Bristol or Rotterdam?

Rotterdam has a real beach and Bristol does not. Hoek van Holland is a wide North Sea strand backed by dunes, with ships passing close offshore, and the metro takes you there directly. The wind and cool water mean it is mostly for walks and summer weekends rather than long swims.

Bristol sits on the muddy, silt-brown Severn estuary, where the huge tides make even Weston-super-Mare's sands awkward for bathing. Its best water is the Victorian marine lake at Clevedon, and it suits cold-water dippers far better than sunbathers.

Both cities eat well without a cuisine to call their own, but the flavour differs. In Bristol, the interest lies in independents: the covered stalls of St Nicholas Market, container kitchens on the harbourside, bakeries along Gloucester Road and West Country produce. Drinking is the local part, from scrumpy and old cider houses to warehouse taprooms.

Rotterdam's food reflects its port and its migrants. Surinamese roti, Turkish bakeries and Indonesian and Cape Verdean kitchens cluster around the Witte de Withstraat and the Nieuwe Binnenweg, and the Markthal gathers stalls under its painted vault.

The two are evenly matched, but one is about the past and the other about rebuilding. Bristol's sights are trading-port and Victorian ones: the SS Great Britain in its dry dock, the Clifton Suspension Bridge over Georgian crescents, and St Mary Redcliffe. Banksy's early street art adds a modern layer.

Rotterdam lost its old centre in 1940 and is now visited for modern architecture: the Erasmus Bridge, the Cube Houses, the mirrored Depot Boijmans and the towers of the Kop van Zuid. Old Rotterdam survives mainly in Delfshaven.

Bristol is the better night out. The sound-system culture behind trip hop, drum and bass and dubstep still fills warehouses and railway arches around Temple Meads, and a large student population keeps things going through the week. Stokes Croft adds scruffier, creative bars.

Rotterdam's bar streets around the Witte de Withstraat and the Oude Haven are pleasant but low-key. Its clubs are the strong point: this is the home of gabber, and its harbour techno nights draw people from across the country. On ordinary weeknights, though, the centre goes quiet early.

Bristol has much more to offer outdoors. Inside the city you have the Downs, the limestone cliffs of the Avon Gorge, Leigh Woods and the deer park at Ashton Court, plus a traffic-free railway path to Bath. Beyond them are the caves of Cheddar, the Wye Valley and proper upland walking in the Brecon Beacons and on Exmoor.

Rotterdam's outdoors is flat and made by people. You cycle along dykes into the polders, sail on the lake in the Kralingse Bos, or canoe and watch birds among the willow islands of the Biesbosch. It is pleasant but has no hills.

Both cities make excellent bases, and Rotterdam has a slight edge because of the dense Dutch rail network. Delft and The Hague are minutes away, and Amsterdam, Utrecht, Leiden and Haarlem are all an easy day by fast train, with Antwerp, Bruges and Ghent to the south. The windmills of Kinderdijk can be reached by water bus.

From Bristol, Bath is just as close and Cardiff is under an hour by train. Wells, Glastonbury, the Cotswold villages, Stonehenge and Avebury are best reached with a car.

Rotterdam is the easier family city. Its flat streets, wide pavements and trams take the strain out of moving around with small children. Blijdorp is one of the best zoos in the Netherlands, and the Maritime Museum has a hands-on harbour area. Madurodam is a short train ride away, and the Efteling theme park is about an hour away by car.

Bristol is welcoming too, with the SS Great Britain, the We The Curious science centre and the aquarium on the harbourside, all linked by little ferries. Its steep hills are hard work with a pushchair, though, and there is no large theme park nearby.

Rotterdam is far easier to get around. Metro, trams and buses share one tap-in system, water taxis cross the Maas, the metro runs all the way to the beach, and there are separate cycle paths almost everywhere. The postwar centre is spread out, but a tram is always close.

Bristol's core is compact enough to walk, and yellow ferries cross the Floating Harbour. However, the climb to Clifton is steep, and with no metro or tram, anything further out depends on buses that get stuck in traffic.

There is little between them. Rotterdam has the tidier high street, with the pedestrian Lijnbaan, the Beurstraverse and the Bijenkorf all close together, and a large market on the Binnenrotte. Its vintage and design shops are on the Meent and the Nieuwe Binnenweg.

Bristol's chains sit in Cabot Circus and Broadmead, but its character is on Gloucester Road, a long run of independent record shops, delis and vintage clothes shops, and in the Georgian arcades of Clifton Village. Neither city is a place for luxury labels.

Neither city is cheap, but you save money in different places. In Bristol, most of the main museums and churches are free and the compact centre saves on fares, but hotels fill up and get dearer at weekends.

Rotterdam is the reverse: hotels in business districts empty out at weekends, while restaurants, beer and coffee cost the high Dutch norm. Its inexpensive trains also make it a sensible base for the wider region.

The two are level, but strong in different ways. Rotterdam has the bigger classical and jazz offer: its Philharmonic plays a full season at De Doelen, and the North Sea Jazz Festival fills a July weekend with hundreds of acts. Much of its theatre is in Dutch.

Bristol is better for theatre in English and grassroots gigs. The Georgian Bristol Old Vic produces its own work, the Tobacco Factory stages Shakespeare, and small venues around Stokes Croft and Old Market have bands most nights.

Neither city is built for slowing down, but each offers a different way to bathe. From Bristol, Bath's naturally hot springs are a quarter of an hour away by train, and at home you have the heated Victorian lido in Clifton and cold dips in the Severn tidal pools.

Rotterdam's version is the Dutch sauna complex, with saunas, steam rooms and outdoor pools on the edge of the city. The sauna areas are usually textile-free, so check the house rules before you go.