Ghent or Haarlem?

Neither city is a place for a swimming vacation, since both face the same cool, windy North Sea. From Ghent, the coast is a proper day out: about an hour by train to Ostend, then the coastal tram to the wider sands. On hot days, the lake at the Blaarmeersen is the swimming spot closer to home.

Haarlem is ahead simply because the coast is so close. Zandvoort's long beach is ten minutes away by train, and the quieter dune-backed sand at Bloemendaal aan Zee is a bike ride away. That makes it easy to fit a beach afternoon around other plans.

Ghent is the better place to eat and drink. Its Flemish cooking has real character, from waterzooi and beef stewed in dark beer to grey shrimp croquettes. Vegetarians do unusually well there, and the brown cafés of the Patershol and the Vrijdagmarkt pour some of the best Belgian beer lists you will find.

Haarlem eats well but plainly. The highlights are raw herring and freshly fried kibbeling from the Saturday market on the Grote Markt, and a good local craft-beer scene. Expect pleasant bistro meals rather than dishes you will remember.

Oddly, both cities have a great church of St Bavo. Ghent's holds the van Eyck altarpiece, one of the founding works of European painting. Haarlem's holds the organ Mozart played as a boy. Ghent has more around its masterpiece: the moated Gravensteen in the middle of town, the guildhalls of the Graslei, and museums from Flemish masters to the SMAK and the STAM.

Haarlem is quieter and more intimate. Its two main museums are the Frans Hals Museum and Teylers, whose 18th-century oval room still looks as it did. The rest of its charm lies in the hofjes, quiet almshouse courtyards behind plain doors, which are best found on an unhurried walk.

Ghent's university gives it far more to do after dark. The Overpoort student bars run loud and late in term time, the quaysides fill with people drinking in summer, and the ten-day Gentse Feesten each July turns the whole centre into a street party.

Haarlem's evenings are pleasant but short, spent on the terraces and in the brown cafés around the Grote Markt and the Botermarkt. Most places close well before dawn. Anyone wanting a club takes the train to Amsterdam.

Haarlem has real countryside on its doorstep. Zuid-Kennemerland National Park begins at the western edge of town, with dunes, pine and oak woods, small lakes, highland cattle and wild ponies. The water-supply dunes to the south are known for their tame fallow deer, and in spring the bulb fields stripe the polders with colour.

Around Ghent, the outdoors is gentler and more farmed. You can follow the riverside paths along the Leie to Sint-Martens-Latem, or watch birds in the Bourgoyen-Ossemeersen wetland. It is pleasant cycling country, but you need to travel to the coast for dunes.

Both cities are superb bases, with frequent short trains to several historic cities, so the choice comes down to which country you want to see. From Ghent, you reach Bruges in under half an hour, along with Brussels and Antwerp, the First World War battlefields around Ypres, and even Lille across the French border.

From Haarlem, Amsterdam is so close that you can visit it several times. Leiden, The Hague and Delft follow, and the country outings are distinctly Dutch: Alkmaar's cheese market, the windmills of Zaanse Schans and, in spring, the Keukenhof gardens.

Both are calm, largely car-free centres where children are easy to manage, and neither has a zoo or theme park in town. Ghent's draws are indoors and historic: the Gravensteen's battlements and armour, and the old toys at the House of Alijn. Its cobbles make pushchairs hard work.

In Haarlem, children spend more time outside, running in the dunes and on the beach and using the national park's playgrounds. Teylers' fossils are there for rainy days, and the local habit of carrying children on cargo bikes makes getting about with them easy.

Getting around is equally easy in both: compact, flat centres, few cars and cycling as the local habit. In Ghent, the main station, Gent-Sint-Pieters, is a twenty-minute walk or a short tram ride from the centre, and the wet cobbles call for care.

Haarlem's station sits right on the edge of the old town, so you can walk straight out to your hotel. Its separate bike paths also run out into the dunes and down to the beach.

Haarlem is the more rewarding place to browse. The narrow streets near the Grote Markt, such as Gierstraat, Kleine Houtstraat and Schagchelstraat, are packed with independent boutiques, design shops, bookshops and delicatessens.

Ghent's offer is thinner but has its own strengths. You will find vintage clothes around the Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat, the weekend flea market at Sint-Jacobs and the Sunday flower market on the Kouter. The best things to take home are edible: cuberdons, chocolate and the city's strong mustard.

Neither city is cheap, but Ghent goes a little easier on the budget. Its hotel rooms are moderately priced for most of the year, except during the Gentse Feesten, and St Bavo's Cathedral and several other churches are free to enter.

Haarlem has the harder hotel market. Rooms are few for the demand, often small for the money, and fill early in tulip season and summer. Regular train trips to Amsterdam and Leiden also add up over a stay.

Ghent has the deeper stage. Its nineteenth-century opera house is home to half of the Flemish national opera and ballet, NTGent puts on bold theatre that is known well beyond Belgium, and De Bijloke hosts early and classical music in a medieval hospital.

Haarlem has a steady local programme at the Philharmonie and the Stadsschouwburg, but for opera you go to Amsterdam. Its distinctive offer is the organ: regular concerts on St Bavo's great instrument and a long-running international organ festival.

Haarlem offers more to anyone who wants to be pampered. The Netherlands has a strong sauna culture, with large day-spa complexes in the wider region and smaller saunas in town, and the dune paths are a ready way to unwind.

Ghent has little beyond a few hotel spas. Its rest comes from the slow pace instead: the enclosed beguinage gardens, walks along the Coupure canal and quiet Sundays.