Brussels or Maastricht?

Neither city is a place to swim, but Brussels at least has a real coast within reach. Ostend, De Haan and Knokke are a little over an hour away by train, with wide sands and promenades. The North Sea stays cool, though, so the day is more bracing than lazy.

From Maastricht the sea is a long day's journey, so summer swimming means the old gravel-pit lakes along the Maas, with small sandy shores and lifeguards. In town, Brussels also has its Art Deco indoor pools and open-air basins in summer.

Brussels eats on a much larger canvas. It has waterzooi and carbonnade, the lambics and gueuzes brewed only in and around the city and the praline makers of the Sablon. Add the Congolese, Moroccan and Turkish cooking of Matonge, Saint-Josse and Schaerbeek, and you get a range Maastricht does not try for.

Maastricht's table is Limburg: zuurvlees with fries, vlaai from the bakery, asparagus and game in season and white wine from the local hillsides, with fine dining that is strong for a city of its size. It is very good eating on a Vrijthof terrace, but the choice is narrow, with little street food and few cuisines from further afield.

Brussels has more sights worth a trip in their own right. It has the Grand-Place, the Flemish masters of the Royal Museums, the Magritte museum and Horta's Art Nouveau houses, with the Cinquantenaire collections and the Atomium on top. Its weakness is the setting, where grand quarters give way to office blocks.

Maastricht is the reverse: smaller in scale, but its age is everywhere. It has the Romanesque basilicas of Saint Servatius and Our Lady, the Helpoort and the walls along the Jeker, a 13th-century bridge and the guided tunnels of the Sint-Pietersberg. Two days cover it well, but nothing there rivals the Grand-Place as a reason to come.

In both towns a night out means bars more than clubs, but Brussels has more of everything. There are the drinkers around Saint-Géry and the Bourse and the more local crowds at Flagey and Châtelain. There is also a Marolles techno club that draws DJs from across Europe, and a queer scene around Rue du Marché au Charbon.

Maastricht's evenings are spent in brown cafés and on student-filled squares around the Markt and the Vrijthof. They are lively at weekends in term, but there are few clubs. Its one great party is carnival, when the whole city celebrates in the streets for days before Lent.

Maastricht has the more varied country on its doorstep. Paths climb the marl cliffs of the Sint-Pietersberg from the edge of town, the Jeker valley runs green into Belgium, and the sunken lanes and orchards of the Heuvelland suit walkers and road cyclists. The heath and forest of Hoge Kempen are about half an hour away.

Brussels has the Sonian Forest, a fine stand of tall beeches on its south-eastern side, and parks such as the Bois de la Cambre. Beyond them, the land is flat farmland and suburbs. For real hills, both look to the Ardennes.

Both are excellent bases, but Brussels has the more impressive list. Frequent trains reach Ghent, Bruges, Antwerp, Leuven and Mechelen in an hour or less, Waterloo and Namur are to the south, and the high-speed line puts Paris about an hour and a half away.

Maastricht offers more countries rather than bigger names. Aachen and Liège are about half an hour away, Tongeren and Valkenburg are closer still, and Cologne or Brussels itself make a longer day. It is the more interesting base for crossing borders. For the great Flemish art towns, Brussels is the easier base.

Brussels keeps its children's outings in town: the herd of Iguanodons at the Natural Sciences museum, the Atomium and Mini-Europe at Heysel, Train World and the comic murals, with Walibi and Pairi Daiza a short drive out. Cobbles, traffic and rainy days make those days harder work.

Maastricht turns that round. It is small, safe and mostly flat for a buggy, so it is easier just to be there with young children. Most of its outings lie outside town, though: the caves, cable car and fairy-tale park at Valkenburg, and the zoo at Kerkrade.

Brussels makes you climb and ride. It is a steep walk from the lower town up to the Mont des Arts and the royal quarter, metro and trams reach Ixelles, Saint-Gilles and the Bois de la Cambre, and trains run straight to the airport.

Maastricht is flat, largely pedestrianised and small enough to cross in about fifteen minutes, and the station in Wyck is just over the bridge. Locals get around by bike, and a bike or car reaches the hill villages far more easily than the regional buses do.

There is little between them, and the difference is in what you take home. Brussels is the place for its specialities: chocolatiers in the Galeries Royales and on the Sablon, weekend antiques on the square, the Jeu de Balle flea market in the Marolles and Belgian designers on Rue Antoine Dansaert.

Maastricht is more of a fashion town for weekend visitors, with designer boutiques in the restored houses of the Stokstraat quarter, chain stores on the Grote Staat and independent interiors and vintage shops in Wyck. Neither has the luxury depth of a major fashion capital.

Both have Northern European prices, and in both the saving comes from timing, but in opposite directions. In Brussels the business hotels empty out at weekends, so that is the better-value time to stay, and the immigrant neighbourhoods keep meals cheap.

Maastricht fills with visitors at weekends, so Sunday to Thursday is the cheaper time to stay. Bakery lunches and a centre you can walk, with almost no transport costs, help from day to day.

Brussels is a serious city for music and theatre. It has La Monnaie with its adventurous opera, the national orchestra at Bozar, Flagey's fine acoustics and the Queen Elisabeth Competition each spring. On top of that come contemporary dance and theatre in French and Dutch, and concert halls that every European tour visits.

In Maastricht most performances take place at the theatre on the Vrijthof, home to the regional orchestra and opera, with organ concerts in the churches and conservatory recitals. Its big moments are the summer open-air concerts on the square and the brass bands of carnival. The rest of the year it is a solid regional scene.

Maastricht is much the better place to unwind. Neither city has a bathing tradition of its own, but from Maastricht the thermal pools above Valkenburg are about twenty minutes away, Aachen's spa, used since Roman times, is about half an hour, and Spa itself is within an hour. The town's own pace is slow and easy.

Brussels has hammams, day spas and hotel spas, but Spa is a long journey away. Otherwise, relaxing there means a long lunch or a walk in the Sonian Forest, with the traffic of a busy capital all around.