Bath or Haarlem?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Haarlem at least has the coast close by. Zandvoort's long sandy beach is ten minutes away by train, and Bloemendaal's dune-backed strand is a short bike ride. A summer afternoon there with a quick, cold dip in the North Sea makes an easy outing.

Bath is inland. Its nearest sea is the muddy, tidal water at Weston-super-Mare, about an hour away. Locals swim in the Avon above the city in warm weather, but for clean sand you have to drive two hours or more to Dorset or Devon.

The two cities eat about equally well, in a solid small-city way, and in neither do you get much street food or late-night dining. The difference is in what they eat and drink. Bath leans on West Country produce: cheese, cider, lamb, afternoon tea in Georgian tearooms and its own baked goods, the Sally Lunn bun and the Bath Oliver biscuit.

Haarlem's food is more about the market and the beer. You can get herring and fried kibbeling at the Saturday stalls on the Grote Markt, sit on café terraces, and choose from a strong range of local craft brewers on tap.

Bath has the deeper set of sights. The whole city is a World Heritage Site, with the Royal Crescent, the Circus and Pulteney Bridge forming one continuous Georgian set piece. Under it lie the Roman Baths, still steaming, with the fan-vaulted Abbey right beside them. Smaller museums such as the Holburne and No. 1 Royal Crescent fill in the detail.

Haarlem's appeal is more intimate. You get canals and gables, the vast St Bavo church, Frans Hals's portraits in the museum named after him, and the 18th-century oval room at Teylers. Part of the pleasure is in finding the quiet hofje courtyards behind their plain doors.

Both cities go quiet early, and both have a much bigger city about fifteen minutes away by train for a proper night out: Bristol for Bath, Amsterdam for Haarlem. In Bath an evening means the pub, from old coaching inns to real-ale houses on Walcot Street, with students livening things up in term time. Haarlem's evenings are spent at terrace tables and in brown cafés around the Grote Markt and Botermarkt, which are at their liveliest on summer nights.

Both have pleasant, gentle countryside right on the doorstep, but the landscapes could hardly be more different. Bath sits in a bowl of steep hills. You can walk the Skyline ridges above the city, follow the canal towpath through the Limpley Stoke valley, or drive under an hour to the Cotswolds and to Cheddar Gorge in the Mendips.

Haarlem is completely flat. Dunes, pinewoods and small lakes in Zuid-Kennemerland start at the western edge of town, with grazing ponies and deer, and in spring you can cycle between the striped bulb fields.

Both are excellent bases, but Haarlem's dense rail network gives it the edge. Amsterdam, Leiden, The Hague, Delft and Utrecht are all easy train rides away, and Alkmaar, Zaanse Schans and Keukenhof are close as well, so you rarely need to plan in advance.

Bath's day trips are just as memorable: Stonehenge, Avebury, Wells, Glastonbury, Lacock and the Cotswold villages. Apart from Bristol and Cardiff, though, most of them really need a car or a tour.

Haarlem is a little easier with children. Its centre is flat and mostly car-free, cycling with kids is normal, and the dunes and beach give them space to run. The Roman Baths in Bath are a real highlight for children, and Royal Victoria Park has a large playground.

Beyond that, Bath's steep streets are hard going with a pushchair and the city is mostly geared to adults. Neither town has a zoo or an aquarium, so families end up heading to Bristol or Longleat from Bath, or to Amsterdam from Haarlem.

Both centres take about twenty minutes to cross on foot and neither needs a car in town. Haarlem is the easier of the two. It is flat, the bike is the natural way to travel, there are separate cycle paths to the dunes and the sea, and one contactless card covers trains and buses all over the region.

In Bath, steep hills slow you down beyond the compact core and drivers rely on the park-and-ride sites. Once you leave the railway line, the countryside is poorly served by public transport.

Both are good for an afternoon of browsing rather than serious shopping, with no luxury tier and no big department store in either. Bath has more character in its oddities: antiques on Bartlett Street, salvage and furniture makers on Walcot Street, the old covered Guildhall Market and the little shops along Pulteney Bridge. Haarlem is stronger on contemporary design, with fashion and interiors boutiques on Gierstraat and Kleine Houtstraat and flower and cheese stalls on market days.

Neither is cheap, and the bills come out at much the same level. Haarlem is a touch easier, though its few hotels fill up quickly in tulip season. In Bath, hotels are particularly dear on summer weekends and at Christmas, and entry to the Roman Baths and the spa adds up.

The ways to save are different too. In Bath, staying midweek or sleeping in Bristol helps most. In Haarlem, it is market lunches and a hired bike, though the train fares for your day trips mount up over a stay.

The two have a similar amount on stage, each a solid programme for a small city, and in both you go to the nearby big city for major opera. Bath's centrepiece is the gilded Georgian Theatre Royal, with touring drama, shows on their way to the West End and pantomime, along with literature and Mozart festivals.

Haarlem's speciality is the organ. Concerts are played on St Bavo's great instrument, which Mozart himself played as a boy, and the city hosts a long-running international organ festival. Classical music at the Philharmonie adds to that, but most of the Stadsschouwburg's theatre is in Dutch.

This is where Bath is far ahead. It is the one place in Britain where you can bathe in natural hot spring water. The rooftop pool at Thermae Bath Spa looks over the Abbey, and on a winter evening it is hard to beat. The small Cross Bath and tea in the Pump Room keep the old spa-town routine going.

Haarlem has no springs and no bathing tradition. You unwind there by cycling in the dunes, lingering on café terraces, or going to one of the sauna complexes elsewhere in the region.