Bruges or The Hague?

Both cities face the same cold North Sea, but The Hague has its beach inside the city. Scheveningen, with its pier and summer pavilions, is a short tram ride from the centre, and Kijkduin further south is calmer, so an evening on the sand fits easily into any warm day.

From Bruges, the coast means a train to Blankenberge and then the coast tram along the wide sandy shore. That makes a pleasant half-day out rather than part of daily life. In both places the water rarely gets much above 18°C, so swims are short.

Bruges has the more rewarding food and drink, mainly because of its beer. Brown cafés pour long lists of Trappist and abbey ales, and with them come mussels and frites, beef stewed in beer, waterzooi and chocolate in every street. Avoid the set-menu restaurants on the main squares and eat on the side streets instead.

The Hague's strength is narrower but real. Its Indonesian cooking, from a full rijsttafel to plates of rendang and sate, comes from its long ties with the former Dutch East Indies and is among the best outside Indonesia. Apart from that, and herring from the street carts in early summer, the Dutch cooking is plain.

Bruges is the stronger city for sightseeing because the whole centre is the attraction. There are canals, guildhalls, the Belfry, the Burg and the Begijnhof, with van Eyck and Memling in the Groeninge Museum and St John's Hospital and a Michelangelo in the Church of Our Lady. It is small, though, and in summer day-trippers crowd it by late morning.

The Hague is stately rather than picturesque. Its highlights are separate institutions: the Binnenhof, the Mauritshuis with Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring, the Peace Palace, the Kunstmuseum's Mondrians and the Panorama Mesdag. They are spread across a city of embassy streets rather than gathered in one historic core.

Neither city is known for its nights out, but The Hague has more to do after dinner. There are terraces on the Plein and student bars around the Grote Markt, and in summer the beach pavilions at Scheveningen, where sundowners turn into dancing. For a proper club night, Rotterdam and Amsterdam are a short train ride away.

Bruges is quieter still. An evening there means strong ales in a brown café or cellar bar near the Eiermarkt, then a walk along the lit canals, and on weeknights most of the town is asleep by midnight.

The Hague has more varied outdoors on its doorstep. To the north are the dunes, woods and ponds of Meijendel, the Westduinpark runs along the shore, and the old Haagse Bos forest reaches almost into the centre. Add beach walks in any season and kitesurfing when the wind is up.

Around Bruges the land is open polder, made for easy cycling along the canal towpath to Damme, and the Zwin salt marsh near Knokke is good for birds. Both are entirely flat, so neither suits anyone looking for hills.

From Bruges the trips are Flemish and historic. Ghent and its Van Eyck altarpiece are under half an hour away, Brussels and Antwerp a little further, and the First World War memorials around Ypres about an hour. Lille, across the French border, adds a second country.

The Hague's neighbours are packed even closer together. Delft and Leiden are minutes away, Rotterdam and Gouda not much further, and Amsterdam, Haarlem and Utrecht all within an hour. You can visit Kinderdijk's windmills in any season, and in spring there are also the bulb fields and the Keukenhof gardens near Lisse.

The Hague is the easier choice with children. Madurodam's miniature Netherlands, the beach, pier and sea aquarium at Scheveningen, the hands-on Museon and Duinrell's water park fill several full days, and trams take pushchairs easily.

Bruges appeals to younger children with its canal boats, horse-drawn carriages, the swans on the Minnewater and Boudewijn Seapark. Beyond those, its main sights are paintings and churches, and pushing a pushchair over the cobbles is hard work.

Both are easy without a car, but in different ways. Bruges is a walking town where everything lies inside the canal ring, about half an hour across on foot, although the cobbles are hard on ankles and suitcases.

The Hague's centre can be walked too, but the beach, Madurodam and the Peace Palace are further out, so you depend more on its trams and cycle lanes. Its two stations make Delft and Rotterdam as easy to reach as a suburb.

The Hague has more worth browsing. Antique dealers, galleries and boutiques line the Denneweg and Noordeinde, the glass-roofed Passage dates from the 1880s, and the Haagse Markt, one of Europe's biggest open-air markets, is piled with fabrics, spices and produce.

In Bruges, most of the shopping is for things to eat or drink at home: pralines, and Belgian beers with their matching glasses. Bobbin lace is the local craft, but much of the lace on sale near the Markt is imported.

Hotels in Bruges cost the most at weekends and in summer, so staying midweek near the station and eating away from the Markt saves the most. The old town is free to walk, and the beer is fair value for its quality.

The Hague turns that pattern round. Government and business travellers fill its central hotels from Monday to Thursday, so weekends outside the beach season are the better time to book. Its Indonesian and Surinamese eateries also serve a filling plate for much less than a sit-down Dutch meal.

The Hague has much more on stage, above all because Nederlands Dans Theater is based there. The Residentie Orkest gives a full concert season, the Royal Conservatory adds regular student and early-music concerts, and summer brings festivals by the beach. Much of the theatre is in Dutch, though.

Bruges has its Concertgebouw, strong in early and chamber music, a summer festival of early music and the Belfry carillon playing over the rooftops. For a wider choice of evenings, most people go to Ghent or Brussels.

Bruges offers quiet hours rather than a bathing culture. The canals, the Begijnhof and the Minnewater are peaceful in the early morning and the evening, and the Sint-Anna streets stay calm even at midday, but for treatments there are only hotel and day spas.

The Hague has the Dutch sauna: large complexes built for a whole day among steam rooms, plunge pools and gardens, with nudity usually the rule. Around them is an orderly city with few crowds outside summer weekends, so unwinding there does not depend on the time of day.