Bath or Ghent?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Ghent gets you to proper sand more easily. Trains reach Ostend in about an hour, and the coast tram links a long line of wide beaches backed by dunes. In summer the Blaarmeersen lake on the city's edge also has a sandy shore with supervised swimming.

From Bath, the nearest seaside is Weston-super-Mare, where the water is brown and shallow and the tide goes out a very long way. For good sand you need Dorset or Devon, two hours or more each way. Locals cool off in the Avon instead.

Ghent gives you more to eat and drink. It has its own dishes, such as waterzooi and beef stewed in dark beer, plus grey shrimp croquettes, frites from paper cones and an unusually good choice for vegetarians. Its real strength is beer, poured from long lists in the old cafés of the Patershol and the Vrijdagmarkt.

Bath eats well within narrower limits. Expect West Country cheese, Somerset cider, the Sally Lunn bun and afternoon tea in Georgian tearooms, with the farmers' market at Green Park station as a highlight. There is little cooking from other cuisines and almost no street food.

Both reward two or three days of sightseeing equally well, but in different ways. Bath is a single Georgian set piece. The Circus, the Royal Crescent and Pulteney Bridge sit a short walk apart, with the Roman Baths and their steaming great bath below.

Ghent is a working medieval city with a castle, guildhalls along the Leie and three towers lined up in one view. Its single great treasure is the van Eyck brothers' Ghent Altarpiece, and its art museums, from Flemish masters to the contemporary SMAK, are stronger than Bath's smaller house museums.

Ghent is much livelier after dark. Its large university keeps the Overpoort bars loud and late in term time, the cafés around Oudburg suit long evenings over strong beer, and in summer people drink along the quaysides. For ten days every July, the Gentse Feesten turns the whole centre into a street party.

Bath's evenings revolve around coaching inns and real-ale pubs, and on weeknights the city is quiet soon after dinner. For a bigger night out, most people take the short train ride to Bristol.

Bath has the better walking country. It sits in a bowl of steep hills, so you can climb straight from town onto the Skyline ridges or follow the Kennet and Avon towpath east. The Cotswolds and the Mendips, with Cheddar Gorge and its caves, are within an hour.

Ghent's surroundings are flat farmland. Outdoors there means riverside cycling towards Sint-Martens-Latem, birdwatching at the Bourgoyen-Ossemeersen wetland and kayaking at the Blaarmeersen. It is pleasant, but it has nothing to match Bath's hills.

Both make excellent bases, but Ghent's day trips are easier to do. Bruges, Brussels and Antwerp are each under an hour away by frequent train, and Mechelen, Leuven, Ypres and Lille are also in range, so you never need a car.

Bath has a remarkable list of its own, including Stonehenge, Avebury, Wells, Glastonbury and Lacock, with Bristol fifteen minutes away by rail. Many of the stone circles and villages, though, are much easier to reach by car or on a small-group tour.

With children the two are evenly matched, and both are safe and small. Bath has the steaming Roman Baths with costumed characters and a big playground in Royal Victoria Park, and Bristol's science centre and aquarium are close by train. Steep streets make pushchairs a struggle.

Ghent counters with the armour and battlements of the Gravensteen, the old toys at the House of Alijn and a lake beach at the Blaarmeersen. Its largely car-free centre is a relief with small children, though the cobbles are hard on wheels.

Ghent is a little easier to get around. Its centre is flat and largely free of cars, trams cover the rest of the city, and bikes are the local way to travel, with lanes everywhere. The main station is a twenty-minute walk from the centre, but frequent trains reach the rest of Flanders.

Bath's centre is just as walkable end to end, and its station sits right at the bottom of town. The hills are steep, though, and the countryside sights beyond the city are poorly served by public transport.

Shopping is on a similar level in both, and neither has a luxury tier. Bath is better for browsing independent shops, with antiques on Bartlett Street, makers and salvage dealers on Walcot Street, and little shops lining Pulteney Bridge.

Ghent's strengths are its markets and edible souvenirs. There is the weekend flea market at Sint-Jacobs, flowers on the Kouter, and chocolate, cuberdons and the city's mustard to take home. The student quarter is good for vintage clothes.

Ghent is easier on the budget. Its hotel rooms are moderately priced for a historic city for most of the year, July aside, and several churches, including St Bavo's Cathedral, are free to enter. Long dinners with Belgian beer still add up.

Bath is dear to sleep in, especially on summer weekends and around Christmas, and both the Roman Baths and the spa cost a lot. Visiting midweek or staying in Bristol is the usual way to cut the bill.

Ghent has the stronger stage life. Its nineteenth-century opera house stages opera and ballet for the Flemish national company, NTGent is known abroad for bold productions, mostly in Dutch, and De Bijloke hosts early and classical music in a medieval hospital.

Bath relies on the gilded Theatre Royal for touring drama, opera and pantomime, along with concerts in the Abbey and festivals of literature, music and Mozart. It has no resident company, and on most nights there is little choice.

Here Bath is in a different league. It is the one place in Britain where you can bathe in natural thermal water, either in the open-air rooftop pool looking out over the Abbey or in the small Georgian Cross Bath. Tea in the Pump Room and the riverside gardens complete a slow day.

Ghent has no bathing culture beyond a few hotel spas. Its quiet comes from the enclosed beguinage gardens, walks along the Coupure canal and calm Sundays.