Brighton or The Hague?

These two are about level as beach towns, and both are let down by cold water. The ground underfoot is what differs. Brighton has a long run of steep shingle beside the piers, which suits sitting with chips more than lying out. The quieter coves under the cliffs at Rottingdean and Saltdean are still pebbly.

Scheveningen has the wide sandy beach Brighton lacks. It is a short tram ride from the centre and lined with summer pavilions, and the dunes behind Kijkduin are calmer. In either city a swim is a brisk dip on a warm day, not the point of the trip.

Brighton eats a little better and with more range. Small independent kitchens fill the North Laine, the Lanes and Kemptown. It has a long-standing name for vegetarian cooking and serious coffee, plus oysters and whelks from the seafront arches and Sussex sparkling wine on most lists.

The Hague's strength is narrower but distinctive. Its Indonesian cooking, from a full rijsttafel to plates of rendang, is among the best outside Indonesia. Away from that, the brown cafés of the Denneweg and the herring carts are pleasant without matching Brighton's variety.

The Hague has much more to see. The Mauritshuis alone, with Girl with a Pearl Earring, outweighs most small cities. It is joined by the medieval Binnenhof, the Peace Palace, the Kunstmuseum's Mondrians, Escher's palace and Panorama Mesdag, enough for two or three full days.

Brighton has one sight of that standing, the Royal Pavilion, with its domes and chinoiserie interiors. After that it comes down to the Regency crescents of Kemptown and Hove, the West Pier's skeleton and the alleys of the Lanes. It is a city for looking at buildings rather than visiting galleries.

Here Brighton is far ahead. Students, young residents and London weekenders keep pubs and bars full every night. Kemptown's LGBTQ+ scene is one of Britain's oldest, and the arches and West Street run until the small hours, with gentler craft-beer rooms in the North Laine.

An evening in The Hague means terrace drinks on the Plein, a livelier weekend crowd around the Grote Markt and beach-pavilion sundowners in summer. Anyone wanting a real club night takes the train to Rotterdam or Amsterdam.

Brighton has the stronger outdoors. The chalk grassland of the South Downs starts at the city's edge, with walking and mountain biking along the South Downs Way and at Devil's Dyke. The white cliffs of the Seven Sisters and Beachy Head are under an hour east.

The Hague is entirely flat. Its green escapes are the dune country of Meijendel and the Westduinpark and the old Haagse Bos forest near the centre. They are best explored by bicycle along the coast, and pleasant rather than dramatic.

Both are excellent bases, and The Hague edges ahead because so much lies so close. Delft and Leiden are a quarter of an hour away, Rotterdam and Gouda not much further, and Amsterdam, Haarlem, Utrecht, Kinderdijk's windmills and the Keukenhof bulb fields are all within the hour.

Brighton's ace is London, about an hour by fast train. Beyond that come Lewes and Arundel castles, Chichester's cathedral, medieval Rye and the battlefield at Battle. The Sussex country houses and vineyards are easier by car than by rail.

The Hague is the easier family base. Madurodam's miniature Netherlands is made for children, and Scheveningen offers sand to dig in alongside its sea aquarium. Museon, the Duinrell water park and flat, calm streets with tram access for pushchairs make the rest simple.

Brighton gives a classic seaside day out with the Palace Pier rides, the Victorian aquarium and Volk's Electric Railway. But shingle beats sandcastles, the climb to the station is hard work with a pushchair, and the centre turns rowdy late at weekends.

Both are easy without a car, but in different ways. Brighton is a walking city, with the station, Lanes, Pavilion and sea all close together. The hills behind the centre make the return trip a climb, and dense buses fill the gaps.

The Hague is flat and more spread out. Trams link the Binnenhof to Scheveningen and Madurodam, and separate cycle lanes make a hired bike the natural way to see it.

Neither city is a destination for luxury labels, but each rewards browsing differently. Brighton's North Laine is all vintage clothing, records, retro furniture and alternative fashion, with jewellers and antique dealers in the Lanes.

The Hague is more polished. It has galleries, interior shops and boutiques along the Denneweg and Noordeinde and the 1880s glass-roofed Passage. The Haagse Markt, piled with fabrics and spices, has more character than anything in Brighton's chain-store streets.

Both are expensive, and the savings come from timing. Brighton's rooms cost most on summer weekends and ease midweek and in winter. The Hague works the other way round in its centre: hotels fill with government travellers from Monday to Thursday and are easier to find at weekends.

Once there, Brighton's free seafront, piers and Downs keep costs down, though train fares add up over several day trips. In The Hague, Indonesian and Surinamese eateries and picnics from the Haagse Markt stretch a budget further.

The two are broadly matched but strong in different areas. Brighton's draw is volume and variety. The May Festival and Fringe fill the town for weeks, and there is a deep circuit of pub-room gigs, comedy, the Dome and the Theatre Royal, with Glyndebourne's opera close by in summer.

The Hague's highlight is Nederlands Dans Theater at home, backed by the Residentie Orkest and early-music concerts from the Royal Conservatory. Much of its theatre is in Dutch, so non-Dutch speakers will find more to see in Brighton's comedy and gigs.

The Hague is the better place to unwind. Its large Dutch sauna complexes, with steam rooms, cold plunges, gardens and massage, are built for whole days, though nudity is usually the rule. The quiet streets of the diplomatic city help just as much.

Brighton has no such tradition beyond a few spas and the dawn sea swimmers warming up in seafront saunas. Its restful side shows only midweek out of season, on Hove's lawns or out in the Downs villages.