Bristol or The Hague?

Neither city is a swimming destination, but only The Hague has a real beach. Bristol stands on the muddy, silt-brown Severn estuary. Weston-super-Mare's sand comes with a tide that retreats a very long way, so the nearest good dip is a cold one in Clevedon's Victorian marine lake.

Scheveningen is a long, wide sandy beach a quarter of an hour from the centre by tram, with a pier, summer pavilions and deckchairs. Kijkduin is quieter, with dunes behind it. The North Sea stays cold and choppy, so expect to sunbathe and take a quick plunge rather than swim, but a warm afternoon on the sand is easy here in a way it never is in Bristol.

Bristol gives you more range. St Nicholas Market's covered stalls, the container kitchens on the harbourside and the bakeries and neighbourhood restaurants along Gloucester Road and North Street make it a good city for grazing. Its West Country cider and warehouse taprooms give the drinking a local character.

The Hague has one thing Bristol cannot match: Indonesian cooking of rare quality, from a full rijsttafel to simple plates of rendang. Beyond that, brown cafés on the Denneweg, herring carts and the fish places by Scheveningen harbour are pleasant but plain, and the overall choice is narrower.

The Hague is the richer city for art. The Mauritshuis holds Girl with a Pearl Earring and Rembrandt's Anatomy Lesson, right beside the medieval Binnenhof. Add the Kunstmuseum's Mondrians, Escher in a former royal palace, the Panorama Mesdag and the Peace Palace, and there is far more on the walls than in Bristol.

Bristol's sights are about the port it was and the engineering it produced. Brunel's SS Great Britain and his Clifton Suspension Bridge stand out, with St Mary Redcliffe, Georgian Clifton and M Shed's honest account of the slave trade around them. Banksy's early street art in Stokes Croft adds something The Hague has no equivalent for.

This is where the two cities are furthest apart. Bristol's going-out culture shaped trip hop and drum and bass. Its clubs fill warehouses and railway arches near Temple Meads and along the harbour, its students keep weekends busy all year, and Stokes Croft adds scruffy, creative late bars.

The Hague goes out politely. Civil servants fill the terraces on the Plein after work, the Grote Markt bars get busy at weekends, and in summer the beach pavilions turn sundowners into dancing. Beyond that, people take the train to Rotterdam or Amsterdam.

Bristol has more varied country on its doorstep. Climbers use the limestone cliffs of the Avon Gorge, Leigh Woods and Ashton Court have woodland and bike trails, and the railway path runs traffic-free towards Bath. Within an hour or two you reach the caves of Cheddar Gorge, the Mendips, the Wye Valley and proper uplands in the Brecon Beacons and Exmoor.

The Hague's outdoors is all coast and dune. Meijendel's sand hills, woods and ponds, the old Haagse Bos forest and long beach walks make it easy to get out, and the wind brings kitesurfers, but the land is flat and the walking stays gentle.

Both cities make excellent bases, and The Hague has the edge because so much is packed so close together by rail. Delft and Leiden are about fifteen minutes away, Rotterdam and Gouda not much further, and Amsterdam, Haarlem and Utrecht all within an hour. Kinderdijk's windmills and the spring bulb fields round out the list.

Bristol's best trips are just as rewarding but more spread out. Bath is only a quarter of an hour by train and Cardiff under an hour. Wells, Glastonbury, the Cotswold villages and Stonehenge are better reached by car, and they make for fuller, more rural days.

The Hague is easier with children. Madurodam's miniature Netherlands is a guaranteed hit, the beach and sea aquarium sit together at Scheveningen, and Duinrell's rides and water park are just outside town. Flat streets, playgrounds and trams that take pushchairs keep the logistics simple.

Bristol is welcoming too. The SS Great Britain, the hands-on science centre We The Curious and the aquarium cluster on the harbourside, and little ferries link them. The wildlife park and the Downs give children space outdoors, but steep hills and the lack of a theme park count against it.

The Hague is much easier to get around. Trams run frequently from the compact centre to the beach, Madurodam and the Peace Palace, cycle lanes are almost everywhere, and two stations put Delft, Leiden and Rotterdam within suburban reach.

Bristol's old city and harbourside are walkable, and the yellow ferries are a pleasant way to cross the water. But the climb to Clifton is steep, and with no tram or metro, anywhere further out means buses stuck in traffic.

Neither city is worth the trip for shopping alone, but each suits a different kind of browser. Bristol is better for digging: Gloucester Road's long independent stretch is the place to hunt for second-hand records and vintage clothes, and the market in the old Exchange mixes curios with lunch. Clifton's Georgian arcades make a gentler hour among small galleries.

The Hague has a slight edge for a more polished afternoon. Its antique dealers and interior shops near the Noordeinde palace, the covered 1880s Passage and the smarter labels around the Hoogstraat are for looking at fine things, while the huge Haagse Markt, piled with fabrics and spices from the city's many communities, is a sight in itself. Both cities keep their chains on the main streets, and neither has much luxury shopping.

Both cities are expensive, and the savings come in different ways. In Bristol, most of the main museums and churches are free and the centre is easy to cover on foot, but hotels climb at weekends.

The Hague works the other way round. Business travellers leave on Thursday, so central rooms are often easier at weekends, and Indonesian and Surinamese eateries, market picnics and a hired bike keep daily costs down.

The two are evenly matched, but they offer different things. For English speakers, Bristol's theatre is the bigger draw. The Georgian Old Vic is the oldest continuously working theatre in the English-speaking world and produces its own work, the Tobacco Factory stages Shakespeare, and small venues host bands, jazz and electronic acts most nights.

The Hague's strength is dance. Seeing Nederlands Dans Theater at home is the highlight, the Residentie Orkest gives a full symphony season, and the conservatory adds early music. Much of its drama is in Dutch, though, and neither city has a resident opera company.

Bristol's best way to unwind is a short train ride away, while The Hague's is in its own sauna complexes. From Bristol, Bath is a quarter of an hour by train, and its rooftop thermal spa above the abbey lets you bathe in Britain's only natural hot springs. In Bristol itself, the heated Victorian lido behind Clifton's terraces makes a restful half day, and cold-water swimmers use the tidal pools on the Severn coast.

The Hague's answer is the Dutch sauna: large complexes of saunas, steam rooms, plunge pools and gardens built for spending a whole day, where nudity is usually the rule. The city itself is calmer too, with quiet embassy streets and little noise late at night, while Bristol's pace is creative and sociable.