Brussels or Stuttgart?

Neither city is a beach destination, but at least Brussels has the sea within reach. The wide sands of Ostend or De Haan are a little over an hour away by train. That makes a good breezy day out on the North Sea, though not a place for long swims.

Stuttgart is further from any shore. The nearest real swimming water is Lake Constance, more than two hours south. Its compensation is its summer outdoor pools, some of them fed by mineral springs, which give a warm-weather swim a local character of its own.

Brussels has the wider range of food. Belgian classics such as mussels, carbonnade and shrimp croquettes sit beside pralines from the Sablon, a beer culture with few rivals, and the Congolese, Moroccan and Turkish cooking of Matonge and Schaerbeek.

Stuttgart's strength is narrower and more regional. Think Maultaschen, Käsespätzle, and Trollinger from vineyards inside the city limits, best tried in a seasonal Besen tavern. It has plenty of fine dining but less street food and international variety, so a week of meals is more varied in Brussels.

Brussels offers the richer sightseeing. Stuttgart cannot match the Grand-Place, Horta's Art Nouveau houses in Saint-Gilles, Bruegel and Rubens at the Royal Museums and the Magritte collection, even though office blocks break up the old city around them.

Stuttgart's appeal is modern: the Mercedes-Benz and Porsche museums, the Staatsgalerie, and Le Corbusier's houses at the Weissenhof Estate. Wartime bombing left its older heritage in pockets around Schlossplatz, and two or three days covers the essentials.

Evenings are livelier in Brussels. The bars around Saint-Géry, Place Flagey and Saint-Gilles stay busy late, and a long-established techno club in the Marolles draws DJs from across Europe. At the centre of it all is beer, served in taverns that have hardly changed in a century.

Stuttgart has a solid strip of bars along Theodor-Heuss-Strasse and wine bars in the Bohnenviertel, but on ordinary weeknights it winds down early. Its big nights come with the seasons, above all in the beer tents of the Cannstatter Volksfest in autumn.

Stuttgart has the countryside much closer. Its basin is ringed by vineyards and wooded hills that you can walk into straight from the centre. The cliff-edge trails and caves of the Swabian Jura, or the ridges of the northern Black Forest, are about an hour away.

Brussels sits in flat farmland. The tall beech stands of the Sonian Forest are a fine exception, but for hills, kayaking or longer hikes you need to go to the Meuse valley around Dinant, which is a longer trip.

Both cities are excellent bases, but Brussels has the stronger hand. Ghent, Antwerp and Bruges, three of the finest historic towns in northern Europe, are all within an hour by train, and Paris and Amsterdam are reachable for a long day.

Stuttgart's outings are rewarding too. Heidelberg is about forty minutes away, and there are Tübingen's lanes, the palace at Ludwigsburg and the monastery at Maulbronn. They are more spread out, though, and none quite matches the run of Flemish cities close to Brussels.

Stuttgart is a little easier with children. Wilhelma, the zoo and botanical garden among Moorish-style pavilions, fills a whole day. The miniature railway at Killesberg, the rack railway and plenty of playgrounds keep things simple in a safe, orderly city.

Brussels has plenty of its own to offer: the Iguanodons at the Natural Sciences museum, the Atomium beside Mini-Europe, and theme parks within an hour. But heavy traffic, cobbled pavements and rainy days spent indoors make it more work for parents.

Both cities are equally easy to get around, but in different ways. In Brussels the main sights are close together in a walkable centre, with a steep climb to the upper town. Trams run out to Ixelles and Saint-Gilles, and you can pay by tapping a bank card.

Stuttgart's flat core soon gives way to steep slopes. The Stadtbahn, S-Bahn, rack railway and funicular, all on one ticket, do the climbing for you, and so do the long public stairways called Stäffele if you are on foot. A car is more trouble than it is worth in either city.

Shopping is roughly on a par, but the two cities suit different shoppers. Brussels is for browsing: chocolatiers in the Galeries Royales and around the Sablon, antiques, the Jeu de Balle flea market in the Marolles, and Belgian designers on Rue Antoine Dansaert.

Stuttgart is for brands. It has the long pedestrian Königstrasse, a long-established family department store for designer fashion, and the outlet village at Metzingen about half an hour away. Its crafts and markets are modest.

Costs are much the same in both. They are prosperous cities where business travel shapes hotel prices, so in either one a weekend is the better-value time to stay. Brussels keeps daily spending down with frites and the cooking of its immigrant neighbourhoods. Stuttgart offers generous portions in its taverns and beer gardens and a good-value day ticket on transport, but it is worth avoiding the weeks of big trade fairs.

Stuttgart has the edge on stage. The Stuttgart Ballet, shaped by John Cranko, is one of Europe's most respected companies and shares the state theatre with an adventurous opera company. The Liederhalle carries a strong Bach tradition, and Möhringen runs long seasons of big musicals.

Brussels comes close behind. La Monnaie, Bozar and Flagey anchor a serious classical scene, the spring Queen Elisabeth Competition draws the music world, and contemporary dance and theatre in French and Dutch are real strengths.

In Brussels, rest has to be pieced together, because the city has no bathing tradition of its own. The calmest hours come from a few lengths in one of its handsome Art Deco pools or an afternoon on a terrace in Ixelles. The town of Spa, which gave the idea its name, is a long way off towards the Ardennes, and the heavy traffic of a working capital is never far away.

Stuttgart builds rest into an ordinary day of sightseeing. A few hours in the warm water of the Mineralbad Leuze or the Mineralbad Cannstatt fit easily between museums, and afterwards the vineyard paths and quiet parks near the centre keep the calm going. The city still runs at a businesslike pace, so think of it as a city with excellent baths rather than a spa retreat. For a full day of it, Baden-Baden is within reach.