Dusseldorf or Ghent?

Neither city is a place for a beach vacation, but Ghent gets closer. The Blaarmeersen on its western edge has a sandy lakeshore with supervised swimming in summer. Ostend and the Belgian coast tram are about an hour away for a day on wide sand and dunes, even if the North Sea stays cool.

In Düsseldorf you swim at Unterbacher See or the gravel-pit lakes around the region, because the Rhine's currents and barge traffic rule the river out. The sea means a long trip to the Dutch coast, so in practice it is out of reach.

Both are rewarding places to eat for a few days without being food destinations, and both centre on beer. The difference is in what you are served. Düsseldorf pours its own dark Altbier in small glasses alongside sauerbraten and pork knuckle. It also has a real second cuisine in the Japanese quarter around Immermannstrasse, with ramen counters and izakaya.

Ghent's strength is the range of Belgian beer in the brown cafés of the Vrijdagmarkt and Patershol, Trappists and lambics rather than a single house style. The food is Flemish: waterzooi, mussels and frites in paper cones. Ghent is also the easier of the two for vegetarians.

Ghent is the richer city for sightseeing. Its medieval core survives as a working town. The guildhalls of the Graslei and Korenlei face each other across the Leie, the moated Gravensteen stands in the middle of town and three towers line up in the view from St Michael's Bridge. St Bavo's Cathedral holds the van Eyck Ghent Altarpiece, one of the founding works of European painting.

Düsseldorf lost most of its old buildings in the war, so it draws visitors for its art rather than its streets: Klee at K20, the net under K21's glass dome and the Kunstpalast. Benrath Palace and the Gehry buildings in the Medienhafen add to that, but nothing in Düsseldorf matches a walk through Ghent's centre.

Düsseldorf has the bigger night out. The Altstadt crams a few hundred pubs and brewhouses into a handful of streets, and at weekends it becomes a loud, late street party with Altbier drunk standing outside. There are calmer cocktail bars in Carlstadt and the Medienhafen, and Carnival brings the whole city out for days.

Ghent's evenings are smaller in scale. They divide between the student bars of the Overpoort and long sessions over strong beer in the old cafés, with drinking along the quays in summer. Its big moment is the Gentse Feesten in July. Apart from that, neither city has much of a club scene.

Neither has dramatic scenery, but Düsseldorf has more variety within reach. Beyond the Rhine meadows and the cycle path to Kaiserswerth, the wooded Neandertal and the hills of the Bergisches Land begin within half an hour. The Siebengebirge and the volcanic Eifel are a little further.

Around Ghent the land stays flat and farmed, and the outdoors is gentler: cycling along the Leie to Sint-Martens-Latem, birdwatching in the Bourgoyen-Ossemeersen wetland, and the dunes and the Zwin reserve out on the coast.

Both are excellent bases, but Ghent's list is hard to beat. Bruges is under half an hour away, Brussels about half an hour and Antwerp under an hour. Beyond them are Mechelen, Leuven, the Ypres battlefields and Lille, all on short, frequent trains, so you can see several in one stay without long days.

Düsseldorf's best outing is Cologne and its cathedral, under half an hour away, with Bonn, the Brühl palaces and the Zollverein colliery close behind. Aachen, Münster, Maastricht and the castles of the Middle Rhine are further, so they make fuller days.

Düsseldorf has more for children. The Aquazoo Löbbecke Museum covers a wet day, the game park in Grafenberg forest brings wild boar and deer close for free, and Phantasialand and Movie Park Germany are both within about an hour.

Ghent is safe and largely free of cars. The Gravensteen's battlements, the canal boats and the House of Alijn are easy wins. After that, though, there is little aimed at children, because the zoo and theme parks are elsewhere. Cobbles also make pushchairs hard work, whereas Düsseldorf's trams take buggies without trouble.

Both centres are compact, flat and easy on foot, and in neither does a car help. Düsseldorf relies on trams and underground light rail, which reach the Medienhafen and the museums and connect to a regional network serving Cologne and the Ruhr. The airport is only minutes away by train.

Ghent is a cycling city first, with bike streets throughout and most cars kept out of the centre. Allow for the walk or tram ride from Gent-Sint-Pieters, the main station, which is about twenty minutes south of the old town. Take care on the cobbles when they are wet.

Düsseldorf is a real shopping destination. The Königsallee has luxury flagships and jewellers along its canal, and the department stores of Schadowstrasse and the Kö-Bogen cover the mainstream. Flingern and the Japanese quarter add independent design, stationery and homeware.

Ghent has little luxury, and the Veldstraat is an ordinary high street. Its pleasures are smaller: independent fashion on the Serpentstraat, vintage near the university and edible buys such as cuberdons, chocolate and mustard. Its weekend flea market and the Sunday flower market on the Kouter give it something Düsseldorf lacks.

Neither is cheap, and they cost much the same overall. The difference is where the money goes. In Düsseldorf it is the hotels, which are pricey for the city's size and can climb steeply during the big trade fairs, while brewhouse meals and Japanese noodle lunches keep food reasonable.

Ghent's rooms are moderately priced for most of the year, apart from the Gentse Feesten in July, but sit-down dinners with a few Belgian beers soon add up. Free entry to St Bavo's and a centre you can walk around help keep the bill down.

Both have more on stage than their size would suggest, and in both the spoken theatre is mostly in the local language. Düsseldorf is stronger on large-scale classical performance, with the Deutsche Oper am Rhein and the symphony orchestra in the domed Tonhalle. It adds political cabaret and its place in music history as the home of Kraftwerk.

Ghent shares the Flemish national opera company and adds De Bijloke, a concert hall in a medieval hospital known for early music, as well as NTGent's bold productions. For a visitor, the free stages of the Gentse Feesten are the easiest way in.

Düsseldorf is the better choice if you want to unwind properly. Its public pools have sauna areas used in the German way, mostly mixed and without swimwear. Several large thermal complexes are within about an hour, and the hot springs of Aachen are a little further.

Ghent has no bathing tradition beyond a few hotel spas. Its calm comes from the enclosed gardens of the beguinages, slow walks along the Leie and the Coupure, and quiet Sundays. That makes a pleasant end to a day of sightseeing, but not a reason to go.