Ghent or London?

Neither is a beach destination, and both send you an hour by train to a cool, short-season sea. What you find there differs. From Ghent the coast tram links wide sandy beaches and dunes, while London's nearest seaside, Brighton, is pebble, with sandier shores further away in Kent.

Back in town, Ghent's swimming means the lake shore at the Blaarmeersen. London has a real fresh-water culture, with outdoor lidos and the Hampstead Heath ponds, where some people swim all year.

London gives you far more choice. Its strength is the cooking of its communities, from Bangladeshi curries on Brick Lane to Turkish grills in Green Lanes and Caribbean food south of the river, along with a large fine-dining scene and markets such as Borough.

Ghent is narrower but has a clear identity: waterzooi, beef stewed in dark beer, mussels and grey shrimp croquettes in the old lanes of the Patershol, and brown cafés with long Belgian beer lists. It is good for a few days and unusually kind to vegetarians, but you would not plan a trip around it the way you might in London.

London is far ahead in sheer depth. The British Museum, the National Gallery, the V&A and the two Tates are each worth a day, and most are free. Add a thousand years of landmarks from the Tower to St Paul's, and a week only scratches the surface.

Ghent is a different kind of visit. It is a compact, lived-in medieval centre, where the Graslei guildhalls, the Gravensteen and three great towers line up in a single walk. Its one world-class treasure is the Ghent Altarpiece in St Bavo's, and two or three days cover it all.

London offers a whole range of districts: late cocktail bars and the gay scene in Soho, warehouse clubs in Shoreditch and Dalston, big venues in Brixton, and pubs everywhere. Weekends there are a serious night out.

Ghent's evenings are smaller and student-led, loud in the Overpoort during term and more relaxed over strong beer in the cafés around the Vrijdagmarkt. There is no real club scene. The exception is the Gentse Feesten in July, when the whole centre becomes a ten-day street party.

Ghent's surroundings are flat and largely farmed, so the outdoors there is mostly a matter of bikes and easy walks. Riverside paths follow the Leie out to villages such as Sint-Martens-Latem, the Bourgoyen-Ossemeersen wetland on the city's edge is good for birdwatching, and you can take a kayak out at the Blaarmeersen. The Zwin reserve and the coastal dunes are within reach for a day. It is pleasant, green cycling country, but the land nearby is gentle and nothing dramatic is close by.

London has more to offer, both in the city and beyond it. Deer roam among the ancient oaks of Richmond Park, Hampstead Heath gives open hilltop views over the skyline, and the Thames Path runs out past Kew towards Richmond. About an hour by train, the Chilterns and the chalk ridges of the South Downs have well-marked footpaths, and the white cliffs of the Seven Sisters make a longer day out.

Both make excellent bases, but the trips are of different kinds. From Ghent the hops are very short and mostly to other historic cities: Bruges in under half an hour, Brussels and Antwerp close behind, plus the battlefields around Ypres and Lille across the border.

From London the rides are a bit longer and the themes vary more: Oxford and Cambridge colleges, Windsor Castle, Roman and Georgian Bath, Stonehenge, and the seaside at Brighton.

London is much easier to fill with children's days. The Natural History and Science Museums are free, park playgrounds and boating lakes are everywhere, the zoo is in Regent's Park, and Legoland and the theme parks are within reach. The catch is the city's size and the many Tube stations with only stairs.

Ghent is safe and calm, with few cars in the centre. The Gravensteen's battlements, canal boats and the House of Alijn's old toys fill a day or two, but beyond those little is aimed at children, and the cobbles are hard going with a pushchair.

London's network takes you almost anywhere without a car: the Underground, the Elizabeth line, buses and riverboats, all paid for with one contactless card. The cost is time, since journeys across the spread-out city are long and the Tube is crowded at rush hour.

Ghent hardly needs transport at all. Its flat, largely car-free centre takes minutes to cross on foot, bikes are the local habit, and trams cover the rest. The main drawback is that the main station is a twenty-minute walk from the centre.

London is one of the world's great shopping cities, from the luxury houses of Bond Street and the bespoke tailors of Savile Row to the historic department stores and the weekend markets at Portobello Road, Camden and Spitalfields. Ghent is modest by comparison. The Veldstraat has the chains, the Serpentstraat has independent design, and the best buys are edible: cuberdons, chocolate, the local mustard and beer.

Ghent is clearly cheaper, though Belgium is still pricey for Western Europe. Hotel rooms are moderate for most of the year, and walking replaces transport fares, but sit-down dinners with a few beers soon add up.

London is in a different bracket. Central rooms are small and very expensive, and meals, theatre seats and fares all cost a lot. Its big saving is that the national museums and parks are free, which helps on a careful budget but does not close the gap.

London is a destination in its own right for the stage. There are West End musicals, the National Theatre, the Globe and fringe rooms above pubs, opera at Covent Garden, five major orchestras and the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, so there is a serious choice every night.

Ghent's scene is good for its size. Its nineteenth-century opera house is shared with the Flemish national company, De Bijloke hosts early music in a medieval hospital, and NTGent is respected for bold theatre, though mostly in Dutch. It is worth an evening while you are there rather than a reason to travel.

Neither is a spa city, but London has more to offer. It has surviving Victorian and Edwardian Turkish baths under tiled vaults, full hotel spas in Mayfair and Knightsbridge, and the thermal waters of Bath a train ride away. Ghent has little beyond a few saunas and hotel spas. What it does have is a slower pace than London: quiet beguinage gardens, canal walks along the Coupure and calm Sundays.