Brussels or Rotterdam?

Neither city is a swimming destination. From Brussels the nearest sand is at Ostend or De Haan, more than an hour away by train, so the sea is a day out and swimming in town means the Art Deco indoor pools.

Rotterdam does better because its beach is part of the city. The metro runs to Hoek van Holland, a wide strand backed by dunes, with ships passing close offshore. The wind and cool water still mean most visitors walk along it rather than swim.

Brussels eats much better. It has a real cooking tradition of its own, from twice-fried frites at a friterie to carbonnade, waterzooi and shrimp croquettes. Its beer culture rests on lambics and gueuzes brewed nowhere else, and the praline makers of the Sablon add chocolate. Matonge, Saint-Gilles and Ixelles widen the range further.

Rotterdam's strength lies in its immigrant kitchens: Surinamese roti, Turkish bakeries, Cape Verdean and Indonesian cooking, and the stalls under the Markthal's painted vault. Dutch food barely goes beyond herring and bitterballen, and there are only a few serious restaurants.

Brussels has the richer heritage. There is the Grand-Place with its guild houses, Bruegel and Rubens in the Royal Museums, a museum devoted to Magritte and Horta's Art Nouveau houses in Saint-Gilles and Ixelles, although office blocks break up the old city in between.

Rotterdam lost its centre in 1940, so it is a city of modern architecture rather than old streets. The Cube Houses, the Erasmus Bridge, the Markthal and the mirrored Depot Boijmans van Beuningen are the draw, and Delfshaven is the main historic quarter that survives. Two or three days see it all.

Brussels gives most visitors the better evening out, because its strength is the bar. Strong ales are poured in century-old taverns around Saint-Géry and the Bourse, and Ixelles and Saint-Gilles have local cafés that stay open late. It also has a well-known techno club in the Marolles and a queer scene around Rue du Marché au Charbon.

Rotterdam leans the other way. Its bar streets are modest and the centre goes quiet early on weekdays. At weekends, though, the city where gabber was born still fills warehouse and harbour venues with techno and house.

There is little to choose between them, and both sit on flat land. Brussels has the finer single place in the Sonian Forest, tall beech woods for walking and cycling on the edge of the city, and the Ardennes valleys around Dinant are within reach for a day of hills and kayaking.

In Rotterdam the outdoors means water and bikes: dyke paths out into the polders, sailing on the Kralingse Bos lake, canoeing and birdwatching in the tidal creeks of the Biesbosch, and dune walks at Hoek van Holland.

Both are superb bases, and the real difference is which country you want to see. From Brussels the Flemish art cities come first: the Van Eyck altarpiece in Ghent, medieval Bruges, Antwerp, Leuven and Mechelen. To the south are Waterloo and Namur on the Meuse, and Paris is about an hour and a half away.

Rotterdam opens up Holland instead. Delft is a quarter of an hour away, and The Hague with the Mauritshuis, Amsterdam, Leiden and Utrecht are all close, as are the Kinderdijk windmills by water bus. Antwerp is easy to reach from either city.

Brussels has plenty for children: the Iguanodon herd at the Natural Sciences museum, the Atomium beside Mini-Europe, and comic heroes painted on walls around the centre. Cobbled pavements, heavy traffic and frequent rain make the days harder work, though.

Rotterdam is the easier city with children. Flat, wide pavements and cycle lanes make a pushchair simple, Blijdorp zoo with its ocean section fills a whole day, and harbour boats, water taxis and the Euromast appeal to most ages.

The core of Brussels is compact, with the Grand-Place, the Sablon and the Mont des Arts a short walk apart. The climb to the upper town is steep, though, and the pavements are rough. Trams are the pleasant way to reach Ixelles and Saint-Gilles, and the traffic makes a car a burden.

Rotterdam is simpler still. Its postwar centre is more spread out, but metro, tram and bus all run on one tap-in system and water taxis cross the Maas. Separate bike paths run almost everywhere, so a bike is the natural way to cover the longer distances.

Brussels is the better city for browsing and for things to take home. The Galeries Royales and the Sablon have master chocolatiers, the Sablon holds an antiques market at weekends, the Marolles has the Jeu de Balle flea market and Rue Antoine Dansaert has the Belgian designers.

Rotterdam is stronger on the high street than on character. The Lijnbaan, the Beurstraverse and the Bijenkorf put the chains close together, and the Meent and the Nieuwe Binnenweg add vintage, record and design shops. Still, there is little to buy that is unique to the city.

Both are expensive and neither is a budget pick, and both have business hotels that empty and get cheaper at weekends. The difference is where the money goes. In Brussels, beer is good value for its quality, and the frites stands and immigrant kitchens keep the cost of eating down.

In Rotterdam the hotels are the easier part: rooms are plentiful and cost less than in the country's best-known destinations. Restaurant meals, beer and coffee are expensive, though, so the Markthal counters and the Surinamese snack shops are the way to keep costs down.

Brussels has the wider range of stages. La Monnaie stages adventurous opera, Bozar and Flagey host orchestras in fine Art Deco halls, and the Queen Elisabeth Competition draws the classical world each spring. There is contemporary dance and theatre in both French and Dutch.

Rotterdam has a first-rate orchestra in the Rotterdam Philharmonic at De Doelen, and its big event is the North Sea Jazz Festival each July. It has no resident opera company, though, and most of its theatre is in Dutch.

Neither city is a place to slow down, but Rotterdam offers more. Brussels has no bathing tradition beyond a few North African hammams, hotel spas and its Art Deco pools, and its calmest hours are spent in the Sonian Forest or on a terrace in Ixelles.

Rotterdam has the Dutch sauna culture: large complexes on the edge of the city with saunas, steam rooms, outdoor pools and gardens, usually textile-free in the sauna areas. A day at one is a genuine rest.