Brussels or Zurich?

Neither city has a beach, but Zurich gives you far more swimming. In summer its clean lake fills the wooden bathing houses and lawned lidos at Utoquai, Mythenquai and Tiefenbrunnen. The Limmat river baths let you drift downstream on the current without leaving the city.

Brussels has only indoor pools, some of them Art Deco, and a few open-air basins in summer. The sandy North Sea beaches at Ostend or Knokke are a little over an hour away by train. The water stays cool and the wind blows, though, so they make a bracing day out rather than a swim.

Brussels is clearly the better city to eat in. Mussels, carbonnade stewed in beer, frites from a friterie and pralines from the Sablon make up a deep local cuisine. The beer gives you a reason to linger in the brown cafés, above all the lambics and gueuzes brewed only in this corner of Belgium. Matonge, Saint-Josse and Saint-Gilles add Congolese, Moroccan and Turkish cooking.

Zurich is polished but narrower. You get veal Geschnetzeltes with rösti, fondue in guild-house dining rooms, and excellent chocolate and Luxemburgerli from the old Paradeplatz tea rooms. There is little street food or market life, and every meal costs a lot, which makes it harder to eat adventurously.

Brussels has the weightier sights. The Grand-Place is one of Europe's great squares, and the Royal Museums pair Bruegel and Rubens with Magritte. Horta's UNESCO-listed Art Nouveau houses in Saint-Gilles and Ixelles have no equivalent in Zurich. The catch is a patchy streetscape, with office blocks breaking up the grand quarters.

Zurich's Altstadt is the opposite: smaller but intact, with the Grossmünster, the Chagall windows of the Fraumünster and guild houses along the Limmat. The Kunsthaus and the Rietberg are fine museums, but two or three days covers the city, while Brussels rewards a longer stay.

The two are evenly matched after dark but go out in different ways. Brussels is a bar city: Saint-Géry, Place Flagey and the corner cafés of Saint-Gilles, with strong ales in century-old taverns. Its club scene is smaller, anchored by a respected techno venue in the Marolles.

Zurich leans towards clubs, with electronic music running until morning in Kreis 4 and 5 and Zurich West, and in summer the drinking moves to the lake bathing houses. Weeknights are quiet, and the price of a round cuts evenings shorter than in Brussels.

Zurich wins easily outdoors. The Glarus Alps stand at the far end of its lake, and the Uetliberg ridge is a short train ride from the centre. Rigi and Pilatus are within about an hour for real summer hiking, and ski areas such as Flumserberg are close enough for a winter day on the slopes.

Brussels has the tall beech stands of the Sonian Forest and parks such as the Bois de la Cambre, but the land around it is flat. For hills you need the Meuse valley around Dinant, which takes up to two hours to reach.

Both are excellent bases, and the difference lies in what you go to see. From Brussels the day trips are mostly historic towns. Ghent and Antwerp are well under an hour away, Bruges about an hour, Leuven and Mechelen closer still, and Paris is within reach by high-speed train.

From Zurich the Swiss landscape is as much of a draw as the towns: Lucerne's wooden bridges and lakefront, Bern's arcades, the Rhine Falls and a boat up the lake to Rapperswil. Pick Brussels for medieval art cities and Zurich for lakes and mountains.

Zurich is the easier city with children. It is clean and orderly, and the trams take buggies without fuss. The zoo's Madagascar rainforest hall is a highlight, and the lake lidos have shallow water and lawns for summer afternoons.

Brussels has plenty to keep children happy, from the Atomium and Mini-Europe to the Iguanodons at the Natural Sciences museum and the comic murals. Walibi also gives it the nearby theme park that Zurich lacks. Cobbled pavements, heavy traffic and frequent rain make the days harder work, though.

Zurich is close to effortless. One ticket covers trams, S-Bahn, funiculars and lake boats, services run on time, and the airport is a short ride from the main station. Brussels works well enough, with a walkable core, tap-to-pay metro and trams, and direct trains to the airport. Still, the steep climb to the upper town, rough pavements and heavy traffic make it less smooth.

Brussels is for local finds, Zurich for luxury and watches. In Brussels the best buys are chocolate from the master chocolatiers in the Galeries Royales and on the Sablon, antiques from the Sablon's weekend market, and whatever turns up early at the daily flea market on Place du Jeu de Balle in the Marolles. Rue Antoine Dansaert covers Belgian designers, though big-name fashion is thin.

Zurich's showpiece is Bahnhofstrasse, which runs from the station to the lake past watchmakers, jewellers and old department stores. The viaduct arches of Zurich West add design shops. Beyond watches and luxury there is less choice, and nothing comes cheap.

Brussels is far kinder to the budget. It is not a cheap city, but weekend hotel deals, frites, sandwiches and the cooking in the immigrant quarters keep costs reasonable, and good beer is fairly priced.

Zurich is expensive at every turn. Even a simple hotel room, a casual lunch or a round of drinks costs far more than in Brussels. Supermarket picnics by the lake, the free lidos and the visitor card help, but only a little.

Brussels is the place for contemporary dance and for theatre in both French and Dutch, while Zurich's strength lies in its big classical institutions. Brussels has fine halls too: La Monnaie, known for adventurous opera and for the 1830 performance that sparked the Belgian revolution, along with Horta's Bozar and the Art Deco Flagey. Each spring the Queen Elisabeth Competition brings young musicians to the city.

Zurich's Opernhaus on the lake shore is one of Europe's most respected houses for opera and ballet, and the Tonhalle Orchestra plays in a restored nineteenth-century hall. The Schauspielhaus is a leading stage but works mostly in German, so visitors will get more out of the music. The Rote Fabrik and the summer Theater Spektakel cover the alternative side.

Brussels gives you little to soak in. There are a handful of hammams run by the North African community, a few day and hotel spas, and the Art Deco swimming pools, and that is about all. The traffic and the pace of a working capital don't help either. Here you rest by eating slowly and sitting outside, not by bathing.

Zurich has the bathing culture that Brussels lacks. The stone vaults of the old Hürlimann brewery hold thermal pools and a rooftop pool above the city. In winter the old timber bathhouses on the lake and the river become saunas, and you plunge into cold water between rounds. Baden, a short train ride away, has drawn bathers to its hot springs since Roman times. Zurich is no spa resort, but its quiet streets make it the easier of the two places to slow down.