Antwerp or Heidelberg?

Neither city is a place for swimming, but Antwerp at least gives you a taste of the shore. Sint-Annastrand on the left bank has sand and a promenade, and the Belgian coast at Blankenberge or Knokke is a long day trip by train.

Heidelberg is further from any sea. Its swimming happens in outdoor pools and the gravel-pit lakes on the Rhine plain, about half an hour away. Those lakes are fine for a hot afternoon but are no reason to visit.

Antwerp has more to offer at the table, and much of it is about beer. Visitors come for the bolleke of local amber ale, long Trappist lists in brown cafés, stoofvlees, frites in paper cones and Belgian chocolate. Above that, chefs in Het Zuid and Het Eilandje cook modern food, and a few of the restaurants hold stars.

Heidelberg's strength is wine rather than beer, with Riesling and Pinot from the Bergstrasse vineyards on the edge of town. The cooking is hearty, from Maultaschen and Schäufele to spring asparagus. The choice is that of a small city, and the better meals are found in side streets, in Neuenheim and in village wine taverns. In both places, avoid the menus by the main square, which are aimed at tourists.

Antwerp has more depth. Rubens's altarpieces, his house and studio, the Plantin-Moretus printing house and the Royal Museum of Fine Arts make up a serious Flemish art trail. The domed Central Station, the Art Nouveau streets of Zurenborg and the MAS and Red Star Line museums fill a second and third day.

Heidelberg's appeal is the setting more than the collections: a red sandstone castle ruin above a baroque old town on the Neckar. The oldest university in Germany adds the Student Prison and its graffiti. The sights are compact and very photogenic, and most people see them in a day or two.

Antwerp gives you the fuller night out. Brown cafés and student streets stay busy past midnight, there are clubs in warehouses near the docks and under the railway, and the city has one of the best-known gay scenes in the Low Countries. Het Zuid adds cocktail and wine bars.

Heidelberg's evenings centre on the Untere Strasse, a narrow lane of small pubs, and on old student taverns with carved tables. It is lively in term time but quiet out of term, and anyone wanting a proper club night takes the train to Mannheim or Frankfurt.

This is where Heidelberg pulls clearly ahead. Woodland starts at the edge of the old town, the Philosophers' Walk gives the classic view of the castle, and the funicular up the Königstuhl leads to forest trails that run for hours. The Neckar Valley cycle path, the vineyard walks of the Bergstrasse and the sandstone crags of the Palatinate Forest are all close.

Antwerp's surroundings are flat and taken up largely by the port. The Kalmthoutse Heide heathland and rides along the dykes of the Scheldt polders make pleasant cycling, but they are a break from the city rather than a reason to come.

Both make excellent bases, and Antwerp has the more famous list. Ghent, Bruges, Brussels, Leuven and Mechelen are all on frequent trains, and you can reach Rotterdam, Delft and the Kinderdijk windmills across the Dutch border in a day.

Heidelberg's outings are quieter but rich. Options include the Romanesque cathedral at Speyer, the palace gardens at Schwetzingen, Worms, Lorsch Abbey and the monastery at Maulbronn, along with castle villages up the Neckar. The Palatinate wine villages are easiest by car.

Both cities work equally well with children, but in different ways. Antwerp's zoo stands next to Central Station, the flat centre is easy with a pushchair, and the foot tunnel under the Scheldt and the MAS rooftop make cheap thrills. Its damp weather means having indoor plans ready.

Heidelberg has the funicular, a small fairy-tale park on the Königstuhl and boat trips past castles. The Technik Museum Speyer, where children can climb into a space shuttle, is about half an hour away. The cobbled, sloping Altstadt is harder going with a pushchair.

Both are easy without a car, but the layouts differ. In Antwerp you can walk from the station along the Meir to the cathedral and the river, and the station is a national rail hub with fast links to Brussels and the Netherlands.

Heidelberg's sights lie in a long, narrow strip along the river, and the station is far enough west that most visitors take a tram in. A funicular climbs to the castle, and a single fare system covers trams, buses and the S-Bahn across the region.

Antwerp is a real shopping city, and its speciality is fashion. Conceptual Belgian labels fill the boutiques of the Nationalestraat, Kammenstraat and Het Zuid. There are also antiques and interiors on the Kloosterstraat, secondhand auctions on the Vrijdagmarkt and the gem-trading streets of the diamond quarter.

Heidelberg's shopping runs along a single long pedestrian street, the Hauptstrasse, with German chains at one end and cuckoo clocks, beer steins and Studentenkuss chocolates at the other. Bergstrasse wine is the best thing to take home. For fashion, locals go to Mannheim or Frankfurt.

The two cost much the same overall. Both are mid-range rather than shoestring destinations, but the money goes in different places. In Antwerp, rooms are often cheaper than in nearby capitals, while sit-down dinners follow high Belgian price levels. Frites and a café beer are the affordable side.

In Heidelberg it is the other way round. Hotels are the pinch, because rooms are limited and congresses and graduations push prices up, so many visitors stay in Mannheim. Meals in student cafés and simple taverns are easier on the budget, and the castle charges only modest entry.

Antwerp offers more and on a bigger scale. Opera Ballet Vlaanderen performs in the historic opera house, the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra plays in the Queen Elisabeth Hall, deSingel shows the contemporary dance Flanders is known for, and AMUZ specialises in early music. Most of the theatre is in Dutch.

Heidelberg has a full season for its size, with opera, drama and concerts at the municipal theatre. Its highlights are seasonal: the Heidelberger Frühling chamber music festival in spring and summer performances in the castle courtyard. Church concerts are frequent, and Mannheim's larger house is a short train ride away.

Heidelberg is the better choice for a restful stay. Spa towns and thermal baths with warm saline pools in the Kraichgau are about half an hour away, and Baden-Baden is about an hour. In town, evenings on the Neckar meadows and quiet forest paths make slowing down easy.

Antwerp is a city for museums and eating rather than rest. The Flemish sauna complexes are in the suburbs and mostly need a car, so unwinding usually means a park such as Rivierenhof or a long afternoon in a brown café.