Brussels or Oxford?

Neither city is for a beach vacation, but Brussels at least puts a sandy shore within reach. Ostend, De Haan and Knokke are a little over an hour away by train, better for a windy walk along the promenade than a swim. Oxford is further from the sea, and swimming there means a dip in the Thames at Port Meadow, in the Cherwell or in the open-air pool at Hinksey on a warm afternoon.

Brussels is a real eating city. Its own dishes, from waterzooi and shrimp croquettes to carbonnade stewed in beer, sit beside the Sablon chocolatiers and a beer culture built on lambics and gueuzes brewed nowhere else. Congolese cooking in Matonge and Moroccan and Turkish food around Schaerbeek add more range.

Oxford eats around the pub: good ale, a Sunday roast by the river and lunch from the stalls of the Covered Market. Cowley Road and Jericho add variety, but there is no local cuisine to seek out, and someone who travels for food will run out of reasons to stay long before they would in Brussels.

The two are evenly matched, but they offer different experiences. Oxford's sights form one intact whole: colleges, chapels and the Radcliffe Camera in honey-coloured stone, all within a few minutes' walk, with the Ashmolean and the Pitt Rivers close by. Two or three days cover it well.

Brussels has the single greatest showpiece in the Grand-Place, plus Bruegel, Rubens and Magritte in the Royal Museums and Horta's Art Nouveau houses in Saint-Gilles. Its sights are more spread out, with office blocks between them, so it suits a visitor who comes for particular collections more than one who comes for a townscape.

Brussels is the better place to go out. You can choose between the bar streets around Saint-Géry and the Bourse, the local terraces of Flagey and Châtelain, a Marolles techno club that draws DJs from across Europe, and the queer bars of Rue du Marché au Charbon.

Oxford's evenings belong to the pub, with Cowley Road for a late bar and little more. Nightlife follows the university year, so outside term it is quieter still, and the centre usually goes quiet before midnight.

Both offer mild, gentle green spaces rather than wild landscape, and the difference is how close they start. In Oxford you walk out of the centre onto Christ Church Meadow or Port Meadow, follow the Thames Path or take a punt. The Cotswolds, the Chilterns and the Ridgeway are all within an hour.

Brussels has one outstanding natural area in the tall beech woods of the Sonian Forest, along with the Bois de la Cambre and the ponds of Ixelles. For hills and kayaking you go to the Meuse valley around Dinant, a longer trip than anything Oxford asks of you.

Both are excellent bases, but for different kinds of outing. From Brussels, quick trains do the work: Ghent in about half an hour, Antwerp in forty minutes, Bruges in an hour and even Paris within easy reach, so every trip is a car-free visit to a major town.

From Oxford the draw is country houses and villages as much as towns. Blenheim is twenty minutes away and London an hour by train, but the Cotswold villages, Stratford and Warwick are easier with a car or on a tour.

Brussels has more to keep children busy for a week. There are the Atomium and Mini-Europe at Heysel, the Iguanodon hall at the Natural Sciences museum, Train World and the comic murals, and Walibi and Pairi Daiza are close enough for a day out. The downside is the cobbles and the traffic.

Oxford is calmer, and its flat centre is easier with a pushchair. Its free dinosaur and Pitt Rivers museums, punting and the Harry Potter connections at Christ Church make for a good couple of days. After that the city is mostly for adults, and the bigger attractions need a trip out.

Both are easy to get around, in different ways. Oxford has a small, flat centre you can cross on foot in twenty minutes, with several streets closed to traffic and the station a short walk away.

Brussels relies more on public transport, and it has plenty: metro, trams and buses you pay for by tapping a bank card, and direct trains from the main stations to the airport. Its core is walkable too, though the climb to the upper town is steep. In neither city is a car worth having.

Brussels gives a shopper more to do. The chocolatiers in the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert and on the Sablon, the antiques shops and weekend market there, the flea market on Place du Jeu de Balle and the Belgian designers on Rue Antoine Dansaert all feel particular to the city.

Oxford's centre is mostly chains and a shopping centre. It is saved by the Covered Market, the independent shops of Jericho, the antique map and print sellers and the great bookshop on Broad Street. Its biggest draw for fashion is the outlet village near Bicester, outside the city.

Neither is cheap, but Brussels is easier on the budget. Its hotels mostly serve business travellers, so rooms are cheaper at weekends, and frites, sandwiches and cooking from the immigrant neighbourhoods keep daily spending down.

Oxford's problem is the bed. There are few central rooms, and steady demand from university events keeps them expensive, so many visitors stay out by the ring road or come for the day from London. Free museums and pub meals help once you are there, but college entry fees add up.

Brussels offers a broader range. La Monnaie puts on adventurous opera, Bozar and Flagey host the national orchestra and visiting ensembles, and contemporary dance and theatre are staged in both French and Dutch. Big rock tours and an old marionette theatre add to the mix.

Oxford's strength is narrower but memorable: Evensong sung by the choirs of Christ Church, Magdalen and New College in term, and chamber music in the historic Holywell Music Room. Its theatres mostly take touring shows.

Neither city is built for a restorative break, and neither has a bathing tradition, so the difference lies in the kind of calm on offer. Oxford's is green and quiet: the Botanic Garden, the walled college gardens and Addison's Walk early in the morning, or an afternoon on a punt.

Brussels has North African hammams and fine Art Deco pools, but it moves at the pace of a working capital. Its slow moments are a long lunch or an afternoon on a terrace in Ixelles.