Ghent or Rotterdam?

Neither city is a beach destination, and the North Sea is cold and windy off both coasts. The difference is how easily you reach it. Rotterdam's metro runs straight to the wide sands of Hoek van Holland, where huge ships pass close offshore.

From Ghent it takes a train to Ostend or a ride on the coast tram. On a hot day in Ghent itself, the lake beach at the Blaarmeersen, with supervised swimming in summer, is the easier place to swim.

Ghent eats better, mainly because it has a cooking tradition of its own: waterzooi, beef in dark beer and grey shrimp croquettes. Its beer cafés in the Patershol and around the Vrijdagmarkt are reason enough for an extra night, and it is an unusually easy city for vegetarians.

Rotterdam's strength is variety rather than tradition. Surinamese roti, Turkish bakeries and Cape Verdean, Moroccan and Indonesian kitchens give it range, and the Markthal is the obvious first stop. Dutch cooking, though, goes little further than herring and bitterballen.

Ghent has the richer historic offer. Its medieval centre survives intact and is still in everyday use. The Gravensteen, the guildhalls along the Leie and the Ghent Altarpiece, one of the founding works of European painting, are all a short walk apart.

Rotterdam lost its old centre in the bombing of 1940 and rebuilt with experiments, so the Cube Houses, the Markthal and the mirrored Depot Boijmans van Beuningen draw people interested in modern architecture. Its museums are worthwhile but not essential, and the old city survives mainly in Delfshaven.

Going out is on a similar scale in both, but the mood differs. Ghent is a city for drinking and talking. Old cafés pour strong Belgian beer, the student bars of the Overpoort run late in term time, and every July the Gentse Feesten turns the centre into a ten-day street party.

Rotterdam is better for dancing. The city where gabber began still holds techno and house nights in warehouse and harbour venues that draw crowds from across the country, although its bar streets empty early outside weekends.

Both cities sit on flat land, but Rotterdam has more to do outdoors. The Kralingse Bos gives it woods and a sailing lake on the edge of town. The Biesbosch national park, with its tidal creeks for canoeing, is about forty minutes away, and the dunes at Hoek van Holland add coastal walks and kitesurfing.

Ghent's outdoors is gentler: cycling along the Leie to Sint-Martens-Latem, birdwatching in the Bourgoyen-Ossemeersen wetland and paddling at the Blaarmeersen.

Both are excellent bases, so the choice comes down to which country you want to explore. From Ghent, Bruges, Brussels and Antwerp are all within an hour, and the Westhoek battlefields and Lille are also within reach.

From Rotterdam, Delft and The Hague are minutes away, Amsterdam, Utrecht and Leiden are about an hour, and the water bus runs to the windmills of Kinderdijk. Antwerp lies between the two and is easy from either.

Rotterdam does more for children. Diergaarde Blijdorp, with its large ocean section, is one of the best zoos in the Netherlands, and the Maritime Museum has a play harbour. The Euromast and the water taxis turn sightseeing into an outing, and Madurodam is a short train ride away.

Ghent is safe and largely car-free, and children enjoy the Gravensteen's battlements and the canal boats. Beyond the House of Alijn and the Blaarmeersen, though, little in the city is aimed at them, and the cobbles are hard work with a pushchair.

Both are easy without a car, but in different ways. Ghent's centre is compact and mostly closed to traffic, so the sights are minutes apart on foot, and you mostly need the tram for the station. Rotterdam is spread out, with wide postwar roads and long, windy walks, so the metro, trams and water taxis across the Maas do more of the work.

In both cities cycling is how locals get about.

Rotterdam is the more convenient for high-street shopping. The Lijnbaan, the Beurstraverse and the Bijenkorf are close together, and independent, vintage and record shops line the Meent and the Nieuwe Binnenweg.

Ghent is better for browsing at a slower pace, with design on the Serpentstraat, the Sunday flower market on the Kouter, and cuberdons and the city's mustard to take home. Neither does much in the way of luxury.

Neither city is cheap, and overall they cost about the same. The difference is where the money goes. Rotterdam's plentiful business hotels are good value, especially at weekends. In Ghent, rooms are moderately priced except during the Gentse Feesten in July.

Eating out is expensive in both. In Ghent, frites stands and set lunches keep costs down, while in Rotterdam the Markthal counters and the Surinamese and Turkish snack shops do the same job.

Both have a strong stage life for their size, but their strengths differ. Ghent has opera and ballet in its nineteenth-century opera house, NTGent, a theatre known well beyond Belgium, and early music at De Bijloke, a concert hall in a former medieval hospital.

Rotterdam has no resident opera but has a first-rate orchestra at De Doelen and, each July, the North Sea Jazz Festival, one of the world's major jazz gatherings. Most theatre in both cities is in Dutch.

Rotterdam has the edge here thanks to the Dutch sauna tradition. Large wellness complexes with steam rooms, outdoor pools and gardens sit on the city's fringes, and their sauna areas are usually textile-free. Ghent has no bathing culture, only hotel spas and a few private saunas.

What Ghent offers instead is quiet: the walled gardens of the beguinages, slow walks along the Coupure and calm Sundays. That makes it a gentler place to switch off than brisk, working Rotterdam.