Antwerp or Rothenburg ob der Tauber?

Neither is a place to swim, though Antwerp gets you nearer the water. Sint-Annastrand, on the left bank of the Scheldt, is a strip of sand for sitting rather than bathing, because the tidal river is not safe to swim in. In summer locals cool off in the outdoor pools and recreation lakes on the city's edge. The North Sea at Blankenberge and Knokke is under two hours away by train, which makes a long day out for water that stays cool even in August.

Rothenburg lies far inland in Franconia, on a hilltop hundreds of kilometres from any coast. Swimming means the town's outdoor pool, or a drive of about an hour to the grassy bathing areas of the Franconian lakes, such as the Altmühlsee.

Antwerp eats and drinks far better. Stoofvlees braised in dark beer, frites from proper friteries and the bolleke of local amber ale make even simple meals worth having. Above that, Het Zuid and Het Eilandje have a serious modern restaurant scene with a few starred tables.

Rothenburg offers one solid cuisine and little else: Schäufele, bratwurst and dumplings, washed down with Silvaner from the round Bocksbeutel bottle. Both towns have a main square where menus are aimed at tourists. In Antwerp the way out is a walk to another district. In Rothenburg it is a family-run guesthouse or wine tavern off the Marktplatz.

Antwerp has more to see and more depth to it. It has Rubens's altarpieces in the cathedral and his house and studio, the Plantin-Moretus printing house, and a fine-arts collection running to Ensor. On top of that come Central Station, the Art Nouveau streets of Zurenborg and the MAS on the docks, enough for two or three full days.

In Rothenburg the town itself is the sight. You walk the covered wall, stand at the Plönlein and climb the Rathaus tower for the rooftops. Riemenschneider's carved altar in St Jakob's and the Medieval Crime Museum are the main indoor visits. It is a remarkable townscape, but you can see it in much less time.

Antwerp has a real night out. Brown cafés and student bars stay busy past midnight, and house and techno clubs fill old warehouses near the docks. The city also has one of the best-known gay scenes in the Low Countries.

Rothenburg's evening highlight is following the night watchman on his lantern-lit tour, then a glass in a wine tavern. The lanes are mostly silent by eleven. For anything livelier you would have to go to Würzburg or Nuremberg.

Both offer gentle, low-key outdoors rather than scenery to travel for, but the setting differs. Rothenburg's countryside starts at the town gate. Paths drop from the walls into the Tauber valley past mills and the Topplerschlösschen, and the valley cycle path runs downstream through vineyards.

Around Antwerp the land is flat and built up, so green space means city parks such as Rivierenhof. Further out, there are bike rides on the Scheldt polder dykes and walks on the heath and dunes of the Kalmthoutse Heide.

Antwerp is one of the best bases in Europe for day trips without a car. Frequent trains reach Mechelen, Brussels, Leuven and Ghent in under an hour, and Bruges, Rotterdam and Delft are all easy days out.

Rothenburg's excursions are strong too. On the Romantic Road there is walled Dinkelsbühl, and Nördlingen with its ring of walls inside a meteorite crater, and Würzburg's Residenz and Nuremberg's castle are about an hour away. Most of these need a car, because the rail links are thin.

Antwerp copes better with a longer family stay. The zoo is right beside Central Station, children enjoy the MAS rooftop, the trams and the foot tunnel under the Scheldt, and the flat centre is easy with a pushchair. Cafés are relaxed about children, which helps on the many grey days.

Rothenburg is a storybook for a day or two. Children can walk the ramparts, climb the Rathaus tower and follow the night watchman, and older ones tend to love the Crime Museum. After that there is little made for them, and the cobbles and steep valley paths are hard going with a pushchair.

Both centres are best on foot, but Antwerp is far easier beyond them. Trams and the underground premetro reach Het Eilandje and Zurenborg, shared bikes and cycle lanes cover the rest, and Central Station connects to the whole of Belgium and the Netherlands.

Rothenburg's old town takes about fifteen minutes to cross, and cars are kept outside the gates. Leaving it is the hard part. Most rail journeys need a change at Steinach, and regional buses are sparse, so anyone exploring the region really needs a car.

Antwerp is a real shopping city, and its strength is clothes. Its designer boutiques favour conceptual Belgian labels over the global luxury houses found in every capital, so they suit someone who wants to come home with pieces they could not buy anywhere else. It covers everyday needs as well, and has secondhand auctions at the Vrijdagmarkt, so a whole afternoon of browsing is easy.

Rothenburg is a place to buy one kind of keepsake, not a place to go shopping. Its year-round Christmas shops are the draw, and a December visit adds one of Germany's most atmospheric Christmas markets. Anyone looking for clothes, design or ordinary shopping will find almost nothing, because nearly everything on sale is aimed at visitors. A Bocksbeutel of Franconian wine makes the best gift to take home.

Neither is cheap, but Rothenburg goes a little further. Inside the walls there is a tourist premium, yet beer and wine in the inns are fairly priced and the sights charge modest fees. A room just outside the walls or in a nearby village saves a good deal.

In Antwerp the cost is in sit-down dinners at Belgian prices. Rooms undercut the nearby capitals, and frites, café beer, lunch menus and walking the compact centre keep a mid-range budget under control.

With a resident opera, a ballet company and a symphony orchestra, Antwerp has a season you can plan an evening around. Opera Ballet Vlaanderen performs in the historic house on the Frankrijklei, and the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra plays in the Queen Elisabeth Hall. deSingel programmes the contemporary dance Flanders is known for, and AMUZ puts on early music in a Baroque church. Most theatre, though, is in Dutch.

Rothenburg has no regular shows at all. Its stage is history. There is the costumed Meistertrunk play, which retells the wine-drinking feat that saved the town in the Thirty Years' War, along with summer productions in a small open-air theatre and organ and choral concerts in St Jakob's.

Antwerp is a city for museums and shopping rather than rest. Flanders has a solid sauna culture, but the large sauna and wellness complexes are out in the suburbs and the countryside, mostly reached by car. In town, unwinding means a hotel spa, a day spa or a slow afternoon in the Stadspark or a brown café.

Rothenburg is the calmer place and has better water within reach. Once the coach groups leave in the evening, and again early in the morning, the walls and the Tauber valley go deeply quiet. Proper thermal baths are about an hour's drive away: the Franken-Therme at Bad Windsheim, with its salt-water pool you float in, and the old spa town of Bad Mergentheim.