Baden-Baden or Haarlem?

Baden-Baden is far inland, and the best a hot day offers is an outdoor pool or a swim in a gravel lake on the Rhine plain.

Haarlem has a real coast a few minutes away by train or bike: the broad sand at Zandvoort and the dune-backed beach at Bloemendaal, with pavilions along the shore. The North Sea is cool and often windy, so a beach day here means walks and quick dips rather than long swims. It is still more than Baden-Baden can offer.

The two are evenly matched, but they eat very differently. Baden-Baden draws on Baden's rich regional cooking, with venison, Flammkuchen and Black Forest gateau, French touches from across the Rhine, and Riesling and Pinot Noir from the Rebland villages. For a special dinner, the celebrated restaurants are out in the Black Forest rather than in town.

Haarlem's strengths are simpler and more casual. Raw herring and kibbeling come from the Saturday market, and evenings are spent in brown cafés and craft-beer taprooms rather than wine taverns. Come to Baden-Baden for wine and game, and to Haarlem for beer and terrace life.

Haarlem gives the fuller cultural stay. Its Golden Age centre holds the vast Grote Kerk of St Bavo, the Frans Hals Museum for the city's own portrait master and Teylers, the country's oldest museum. On foot you also pass the hidden hofjes and the moving Corrie ten Boom House.

Baden-Baden's appeal is narrower but distinctive. The town is a preserved Belle Époque spa resort, with the Kurhaus, the Trinkhalle, hillside villas and a strong modern-art pairing in the Museum Frieder Burda and the Kunsthalle. Both reward about two days, but Haarlem's sights cover more centuries and more ground.

Neither town is a place for clubs, but Haarlem's evenings have more life. Terraces fill around the Grote Markt and the Botermarkt, and Amsterdam's late scene is a quarter of an hour away by train.

Baden-Baden is quieter and more formal. The gilded Kurhaus casino with its dress code is the signature night out, followed by a hotel or wine bar, and the streets are calm by late evening.

Baden-Baden has the more varied landscape. Fir forest begins at the edge of town, the Merkur funicular and the Battert cliffs open onto long trails, and the Black Forest High Road climbs past the Mummelsee to the Hornisgrinde moorland, with mountain biking and some winter skiing.

Haarlem's countryside is gentler and completely flat. The dunes, woods and lakes of Zuid-Kennemerland are home to highland cattle and wild ponies, and the spring bulb fields are made for cycling. It is pleasant for easy rides and beach walks, but it offers nothing to climb.

Both towns make excellent bases, and Haarlem's is the more effortless. Amsterdam, Leiden, The Hague, Delft and Utrecht are all within easy reach by a dense rail network, and Keukenhof, Alkmaar and Zaanse Schans are short hops, so outings need little planning.

Baden-Baden's range crosses a border: Strasbourg and the Alsace wine route, Heidelberg, Freiburg, and the UNESCO sites at Speyer and Maulbronn. The rewards are just as rich, but the Alsace and Black Forest trips work far better with a car.

The two are much the same for families, and in both the main children's attractions are a trip away. From Baden-Baden that means Europa-Park, one of Europe's biggest theme parks, about an hour south. The town itself is refined and adult, and the Friedrichsbad turns young children away.

Haarlem feels more relaxed with children day to day. The centre is flat and largely car-free, cargo bikes are everywhere, and Teylers' fossils and the playgrounds in the dunes keep children busy. Amsterdam's zoo and science museum fill the gaps.

Haarlem is the easier town to be without a car. The station sits at the edge of a flat centre you can cross on foot in about twenty minutes, bike paths run all the way to the beach, and trains and buses cover the region.

Baden-Baden's core is walkable but hilly in places. Its station lies a bus ride out in Oos, and the wine villages, the High Road and Alsace are hard to reach without driving.

Haarlem is the better place to browse. Independent fashion, design and book shops fill Gierstraat, Kleine Houtstraat and Schagchelstraat, chains line the Grote Houtstraat, and market days bring flowers and cheese to the main square.

Baden-Baden's offer is smaller and more upmarket. Jewellers, watchmakers and boutiques along Sophienstraße and Lange Straße cater to a wealthy spa clientele, and beyond cuckoo clocks and local wine there is little else.

Neither is a budget destination. Baden-Baden's costs come from its grand hotels and from paying at the baths on every visit, so a spa-focused stay mounts up, although guesthouses and wine taverns are fairly priced for Germany.

In Haarlem the strain falls on accommodation: rooms are scarce and small for the money, especially in tulip season. Train fares for regular day trips add to that, while market food and bike hire help keep daily spending down.

Baden-Baden is the stronger choice for classical music. The Festspielhaus, one of Germany's largest opera and concert houses, brings leading international orchestras and opera productions, and the town's philharmonic and its small nineteenth-century theatre add more, all within a tradition shaped by Brahms and Clara Schumann.

Haarlem has a broader but more local programme. There is chamber and classical music at the Philharmonie, theatre and cabaret, mostly in Dutch, and a pop venue for touring bands. Its jewel is organ music at St Bavo, but for opera or big orchestras people go to Amsterdam.

This is where the two towns differ most. Baden-Baden was built around hot springs the Romans used, and its bathhouses define a stay: the domed Friedrichsbad with its silent sequence of steam rooms and pools, and the larger Caracalla, with its indoor and outdoor pools and saunas.

Haarlem has no springs and no bathing heritage. Rest there means quiet canals after dark, an hour on a café terrace, a local sauna or a cycle through the dunes.