Antwerp or Maastricht?

Neither city is a place for swimming, but Antwerp at least puts the sea within reach. The coast at Blankenberge and Knokke is under two hours by train, and Sint-Annastrand gives you sand by the Scheldt, though not water you can swim in. Maastricht is further from the sea, and in summer people swim in the old gravel-pit lakes along the Maas, which are fine for a hot afternoon and no more.

Both serve hearty northern food and both rely on Belgian beer, so the difference is one of character rather than quality. Antwerp is better for beer drinkers and for ambitious dinners: a bolleke of the local amber ale, long Trappist lists in the brown cafés near the cathedral, frites in paper cones, and design-led cooking in Het Zuid and Het Eilandje.

Maastricht eats like a Burgundian market town. Expect zuurvlees, a slice of vlaai, asparagus and game in season and white wine from the nearby hillsides, often on a terrace on the Vrijthof. The choice is narrower, with little street food, but the top restaurants are strong for a city this size.

Antwerp has the larger artistic inheritance. The city's wealth in the sixteenth century paid for the Flemish Baroque, so you get Rubens in the cathedral and in his own house, the UNESCO-listed Plantin-Moretus and a fine-arts collection from the Flemish primitives to Ensor. Central Station and the Art Nouveau streets of Zurenborg add more.

Maastricht's appeal is its age rather than grandeur. It has two Romanesque basilicas, the Helpoort and medieval walls along the Jeker, and guided tours of the tunnels under the Sint-Pietersberg. It fills two pleasant days, but nothing there matches the weight of Antwerp's Rubens altarpieces.

Antwerp is the city for nights that run late. Belgian bars have no fixed closing time, so the brown cafés and student streets stay busy well past midnight. Add a long house and techno tradition in old warehouses near the docks and one of the best-known gay scenes in the Low Countries.

In Maastricht most nights are spent in cafés around the Markt and the Vrijthof, which are lively at weekends in term time, but there is little clubbing. Carnival is the exception: for several days before Lent the whole city parties in the streets around the clock.

Here Maastricht pulls clearly ahead, because the hills begin at its southern edge. There are marl cliffs and walking paths on the Sint-Pietersberg, the green Jeker valley and the orchards and sunken lanes of the Heuvelland, with the Hoge Kempen and the Ardennes further out.

Around Antwerp the land is flat, built up and taken over by the port. Rivierenhof and the heath and pine woods of the Kalmthoutse Heide are good for a bike ride, but they are a break from the city rather than a reason to visit.

Both make excellent bases, but Antwerp has more famous towns within an easy train ride. In Flanders you can reach Ghent with its Van Eyck altarpiece, Bruges, Brussels, Leuven and Mechelen, and to the north Rotterdam, Delft and Kinderdijk, all without a car.

Maastricht's strength is crossing borders in short hops. Aachen's Charlemagne cathedral and Liège are each about half an hour away, and Tongeren and Valkenburg are nearer still. Cologne needs a longer day, and smaller places such as Thorn are easier to reach by car.

Antwerp has more for children inside the city itself. One of the world's oldest zoos sits beside Central Station, and there are the Steen castle on the river, the MAS rooftop and the foot tunnel under the Scheldt. Maastricht is calm and easy with a buggy, but in town there is mainly the tunnel tour, while the show caves, cable car and fairy-tale park are out at Valkenburg.

Both are easy without a car, in different ways. Antwerp is bigger, so walking from Central Station to the river or Het Zuid can take half an hour, and trams, partly running underground, fill the gaps to Het Eilandje and Zurenborg. Maastricht is small enough that nearly everything is within a fifteen-minute walk on either bank of the Maas, and a bike is the best way to reach the hill villages, which buses serve less well.

Antwerp is the better choice if you shop for clothes. Thanks to its fashion academy, the Nationalestraat, Kammenstraat and Het Zuid are full of conceptual Belgian labels. The diamond quarter is next to the station, and the Kloosterstraat is lined with antique shops.

Maastricht is more for a pleasant browse. There are boutiques in the restored houses of the Stokstraat, high-street brands on the Grote Staat, independent shops in Wyck and the weekly market on the Markt. It is attractive, but it lacks Antwerp's designer depth.

Expect to spend about the same in either city. Both have Northern European prices and suit a mid-range budget better than a shoestring one. The savings differ: in Antwerp rooms usually cost less than in nearby capitals and lunch menus beat dinner, while in Maastricht the trick is to avoid weekend demand and stay from Sunday to Thursday.

Antwerp has the fuller programme. Opera Ballet Vlaanderen performs in the historic opera house, the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra plays in the Queen Elisabeth Hall, AMUZ is devoted to early music, and deSingel stages the contemporary dance for which Flanders is known abroad, though much of the theatre is in Dutch.

Maastricht relies mostly on its theatre on the Vrijthof, home to the regional orchestra and opera, with conservatory recitals and church concerts on top. Its biggest draw is the open-air summer concerts on the same square.

Maastricht is the clear choice for rest. Valkenburg's thermal spa is twenty minutes away, Aachen's baths, used since Roman times, are half an hour off, and the town of Spa is within an hour. Walks along the Maas and the Jeker and the city's slow rhythm add to the effect.

Antwerp has no thermal water, and its large sauna complexes are mostly in the suburbs and reached by car. A stay there is about museums and shops, and the usual way to unwind is an afternoon in a park or a brown café.