Bruges or Frankfurt?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Bruges at least has the sea close by. Blankenberge is about fifteen minutes away by train, and the coast tram runs past a long line of wide, sandy beaches. The North Sea stays cool and windy, so plan on a paddle and a walk along the promenade on a sunny August afternoon.

Frankfurt is a full day's travel from any coast. In summer people swim in outdoor pools and in lakes on the edge of the city such as the Langener Waldsee, which has sandy shores and warms up nicely. It makes a good local outing, but it's no substitute for the seaside.

The food is about as good in both cities, but it's built around different drinks. In Bruges it's beer, with long Trappist and abbey lists in wood-panelled cafés, alongside mussels and frites, beef stewed in beer and a chocolate shop on every corner. The catch is the set menus on the main squares, so you eat better a few streets away.

Frankfurt's local cooking happens in Sachsenhausen's apple-wine taverns, where you share long tables over Grüne Soße and tart cider, and the Kleinmarkthalle is good for sausages and cheese. It also has a wider international mix, from Turkish grills to cheap global food in the Bahnhofsviertel.

Bruges has the stronger sights, because the setting itself is the attraction. Its whole canal-ringed centre of brick guildhalls, the Belfry, the Burg and the Begijnhof survives intact. The art is just as good: van Eyck in the Groeninge, Memling in St John's Hospital and Michelangelo in the Church of Our Lady.

Frankfurt has more museums but less atmosphere. The Museumsufer lines both banks of the Main, with the Städel as its star, but the Römer and the old-town lanes were rebuilt after the destruction of 1944, under a skyline of towers. Bruges is the more memorable of the two, though two days covers it.

Frankfurt is clearly the better city for a night out. It has a serious techno and house scene rooted in its electronic-music history, cocktail bars and late kiosks in the gritty Bahnhofsviertel, relaxed bars along Berger Straße, and summer crowds drinking on the Main riverbanks. Like any working city, it really gets going on Fridays and Saturdays.

In Bruges an evening means a long session over strong ales in a brown café or vaulted cellar, perhaps around the Eiermarkt, followed by a walk along the lit canals. A couple of small clubs open at weekends, but most of the town is asleep by midnight.

Frankfurt has much better countryside on its doorstep. The beech-covered Taunus hills rise just beyond the suburbs, with Roman frontier trails and mountain-bike routes up to the Großer Feldberg. The Stadtwald forest lies within the city, and the Rheingau vineyards and the Rhine Gorge give the best scenery in the area.

Bruges is surrounded by flat polder land, with big skies and poplar-lined canals. That's ideal for an easy ride to Damme or birdwatching at the Zwin salt marsh, but there are no hills or forests to explore.

Both are excellent bases, and the difference is in where you go. From Bruges the trips are mostly to Flemish cities: Ghent in under half an hour, then Brussels, Antwerp and Mechelen, plus the coast and the First World War memorials around Ypres.

From Frankfurt you get more variety of scenery: castles and wine villages along the Rhine Gorge, Heidelberg's castle ruin, Cologne cathedral by high-speed train, and Würzburg's baroque Residenz. Choose Bruges for art cities, and Frankfurt for river landscapes and a wider spread of Germany.

Frankfurt is the easier city with children. The dinosaur hall at the Senckenberg, the central zoo, the Palmengarten's glasshouses and boat trips past the skyline fill several days. Trams and the S-Bahn take pushchairs without trouble.

Bruges charms younger children with canal boats, horse-drawn carriages, the swans on the Minnewater and Boudewijn Seapark, and the beach for sandcastles is close. Beyond that, though, the city is mostly churches and paintings, and pushchairs struggle on the cobbles and in the summer crowds.

Both cities are easy to get around without a car, in different ways. Bruges is a place to walk and cycle: the flat, mostly car-free old town fits inside its canal ring, and you can cross it in about half an hour. The cobbles are hard on suitcases, and the station is a short bus ride from the Markt.

Frankfurt's centre is also compact, but it relies on an integrated U-Bahn, S-Bahn and tram network that reaches as far as Wiesbaden and the Taunus. The airport is about a quarter of an hour from town by train. The fare zones take some learning.

Chocolate and beer are what most people take home from Bruges. Chocolate makers line street after street, and specialist shops sell bottles and glasses from breweries all over Belgium. Much of the lace around the Markt is imported, Steenstraat and Noordzandstraat are mostly chains, and the Saturday market on 't Zand and the Dijver flea market are for a pleasant browse rather than serious buying.

Frankfurt is the better city for actually going shopping. The Zeil has the department stores and big malls, the luxury fashion and jewellery houses are on Goethestraße, and Berger Straße and Schweizer Straße have independent boutiques, delis and design shops. Neither city has a speciality worth planning a trip around.

Both are expensive, mostly because of hotel prices, but the cheap times are opposite. Bruges hotels charge the most at weekends and in summer, when visitors fill the canal ring, so a midweek stay or a room near the station saves the most.

Frankfurt's rooms are priced for business travellers, so weekends and summer are often cheaper, and trade-fair weeks are the ones to avoid. Cheap meals are easier to find there too, at cider taverns and Turkish grills.

For an evening of performance, Frankfurt is in a different league. It has one of Germany's most respected opera companies, the Alte Oper as its grand concert hall, serious drama at the Schauspiel, contemporary dance at Mousonturm and jazz in cellar clubs. Its main season runs from autumn to early summer.

Bruges is strong in one area: early music and chamber concerts at the Concertgebouw, plus its summer early-music festival, which takes place when Frankfurt's season is winding down. Otherwise there is the Stadsschouwburg and the Belfry carillon.

Frankfurt has a real spa tradition close by, even though the city itself doesn't. Wiesbaden's Art Nouveau Kaiser-Friedrich-Therme, fed by hot springs, and the thermal baths at Bad Homburg are both easy trips. In town, the Palmengarten is the calmest spot.

Bruges offers peace rather than treatments. Beyond a few hotel and day spas, the reward is the Begijnhof, the Minnewater and the Sint-Anna quarter early in the morning or after the tour groups leave, when the canals go quiet.