Bruges or Luxembourg?

Neither is a beach destination, but Bruges at least has the sea within reach. A short train to Blankenberge and the coast tram open up a long line of wide, sandy North Sea beaches. The water is cool and often windy, so the coast suits paddling and promenade walks more than swimming.

Luxembourg has no coast at all, only lakes: the Upper Sûre reservoir about an hour north and the old gravel pits at Remerschen. The lake water is a touch warmer in high summer, but it makes a hot-day escape, not a seaside.

Bruges has a slight edge, and most of the difference is in the glass. The city is built around Belgian beer, poured in wood-panelled cafés alongside mussels with frites, beef stewed in beer and chocolate in shop after shop. The main squares serve set menus to day-trippers, though, so the better cooking is on the side streets.

Luxembourg pours Moselle Riesling and crémant instead, with French cooking in its better restaurants and long-running Portuguese and Italian neighbourhood places below them. Its fine dining is serious for a city its size, but cheap everyday eating is harder to find, and lunch is the meal to eat out.

Bruges is the richer cultural trip. The whole canal-ringed centre is medieval, from the Belfry over the Markt to the walled Begijnhof, and the art inside is world class: van Eyck at the Groeninge, Memling in St John's Hospital and a Michelangelo Madonna in the Church of Our Lady.

Luxembourg's draw is its dramatic setting rather than its collections. You get fortress ramparts and the Bock casemates above the Alzette gorge, the Grund quarter below, and the palace and national museum on the plateau, with MUDAM adding contemporary art on Kirchberg. Each city takes about two days, but Bruges fits far more into them.

Neither city keeps late hours, and the evenings they offer are quite different. Bruges is for a slow, seated night: strong Trappist and abbey ales in a wood-panelled café or a cellar bar, with students keeping a few places busy late around the Eiermarkt and 't Zand, then a quiet walk home beside the canals. Clubbing barely goes beyond a couple of small venues that fill at weekends.

Luxembourg gives you a little more choice and a younger, more international crowd, many of them working in finance or for the European institutions. The old brewery buildings of the Rives de Clausen down in the valley gather bars and a few clubs in one spot, the Grund has stone-built pubs by the river, and Hollerich, near the station, stays open latest. Its big nights come earlier in the week than in Bruges, on Thursday and Friday, because many residents leave town at weekends.

Luxembourg is clearly the better choice for time outdoors. Wooded gorges cut through the city itself. Half an hour away, the Müllerthal has mossy sandstone passages and beech forest on a long waymarked trail that splits into day stages, and further out the Ardennes hills and the Moselle cycle paths give plenty more.

Around Bruges the land is flat polder. That makes for easy cycling along the poplar-lined canal to Damme and birdwatching at the Zwin salt marsh, but it is not walking country.

Both make excellent bases, and Bruges is the stronger one. Ghent is under half an hour by train, Brussels about an hour and Antwerp a little further, so three major Flemish cities are within easy reach. Damme by bike, the coast and the First World War memorials around Ypres add more.

Luxembourg's strength is crossing borders. Roman Trier and Gothic Metz are each under an hour away by train. Within the country, Vianden's castle, Echternach and the Moselle wine villages make gentler outings, all reached by free buses.

For children the two are much alike: small, safe and calmer than a big capital, with enough for a few days rather than a week. Bruges has boat and carriage rides, swans at the Minnewater, the Boudewijn Seapark and sandcastles on the nearby coast, though the cobbles are hard work with a pushchair.

Luxembourg's adventure is the fortress, with tunnels in the rock and ramparts to explore, and lifts carry buggies down to the river. Its one attraction built for families is the small Parc Merveilleux at Bettembourg.

Both are easy without a car, but in different ways. Bruges is flat, so you can walk across the canal ring in about half an hour or cycle it as locals do. The cobbles are the one real nuisance.

Luxembourg is built on several levels, so public lifts and a funicular link the plateau to the river quarters. Trams, buses and trains are free across the whole country, which makes outings to the north or the Moselle very simple.

Neither city is worth a trip just for shopping, and the things to take home differ. Bruges sells chocolate, Belgian beer and bobbin lace, has chain stores on Steenstraat and holds a flea market along the Dijver. Luxembourg has more polish, with luxury labels on the Grand-Rue, a long-established porcelain outlet in Villeroy & Boch, and Moselle crémant as the best souvenir.

Bruges is clearly the cheaper of the two, though it is not a bargain. Rooms inside the canal ring cost most at weekends and in summer, and restaurants on the main squares charge a lot for ordinary food. Eating a few streets away from the Markt brings the bill down noticeably.

In Luxembourg both a bed and a meal cost considerably more. Hotels are priced for business travellers and the European institutions, and restaurants for a well-paid workforce, well above the Western European norm. Unlike in Bruges, weekends can bring lower room rates once the business trade has left. A lunch menu is the way to eat well for less, and several museums are free. Many visitors sleep in Trier or Metz and come in by train for the day.

Luxembourg has the broader programme. The Philharmonie on Kirchberg is home to the city's own orchestra and hosts touring soloists, the Grand Théâtre brings in opera and dance, and the Rotondes and the old abbey at Neimënster add concerts.

Bruges is more specialised. Its Concertgebouw and summer festival are known for early music, chamber music and contemporary dance, and the carillon rings over the rooftops, but there is no opera. For more choice, take the train to Ghent or Brussels.

Luxembourg has the edge thanks to Mondorf-les-Bains, a thermal spa set in parkland about half an hour away, and calm river walks through the Grund and the Pétrusse valley. Bruges has only hotel and day spas, though its canals, the Begijnhof and the Sint-Anna quarter are very peaceful early and late in the day, when the tour groups have gone.