Ghent or Oxford?

Ghent has the edge simply because the sea is reachable. Ostend is about an hour by train, and the coast tram strings together wide sandy beaches and dunes. Closer to home, the Blaarmeersen lake has a sandy shore with supervised summer swimming.

Oxford has no beach at all. The south coast is too far for a casual outing, so swimming means a cool dip in the Thames at Port Meadow, the Cherwell or the open-air pool at Hinksey. Neither city is worth choosing for the water.

Ghent eats and drinks considerably better. It has a real regional kitchen, with waterzooi, beef stewed in dark beer, mussels with frites and cuberdon sweets from street carts, and its old cafés around the Vrijdagmarkt pour some of the best beer lists in Europe. It is also an unusually easy city for vegetarians.

Oxford's strengths are the pub and the Sunday roast by the Thames, plus the stalls of the Covered Market. For variety you head to Cowley Road's cheap Middle Eastern and South Asian food or the bistros of Jericho, and much of the centre is chains.

These two are evenly matched, and both need two or three days, but they offer different things. Ghent is a medieval merchant city built along its rivers: guildhalls facing each other on the Graslei and Korenlei, a moated castle in the middle of town, and one supreme work of art, the van Eyck altarpiece in St Bavo's.

Oxford is a university city of honey-stone quadrangles, chapels and libraries, with the Radcliffe Camera, the Bodleian and Christ Church all a few minutes apart. Its museums are wider in scope, from the Ashmolean's antiquities to the Pitt Rivers' crowded ethnography cases.

Ghent is the livelier city after dark. The Overpoort's student bars run loud and late in term, the brown cafés of the Oudburg suit long beery evenings, and in summer the quaysides fill with people drinking by the water. The Gentse Feesten in July turns the whole centre into a ten-day street party.

Oxford is a pub town that is mostly calm by midnight, with Cowley Road its only late corner. It also works the other way round from Ghent: summer, when the students leave, is when Oxford goes quietest.

Oxford is the better choice for the outdoors. Christ Church Meadow, the University Parks and Port Meadow, with its grazing horses, all lie within walking distance of the colleges, and punting is the classic way to spend an afternoon. Within an hour the Cotswolds, the Chiltern beech woods and the Ridgeway offer long, rolling walks.

Ghent's surroundings are flat farmland, good for cycling along the Leie to Sint-Martens-Latem or birdwatching at the Bourgoyen-Ossemeersen wetland, but there are no hills to aim for.

Both are excellent bases, but they work differently. From Ghent, everything comes by short, frequent train: Bruges in under half an hour, Brussels and Antwerp soon after, plus the Ypres battlefields and Lille across the border. It is a run of great historic cities, and no car is needed.

Oxford mixes London, an hour away by train, with country houses and villages: Blenheim Palace at Woodstock, Stratford-upon-Avon, Bath and Windsor. The Cotswold villages are its best outing, and they are much easier with a car or a tour.

With children, the two are much alike: small, safe and walkable, with a few clear favourites. In Ghent that means the Gravensteen's battlements and armour, canal boat trips, the toys at the House of Alijn and the Blaarmeersen lake beach, though cobbles are hard work with a pushchair.

Oxford's draws are the dinosaur skeletons at the free Natural History Museum, punting on the Cherwell and, for Harry Potter fans, Christ Church's hall and staircase. In both cities the bigger attractions, such as Antwerp's zoo or the Cotswold Wildlife Park, mean a trip out.

Both centres are flat, compact and largely closed to cars, so walking is the natural way to see either. Ghent leans harder on the bicycle, with bike streets throughout, but its main station is a twenty-minute walk from the centre, so a tram ride is part of most arrivals.

Oxford's station is a short walk from the colleges, and buses reach the suburbs. Drivers leave their cars at the park-and-ride sites, though the Cotswolds are where a car finally helps.

Neither is a shopping destination, and each has ordinary high-street chains. Ghent's appeal is in its markets and edible souvenirs: the flea market at Sint-Jacobs, the Sunday flowers on the Kouter, and chocolate, cuberdons, mustard and beer to take home, with independent design along the Serpentstraat.

Oxford is better for books and prints, with Blackwell's vast basement and the antique map sellers, and university clothing as its own souvenir. It also has something Ghent lacks: the luxury outlet village near Bicester, about twenty minutes away.

Neither is cheap, but Ghent is the easier stay. Its small hotels and guesthouses are moderately priced for most of the year, July's festival aside, even if sit-down dinners with Belgian beer add up quickly.

Oxford's problem is beds. There are few rooms in the centre, and university events keep them dear, so many visitors sleep by the ring road or come in from London. Once there, the free museums and pub meals help, but college entry fees mount over a few days.

The two are close, and they offer very different evenings. Ghent has the broader stage: opera and ballet at the nineteenth-century opera house, NTGent's bold theatre (mostly in Dutch), early music at De Bijloke in a medieval hospital, and free stages across the centre during the July festival.

Oxford's great draw is choral Evensong. Visitors can sit in on world-renowned choirs at Christ Church, Magdalen and New College on most evenings in term. Chamber music at the Holywell Music Room fills out the programme, while theatre is mostly touring shows.

Neither city has a spa or bathing tradition, so rest here means slowing down rather than treatments. In Ghent that is the enclosed beguinage gardens, canal walks along the Coupure and quiet Sundays on café terraces.

Oxford offers the Botanic Garden, Britain's oldest, Addison's Walk past Magdalen's deer park, and an unhurried afternoon on a punt, ideally early, before the tour groups arrive.