Cologne or Rotterdam?

Rotterdam has an actual coastline, which Cologne does not. The metro runs out to Hoek van Holland, a broad North Sea beach backed by dunes, where container ships pass close offshore. The catch is the water: cold, windy and only briefly swimmable in high summer.

Cologne's swimming happens at the edge of town, in flooded gravel pits such as Fühlinger See and Otto-Maigler-See, which warm up nicely on hot days. The Rhine's sandy banks at Rodenkirchen are for sitting only. It makes a pleasant afternoon, not a beach vacation.

The two cities are about level on food, and they get there in opposite ways. In Cologne the draw is ritual: a Köbes keeps the small glasses of Kölsch coming while you work through Himmel un Ääd or a Halve Hahn in a brewhouse beside the cathedral.

Rotterdam's cooking comes from its port and the people it brought in. Surinamese roti shops, Indonesian and Moroccan kitchens, and the stalls under the painted vault of the Markthal matter far more there than any Dutch dish. Both cities are good for Turkish food, along Venloer Strasse and in Rotterdam's bakeries, and neither has much fine dining.

Both centres were largely destroyed in the Second World War, and they rebuilt in opposite directions. Cologne kept and restored its great monuments, so a visit leads from the cathedral and the Shrine of the Three Kings to Romanesque churches such as St Gereon and pieces of the Roman wall, even if the streets between them are ordinary postwar blocks. Rotterdam chose a modern townscape instead, and the walk from the Erasmus Bridge past the Cube Houses to the Kop van Zuid towers is the sight in itself, with the older city surviving mainly in Delfshaven, where the Pilgrim Fathers set sail.

Indoors, Cologne pulls further ahead. Museum Ludwig's Pop Art, the Wallraf-Richartz and Kolumba are collections worth planning whole days around, while Rotterdam's Kunsthal exhibitions and the Boijmans collection fill an afternoon rather than shaping a trip.

Going out is a bigger part of life in Cologne. A typical night moves from the brewhouses to the cocktail bars of the Belgian Quarter, the student crowds on Zülpicher Strasse or the late bars in Ehrenfeld's old factories. The city has one of Germany's most open gay scenes, and at Carnival the whole city is out in costume from morning on.

Rotterdam's bar streets, the Witte de Withstraat and the Oude Haven, feel more local and quieter in the week. Its strength is clubbing: this is where gabber was born, and techno nights in harbour warehouses draw people from across the country. For serious club nights it holds its own, but for a broad night out Cologne gives more.

Cologne has the better landscape within reach. The Siebengebirge's volcanic hills and the Drachenfels crag are under an hour away, and the Eifel's crater lakes and the Ahr vineyards suit a proper day hike. In town, the Grüngürtel and the Rhine meadows are good for long walks.

Rotterdam's outdoors is flat, and much of it is reclaimed land. You cycle along dykes into the polders, sail on the Kralingse Bos lake, paddle and watch birds in the Biesbosch creeks, or kitesurf off the dunes. It is pleasant on two wheels or on the water, but there is no walking country to compare.

Both cities are excellent bases, with dense rail networks around them. The difference is in kind. From Rotterdam, a string of classic Dutch towns lies very close: Delft, The Hague, Leiden, Gouda and Dordrecht, with Amsterdam within the hour and the Kinderdijk windmills reached by water bus. Antwerp is an easy hop across the border.

From Cologne the outings are more varied. There are palaces at Brühl, Beethoven's Bonn and Charlemagne's chapel in Aachen. Further south lie the castles and wine towns of the Rhine Gorge, Brussels and Maastricht are within reach, and the Ruhr's industrial heritage at Zollverein is closer still.

Both are easy with children, and each has a first-rate zoo. Cologne has the Chocolate Museum, the cable car over the Rhine and, above all, Phantasialand a short trip south. Avoid Carnival with small children.

Rotterdam is best on the water. Blijdorp has its ocean section, the Maritime Museum has a hands-on harbour area, and harbour boats and water taxis go down well with most ages. Madurodam is a short train ride away, but the Efteling needs a car. Grey weather limits both cities outside summer.

Neither city needs a car, but they work differently. In Cologne you step out of the station straight into the cathedral square, and the main sights sit in a compact, flat centre you can cover on foot. The tram and Stadtbahn map, though, takes some working out.

Rotterdam's postwar centre is spread out and windy, so you rely more on the tram, the metro or a bike. In return, everything runs on one tap-in system, and the water taxis and water buses turn the Maas into part of the network.

On shopping the two are a close match: chain-store spines in the centre and the more interesting independents a few streets away. Cologne has Schildergasse and Hohe Strasse, with Ehrenstrasse and the Belgian Quarter for independent shops. Rotterdam has the Lijnbaan and the Bijenkorf, with vintage, record and design shops along the Meent and the Nieuwe Binnenweg.

What sets them apart are a few local specialities. Cologne has its historic Eau de Cologne houses and the Advent Christmas markets. Rotterdam's big twice-weekly market on the Binnenrotte has no real match in Cologne.

Cologne is somewhat cheaper day to day. A brewhouse dinner with a few Kölsch costs less than a comparable evening in Rotterdam, and the cathedral and churches are free to enter. The risk is hotel rates during the big Messe trade fairs and Carnival, so check those dates before booking.

In Rotterdam the costs fall the other way. Hotels are reasonable by Dutch standards and plentiful at weekends, but restaurants, beer and coffee are expensive. Market stalls, Markthal counters and Surinamese snack shops keep lunches cheap.

Cologne has the wider stage life. Opera and drama share the Offenbachplatz complex, the Philharmonie by the cathedral is home to two major orchestras, and the broadcaster's big band and choirs add more. Early music fills the Romanesque churches. Ehrenfeld's small clubs carry on the city's electronic and jazz tradition, and the dialect bands of the Carnival sessions are found nowhere else.

Rotterdam centres on its Philharmonic at De Doelen and on the North Sea Jazz Festival in July, one of the great jazz weekends anywhere. The rest of the year is good small venues, with no resident opera and much of the theatre in Dutch.

Both share the northern European sauna habit of large, textile-free complexes with plunge pools and quiet rooms. Cologne makes more of it. Its Rheinpark thermal bath, fed by mineral springs, looks across the river to the cathedral, and Aachen's hot springs are a short train ride away.

Rotterdam's sauna complexes lie on the edge of the city or in nearby towns, so in the centre you are left with hotel spas. For calm, locals head to the Kralingse Bos or a terrace by the water.