has the broader stage. Opera Ballet Vlaanderen performs in the historic opera house, the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra is based by Central Station, and deSingel shows the contemporary dance Flanders is known for, although most theatre there is in Dutch.

Freiburg's programme is smaller but has a standout in the Freiburger Barockorchester. Early-music lovers will find a counterpart in Antwerp's AMUZ. Theater Freiburg covers opera and drama, and the summer Zelt-Musik-Festival adds a tent village of concerts.

Freiburg sits in genuine spa country. It has a thermal bath on its own eastern edge, warm outdoor pools at Bad Krozingen twenty minutes away, Roman ruins beside the baths at Badenweiler and the grand bathhouses of Baden-Baden an hour by train.

Antwerp has no thermal tradition. Its wellness means Flemish sauna complexes out of town, usually reached by car, or hotel spas, and relaxing there mostly comes down to a quiet afternoon in the Stadspark or a brown café.