Brussels or London?

Neither city is for a beach vacation, and both seas stay cool even at the end of summer. From Brussels, the wide sandy beaches of Ostend, De Haan and Knokke are a little over an hour by train. From London, Brighton's pebble beach and pier are about an hour away, and Margate and Whitstable offer sandier shores.

London comes out slightly ahead because of its swimming in the city. The lidos at Brockwell Park and Parliament Hill and the Hampstead Heath ponds make open-air swimming part of local life. In Brussels you swim mostly in the handsome Art Deco indoor pools, plus a few open-air basins in summer.

Brussels is the place for a national cuisine: mussels, carbonnade stewed in beer, waterzooi and shrimp croquettes, together with lambics and gueuzes brewed only in and around the city, and pralines from the Sablon chocolatiers. Its immigrant quarters add real range, with Congolese food in Matonge and Moroccan and Turkish cooking in Saint-Josse.

London eats better overall because of sheer breadth. Bangladeshi cooking on Brick Lane, Punjabi food in Southall, Turkish grills on Green Lanes and Caribbean kitchens south of the river sit alongside a serious fine-dining scene, and Borough Market and the weekend markets in old railway arches add much of the pleasure. Eating well there is easy but rarely cheap.

Brussels has one supreme set piece in the Grand-Place, plus the Royal Museums of Fine Arts with their Bruegels, the Magritte museum and the UNESCO-listed Horta houses that made the city a cradle of Art Nouveau. Two or three days cover it well, though office blocks break up the old fabric between the highlights.

London has far more, and most of it is free: the British Museum, the National Gallery, the V&A and both Tates, then a thousand years of landmarks from the Tower and Westminster Abbey to Wren's St Paul's and Greenwich. A week there still leaves most of it unseen.

Brussels does an easy, sociable night in the bar. Drinkers fill the streets around Saint-Géry, Place Flagey has a local crowd, and the wood-panelled taverns pour strong ales and lambics until late. There is one respected techno club in the Marolles, but the city is lively rather than all-night.

London offers far more choice and keeps going later at weekends. Soho is dense and late, Shoreditch, Hackney and Dalston carry the clubs and warehouse parties, and Brixton and Peckham have big venues and rooftop bars. Thousands of pubs sit underneath it all, though many still close around eleven.

Brussels has one great green asset in the Sonian Forest, whose tall beech stands sit on the city's edge, along with the Bois de la Cambre and the Woluwe ponds. Beyond that the land is flat, and real hills mean the Ardennes valleys around Dinant, a trip of nearly two hours.

London has more green space within the city and more within easy reach. Richmond Park, with its deer and ancient oaks, the hilltop views from Hampstead Heath, Kew's gardens and the Thames Path give plenty of walking without leaving town, and the Chilterns and the Downs are about an hour by train.

Both are superb bases, and the difference is in where the trains take you. From Brussels the outings cross borders easily: Ghent, Bruges and Antwerp are within an hour, and Paris, Cologne and Amsterdam can all be done in a long day.

From London the outings stay in England but vary widely, from the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge and the Georgian crescents of Bath to Windsor Castle, Canterbury Cathedral, Stonehenge and the Brighton seafront.

Brussels does better with children than its image suggests. The Iguanodon herd at the Natural Sciences museum, the Atomium beside Mini-Europe and the comic-hero murals all go down well. Cobbled pavements, heavy traffic and rainy days are the drawbacks.

London has more to offer. The Natural History and Science Museums and the Young V&A are free, as are the parks with their boating lakes and the pirate-ship playground in Kensington Gardens, and the zoo sits in Regent's Park. The cost is long distances, stairs at many Tube stations and crowds during school vacations.

In Brussels the sights you want are mostly a short walk apart, with one steep climb from the lower town up to the Mont des Arts and the royal quarter. Trams cover the rest, and the main stations link straight to the airport.

London's network is far more extensive. The Underground, the Elizabeth line, buses and Thames riverboats all run on one contactless card, and the centre from Westminster to the South Bank is pleasant on foot. You will need it, though, because the city is huge and crossing it takes time.

Brussels rewards browsing on a small scale. Its strengths are the chocolatiers of the Galeries Royales and the Sablon, antiques and the Jeu de Balle flea market in the Marolles, and Belgian designers on Rue Antoine Dansaert, but it lacks depth in big-name fashion.

London is one of the world's great shopping cities. It has luxury houses on Bond Street, bespoke tailoring on Savile Row, historic department stores such as Liberty and Fortnum & Mason, and independents in Marylebone and Seven Dials. Portobello Road, Columbia Road and the bookshops of Charing Cross Road add weekend browsing on top.

Brussels is not cheap, but it is clearly the cheaper of the two. Hotels aimed at EU business travellers empty out at weekends and become good value, and frites, beer and the immigrant neighbourhoods keep everyday spending down.

London is expensive in almost every way: small, costly central rooms, pricey meals and theatre seats, and high fares. The big saving is that the national museums and the parks are free, so days built around them help a great deal.

Brussels has a stage life worth planning an evening around. La Monnaie is known for bold, often experimental opera, the national orchestra plays in Horta's Bozar, and the Art Deco Flagey building is prized for its sound. Its particular strength is contemporary dance and theatre staged in both French and Dutch, and an old marionette theatre still puts on folk plays in the local dialect.

London works on a different scale. Its theatre alone could fill a week: musicals and star-led plays in the West End, the National Theatre, the Globe and small stages above pubs. Opera, ballet and concerts are just as deep, with the Royal Opera House, several major orchestras, the Wigmore Hall and the summer Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. Brussels gives you a few adventurous stages to choose from, while in London you can find something good in almost every form on any night you arrive.

Neither is a place to unwind. Brussels has no bathing tradition beyond a few North African hammams and hotel spas, and the town of Spa is a long way off towards the Ardennes. Its slower pleasures are a long lunch or a café terrace in Ixelles.

London has slightly more. Its surviving Victorian and Edwardian Turkish baths in Bayswater and at Ironmonger Row have tiled steam rooms, the grand hotels run full spas, and cold dips at the lidos and ponds have a following. The Roman city of Bath, with its thermal spa, is about an hour and a half away by train.