Antwerp or Haarlem?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Haarlem has the sea within easy reach and Antwerp does not. From Haarlem, Zandvoort's long sands are about ten minutes by train, and the dune-backed strand at Bloemendaal aan Zee is a bike ride away through the national park. That makes a summer beach afternoon simple to add to any day.

In Antwerp, the sand at Sint-Annastrand faces a tidal river that is not for swimming. Reaching the coast at Knokke or Blankenberge takes a long day out. The North Sea is cool from either city, so in both it is a place for walks and quick dips.

Antwerp eats and drinks better. Flemish cooking gives it stoofvlees braised in dark beer, mussels with frites and shrimp croquettes. Beer culture runs from the amber bolleke to old cafés by the cathedral with long Trappist lists, and the restaurants of Het Zuid and Het Eilandje add design-led cooking and a few starred tables.

Haarlem offers well-made comfort food on Grote Markt terraces, raw herring and kibbeling at the Saturday market, and good craft beer on tap. The top end is thin, though, and meals there are pleasant rather than memorable.

Antwerp has more to see. The sixteenth-century port wealth left Rubens altarpieces in the Cathedral of Our Lady, the painter's own house, and the UNESCO-listed Plantin-Moretus printing works. The Royal Museum of Fine Arts covers Flemish art from the primitives to Ensor, and later layers include the domed Central Station, the Art Nouveau streets of Zurenborg, the MAS and the Red Star Line museum.

Haarlem is smaller and more intimate. It has the Gothic St Bavo with its Müller organ, the Frans Hals Museum, Teylers' eighteenth-century oval room and the quiet hofjes behind plain doors. Antwerp needs two or three days, while Haarlem can be seen in two slow ones.

Nights out are much bigger in Antwerp. Belgian bars keep no fixed closing time, the student streets stay busy past midnight, and house and techno nights run in warehouses and under the railway near the docks. The city also has one of the best-known gay scenes in the Low Countries.

Haarlem's evenings are sociable but gentle, spent in the brown cafés around the Grote Markt and the Botermarkt, and most places close well before dawn. Anyone wanting to dance takes the short train to Amsterdam.

Haarlem has far more on the doorstep. Zuid-Kennemerland National Park begins at the western edge of town with dunes, pine and oak woods and small lakes, home to highland cattle and wild ponies. The water-supply dunes to the south have tame fallow deer, and in spring the bulb fields towards Leiden turn the polders into stripes of colour.

Antwerp's green escapes are its parks, such as Rivierenhof and the Stadspark, quiet bike rides along the Scheldt dykes, and the Kalmthoutse Heide heathland to the north. They are pleasant, but nobody chooses Antwerp for them.

Both are superb bases and equally well connected, but they point in different directions. From Antwerp the pull is the Flemish art cities: Mechelen, Brussels, Leuven, Ghent with the Van Eyck altarpiece and Bruges. Rotterdam is within easy reach across the border.

Haarlem looks to Holland instead. Amsterdam is fifteen minutes away, Leiden twenty, and Alkmaar's cheese market, Zaanse Schans and the Keukenhof in spring are all easy outings. Delft, The Hague and the Kinderdijk windmills can be reached from either city.

Antwerp has a little more to offer children. Its old zoo sits right beside Central Station, and the MAS rooftop, the Steen castle, the trams and the free foot tunnel under the Scheldt all make easy outings.

Haarlem's appeal is its mostly car-free centre, its bike culture and the dunes and beach where children can run. Teylers' fossils add a rainy-day visit, but with no zoo or aquarium in town, families end up taking the train to Amsterdam for the bigger attractions.

Both are easy without a car, but at different scales. Antwerp is a real city served by trams, with a premetro section running underground. The walk from Central Station along the Meir to the river takes about half an hour, and the station is the national rail hub.

Haarlem is a bike town you can cross on foot in twenty minutes. Its cycle paths run straight out to the dunes and the beach, and trains reach Amsterdam and Zandvoort in minutes.

Antwerp is the better place to shop, and fashion is the reason. The legacy of its fashion academy fills the boutiques of the Nationalestraat, Kammenstraat and Het Zuid with conceptual Belgian labels. Add the diamond quarter by the station, the antique and interiors shops on the Kloosterstraat and the Meir for high-street chains.

Haarlem is lovely for an afternoon of browsing among the independent boutiques, design shops and delis on Gierstraat and Kleine Houtstraat. It lacks a signature to travel for, though.

Both are costly, and Antwerp is slightly easier on the wallet. Its rooms usually cost less than those in nearby capitals, and lunch menus, frites stands and café beers keep a day manageable even though dinners follow Belgian prices.

Haarlem's hotels are few for the demand and fill early in tulip season and summer, and rooms tend to be small for what they cost. Regular train fares for outings and museum entry add up over a stay.

Antwerp has the bigger stage. Opera Ballet Vlaanderen performs in the historic opera house on the Frankrijklei, and the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra plays beside Central Station. deSingel shows off the contemporary dance Flanders is known for, and AMUZ stages early music inside a Baroque church.

Haarlem's own speciality is the organ. Concerts on St Bavo's great instrument and the long-running international organ festival are the draw, with the Philharmonie adding chamber music. In both cities most theatre is in Dutch.

Haarlem is the more restful stay, mainly because of its pace. The canals and almshouse courtyards go quiet after dark, and the dunes are close by for long walks that clear the head. It also has a few saunas and spas of its own, with larger complexes in the region.

Antwerp is a city of museums and shopping, and its big sauna complexes sit out in the suburbs, mostly reached by car. Unwinding there usually means an afternoon in a park or a brown café.