Brussels or Haarlem?

Neither city is a place for a swimming vacation, but Haarlem has the coast right next door. Zandvoort's long sandy beach is ten minutes away by train, and the dune-backed strand at Bloemendaal aan Zee is a short bike ride, so you can decide on a beach afternoon that morning.

From Brussels, the sand at Ostend or Knokke is more than an hour away by train. That turns it into a planned day out, and the sea at the end is the same cool, windy North Sea. In the city itself, swimming means the Art Deco indoor pools.

Brussels is much the stronger place to eat. Mussels, carbonnade and waterzooi sit alongside sour lambics brewed only in this corner of Belgium, chocolatiers line the Sablon, and Matonge and Saint-Gilles add range that a smaller town cannot match.

Haarlem eats well but simply. There is herring and cheese from the Saturday market, good craft beer on tap, and pleasant bistros around the Grote Markt. Expect solid meals rather than a reason to travel.

Brussels has more to see and bigger collections: Bruegel, Rubens and Magritte on the upper-town hill, the Grand-Place, the Cinquantenaire museums, and Horta's Art Nouveau houses in Saint-Gilles and Ixelles. The weakness is everything in between, where grand quarters give way to dull office blocks.

Haarlem is the opposite case. It has fewer headline sights, but the gabled streets, canals and hidden hofjes around St Bavo are whole, and walking them is half the pleasure. Frans Hals and Teylers' oval room fill two unhurried days rather than a week.

Brussels gives a much fuller night out. Drinkers crowd the streets around Saint-Géry and the Bourse, Flagey and Châtelain draw a local crowd, there is a queer scene on Rue du Marché au Charbon, and a Marolles techno club brings in DJs from across Europe.

Haarlem's evenings are a few relaxed rounds in the brown cafés around the Grote Markt and the Botermarkt, and they end well before dawn. For anything bigger, you take the train to Amsterdam.

Haarlem has the better outdoors, and it starts right at the edge of town. Zuid-Kennemerland's dunes and woods, the water-supply dunes with their fallow deer, beach walks, kitesurfing and the spring bulb fields can all be reached by bike.

In Brussels, the beech stands of the Sonian Forest are a fine place to walk or cycle, and the Bois de la Cambre gives room for a run. For hills and kayaking, though, you have to travel south to the Meuse valley around Dinant.

Both cities make outstanding bases, so the choice comes down to which country you want to explore. From Brussels it is Belgium's art towns: Ghent and the Van Eyck altarpiece, Bruges, Antwerp's Rubens house and Mechelen. High-speed trains also put Paris within reach for a day.

From Haarlem it is Dutch cities: Amsterdam in a quarter of an hour, Leiden, the Mauritshuis in The Hague, and Delft. Windmills, Alkmaar's cheese market and the Keukenhof gardens add a more rural strand.

Families do about equally well in both, but in different ways. Brussels has the ready-made attractions: the Atomium and Mini-Europe, the Iguanodon hall at the Natural Sciences museum, comic murals, and Walibi and Pairi Daiza within easy reach. The trade-off is heavy traffic and cobbled pavements.

Haarlem has almost nothing built for children. What it offers is ease: a small, flat, mostly car-free centre, a local culture that welcomes kids, and dunes and beach for running off energy. For zoos or science museums, you go to Amsterdam.

Haarlem is the easier of the two. You can cross the flat centre on foot in twenty minutes, the station is at its edge, and separate bike paths run out to the dunes and the beach.

Brussels needs more effort. The core sights are close together, but the climb from the lower to the upper town is steep, and the trams and metro do the work for Ixelles and Saint-Gilles. A car is a burden in either city, and more so in Brussels.

The two are broadly level, but they shop differently. Brussels is the place for things with a local story: chocolatiers in the Galeries Royales and the Sablon, antiques, the morning flea market on Place du Jeu de Balle, and Belgian designers on Rue Antoine Dansaert. It also has luxury brands on Avenue Louise.

Haarlem has no luxury street. Instead, a tight cluster of lanes off the Grote Markt is packed with independent boutiques, design shops and delicatessens, which makes for a pleasant browsing afternoon.

Neither city is cheap, but Brussels goes a little further. Its business hotels empty at weekends, and frites and the cooking in the immigrant neighbourhoods keep daily spending modest.

Haarlem has few hotels for the number of visitors, so rooms are small for what they cost and fill early in tulip season. Train fares for regular outings and museum tickets also add up, even if getting around town costs almost nothing.

Brussels is a real music and stage capital. La Monnaie stages adventurous opera, the national orchestra plays at Bozar, the Queen Elisabeth Competition is a fixture of the classical year, and dance and theatre run in both French and Dutch.

Haarlem's programme is good for its size, with chamber music at the Philharmonie and theatre at the Stadsschouwburg. Its real strength is the organ, with concerts on St Bavo's great instrument and a long-standing international festival.

Haarlem is the more restful stay, mainly because of its pace: quiet canals after dark, long terrace afternoons and cycling in the dunes. The Dutch sauna culture adds large spa complexes in the surrounding region.

In Brussels, the options are a few hammams kept by the North African community and some hotel spas. Calm comes in pieces there, from a long lunch or a walk in the Sonian Forest, set against the traffic of a working capital.