Antwerp or York?

Neither city is any good for a beach trip. Antwerp has the tidal Scheldt and a sandy promenade at Sint-Annastrand, but no swimming, and York has nothing to swim in at all. The difference lies in the day out. From York, the traditional resorts of Scarborough, Filey and Whitby are about an hour by train. From Antwerp, the Belgian coast at Blankenberge or Knokke takes closer to two hours, and the North Sea is cold off either shore.

Antwerp is much the better place to eat. Beyond stoofvlees, mussels and frites from proper friteries, it has a serious modern restaurant scene around Het Zuid and the docks, with some starred cooking, and a beer culture built on the bolleke and long Trappist lists.

York's strengths are narrower and more traditional: afternoon tea with fat rascals, Sunday roasts, Yorkshire real ale and pies from the Shambles Market. It is pleasant rather than exciting, with little international cooking. In both cities, the streets around the main sights serve tourist fare.

Both reward two or three days of sightseeing, but the history they show is different. Antwerp's high point is its sixteenth-century golden age. You can see Rubens's altarpieces in the cathedral and his house, the Plantin-Moretus printing house, and a fine-arts collection reaching Ensor, with Central Station and Art Nouveau Zurenborg as a later layer.

York goes back further and is more about the medieval city itself. The Minster's stained glass, the walkable walls, the Shambles, Jorvik's Viking street and the National Railway Museum make it the stronger pick for history, while Antwerp leans more towards painting and design.

Antwerp goes out properly. Bars without a fixed closing time keep the brown cafés and student streets busy late. There is a long-standing house and techno scene in warehouses by the docks and one of the Low Countries' best-known gay scenes, as well as cocktail bars in Het Zuid.

York's evenings revolve around its historic inns on Micklegate and Stonegate, which is a fine way to spend a night. Weekends bring stag and hen parties, weeknights end early, and anyone wanting clubs takes the train to Leeds.

York has far more to offer outdoors. The city itself is flat, with riverside paths and the Strays. Within about an hour, though, you reach the heather of the North York Moors, the limestone and waterfalls of the Dales and the cliff-top Cleveland Way, although a car makes most of it easier.

Antwerp's surroundings are low, built up and dominated by the port. The Kalmthoutse Heide heathland and the polder dykes along the Scheldt are good for an easy bike ride, but there are no hills and nothing to match Yorkshire's scenery.

Both make excellent bases, and Antwerp has the edge because so much is reachable by fast, frequent trains. Mechelen, Brussels, Leuven and Ghent are all under an hour and Bruges is not much further, while Rotterdam, Delft and Kinderdijk bring a second country into range.

York's rail trips are strong too: Harrogate, Leeds, Durham, Beverley and Scarborough. Many of its best excursions, though, such as Castle Howard, Fountains Abbey, Rievaulx and the moors railway, are country houses and ruins that work best by car or coach tour.

The two are about equal for families, with a different main draw in each. In Antwerp it is the historic zoo beside Central Station, along with trams, the Steen and the foot tunnel under the Scheldt, in a city relaxed about children in restaurants. York's trump card is the National Railway Museum, with Jorvik, the Victorian street in the Castle Museum, the walls and ghost walks for older children. Both put theme parks and the seaside about an hour or more away.

Both are compact and easy without a car, but they work differently. York is a walking city. Nearly everything sits inside or just outside its walls, much of the centre is pedestrianised and the Minster is fifteen minutes from the station. Antwerp is larger, so you will use its trams and premetro as well as your feet to reach Het Eilandje and Zurenborg, and its shared bikes and cycle lanes make cycling more natural. Antwerp's station also links you abroad, while York's rural buses are sparse.

Antwerp is the place for shopping, thanks to fashion. The legacy of its academy's avant-garde designers fills the boutiques of the Nationalestraat, Kammenstraat and Het Zuid. Add the Meir high street, the diamond quarter, Kloosterstraat antiques, and chocolate and beer to take home.

York's appeal is the setting more than the goods. You get independent bookshops, jewellers and antiques in Stonegate and Petergate, high-street chains and a market. The Shambles, though, is heavy on souvenirs and wizard shops, and the December Christmas markets are its real high point.

Costs are much the same in both, and both suit a mid-range budget better than a tight one. In Antwerp the expense is sit-down dinners at Belgian prices, though rooms undercut nearby capitals. In York it is accommodation, which climbs steeply at weekends, on race days and at Christmas. York has more free sights, including the National Railway Museum, the walls and the Museum Gardens, while Antwerp's cheap pleasures are frites and a café beer.

Antwerp has the much richer stage. Opera Ballet Vlaanderen performs in the historic house on the Frankrijklei, the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra plays at the Queen Elisabeth Hall, and deSingel brings in the contemporary dance Flanders is known for. Theatre is mostly in Dutch.

York has no opera or orchestra of note. What it does offer is English-language drama at the old Theatre Royal, touring shows at the Grand Opera House, free choral evensong in the Minster and the occasional street Mystery Plays. Both cities share a taste for early music, at AMUZ and the National Centre for Early Music, each housed in an old church.

Neither city is a place for a spa break, and relaxing in either mostly means parks and slow afternoons. The difference is what lies nearby. From York, a half-hour train ride takes you to Harrogate's Royal Baths and their Victorian Turkish bath. Antwerp's alternative is the Flemish sauna culture, with large wellness complexes in the countryside that are mostly reached by car.