Bath or Brussels?

Neither city is for beach life, but Brussels has the better seaside within reach. The Belgian coast at Ostend or De Haan is a little over an hour by train, with wide sandy beaches and promenades that make a breezy day out.

Bath's nearest sea is the brown, shallow Bristol Channel at Weston-super-Mare, where the tide retreats a long way. Clean sand means two hours or more to Dorset or Devon. In return, Bath has summer river swimming in the Avon, while Brussels offers indoor and open-air pools.

Brussels is much the better city to eat in. It has a deep native cuisine of mussels, carbonnade and waterzooi, a beer culture with lambics brewed nowhere else, and praline makers around the Sablon. Congolese, Moroccan and Turkish kitchens in Matonge, Saint-Josse and Schaerbeek give it real range.

Bath eats well within narrower limits: West Country cheese, cider and lamb in gastropubs, the Sally Lunn bun, afternoon tea and the farmers' market at Green Park. There is little cooking from other cuisines and almost no street food.

Bath's main sight is the city itself. Its Georgian townscape survives whole, so the Circus, the Royal Crescent, Pulteney Bridge and the Assembly Rooms are a short walk apart, with the Roman Baths and the Abbey at the centre. Its museums are small, and two or three days cover it well.

Brussels has more to see and richer collections. The Grand-Place, with its gilded guild houses, is one of Europe's great squares. The other sights are spread across the city: Bruegel, Rubens and a museum devoted to Magritte in the upper town, the Cinquantenaire museums further east, and Horta's UNESCO-listed Art Nouveau houses in Saint-Gilles and Ixelles. All of that fills a longer stay, though office blocks break up the old city between the sights.

After dark Brussels is livelier by a wide margin. Bars fill Saint-Géry and the streets by the Bourse, and Flagey and Châtelain draw a local crowd. The Marolles has a techno club of European standing, and there is a queer scene around Rue du Marché au Charbon.

In Bath, evenings mean the pub: coaching inns and real-ale houses on Walcot Street and around Kingsmead. Outside student term and weekends the city goes quiet early, and anyone wanting more takes the train to Bristol.

Bath is the better choice for getting outdoors, because the countryside starts at the edge of the city. The Skyline loop follows the ridges above town and the Kennet and Avon towpath leads into the Limpley Stoke valley. The Cotswolds and the Mendips, with Cheddar Gorge, are within an hour.

Brussels has one fine asset in the tall beech stands of the Sonian Forest, plus city parks such as the Bois de la Cambre, but the land around it is flat. For hills, rivers and kayaking you need the Ardennes valleys near Dinant, up to two hours away.

Both are excellent bases, but Brussels wins on ease. Ghent, Antwerp, Bruges, Leuven and Mechelen are all within about an hour on frequent trains, and Paris, Lille and Cologne work for a long day, so nearly everything is a train ride away.

Bath's excursions are just as rewarding: Stonehenge and Avebury, Wells and Glastonbury, Lacock and the Cotswold villages, with Bristol fifteen minutes away. The difference is that most of them, apart from Bristol and Cardiff, are far easier by car or on a tour.

Brussels keeps children busier. The Atomium and Mini-Europe stand side by side, the Natural Sciences museum has its herd of Iguanodons, and the comic murals turn a walk into a treasure hunt. The Walibi and Pairi Daiza parks are easy outings. Cobbles, traffic and rain are the trade-off.

Bath is safe and compact, and children enjoy the steaming Roman Baths and the playground in Royal Victoria Park. Beyond those it is a grown-up town with steep streets, and most of its family days out are in Bristol or at Longleat.

Both centres are compact and best explored on foot, and in both a car is more trouble than help. What differs is the support around the walking. You can cross Bath's core in about twenty minutes, much of it pedestrianised, and you only need buses for the hills and the park-and-ride on the edge.

Brussels is larger and relies on metro, trams and buses that take a tapped bank card. Trams are the pleasant way to Ixelles and Saint-Gilles, and trains run direct to the airport. Expect a steep climb between the lower and upper town, and rough pavements.

Brussels has more to buy. Chocolatiers line the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert and the Sablon, which is also the centre of the antiques trade, and the Marolles has its daily flea market. Rue Antoine Dansaert carries Belgian designers, and Avenue Louise has the luxury brands that Bath lacks.

Bath offers pleasant browsing on a smaller scale: independent bookshops and jewellers in the lanes by the Abbey, antiques on Bartlett Street, makers and salvage dealers on Walcot Street, and the centuries-old Guildhall Market.

Neither is cheap, but Brussels makes a budget go further, and weekends pull the two in opposite directions. In Brussels the business hotels empty on Friday, and frites, sandwiches and cooking in the immigrant neighbourhoods keep daily costs down.

Bath is a small city with many visitors, so beds are dear, most of all on summer weekends and at Christmas, and the Roman Baths and the spa add up. Walking everywhere and eating pub lunches help, and sleeping in Bristol saves the most.

Brussels is a real music city. La Monnaie stages adventurous opera, Bozar is home to the national orchestra and Flagey is prized for its acoustics. The city is also strong in contemporary dance and theatre in French and Dutch, and its concert halls are on every European rock and pop tour.

Bath's stage life revolves around the gilded Georgian Theatre Royal, with touring drama, opera and pantomime. There are also concerts in the Abbey and the Assembly Rooms, and long-running festivals. With no resident orchestra, though, most nights offer little choice.

Here Bath is in another league. It sits on Britain's only natural hot springs, so you can soak in thermal water in a rooftop pool facing the Abbey or in the small Georgian Cross Bath, then take tea in the Pump Room.

Brussels has no bathing tradition. A few hammams, day spas and Art Deco pools are what it offers. Its calm comes from long lunches, café terraces in Ixelles and the Sonian Forest, set against heavy traffic and a busy working pace.