Ghent or Stuttgart?

Neither city is for a beach trip, but Ghent at least has the coast within reach. Trains get to Ostend in about an hour, and a coastal tram links the wide sandy resorts, although the North Sea is cool and often windy. Closer in, the Blaarmeersen lake has a sandy shore and lifeguards in summer.

Stuttgart is much further from any shore, and Lake Constance is more than two hours away. Here swimming means the outdoor pools, some of them fed by the mineral springs.

The two eat about equally well, and the real difference is beer against wine. Ghent's tables are built around Flemish stews, mussels with frites and the city's waterzooi. You wash them down with long lists of Belgian beer in old brown cafés, and vegetarians are unusually well served.

Stuttgart cooks heartier Swabian dishes like Maultaschen and Käsespätzle and pours Trollinger and Riesling from vineyards inside the city limits. It also has a deeper choice of fine dining and its Art Nouveau Markthalle, while Ghent is the easier place to grab a cone of frites in the street.

Ghent is the stronger city for sightseeing, because its medieval centre survived whole. The guildhalls along the Leie, the Gravensteen castle and the three towers seen from St Michael's Bridge make the streets themselves the attraction. Inside St Bavo's hangs the Ghent Altarpiece, one of the founding works of European painting.

Stuttgart's old core was heavily bombed, so its sights lean towards industry and modern design. The Mercedes-Benz and Porsche museums, the Staatsgalerie and Le Corbusier's houses at the Weissenhof Estate are each excellent, but they are destinations to travel between rather than a streetscape to wander through.

Ghent's university gives it the livelier nights. The Overpoort student bars run late in term time, the cafés around the Vrijdagmarkt suit a long evening over strong beer, and summer crowds drink along the quays. In July the Gentse Feesten turns the whole centre into a party.

Stuttgart's nights centre on the bars of Theodor-Heuss-Strasse and a scatter of basement clubs, with quieter wine bars in the Bohnenviertel. Its big moment is the Cannstatter Volksfest in autumn. On ordinary weekdays the city goes to bed fairly early.

Stuttgart is far better for time outdoors. The city sits in a basin of wooded hills and vineyards, so wine trails and the deer forests of the Rotwildpark start almost at the edge of town. Within about an hour are the cliff paths and caves of the Swabian Jura and the fir-covered ridges of the northern Black Forest.

Around Ghent the land is flat farmland, so the outdoors means riverside cycling along the Leie, birdwatching at the Bourgoyen-Ossemeersen wetland and the dunes on the coast. It is pleasant, but there is nothing to climb.

Both make excellent bases, and Ghent has the slight advantage of shorter distances. Bruges is under half an hour away, Brussels about the same, and Antwerp under an hour, with Ypres, Leuven and Lille also within reach. You could take a different trip every day of a week without a long train ride.

Stuttgart's day trips are more varied in kind. There is Ludwigsburg's baroque palace and Tübingen's punts, Heidelberg is about forty minutes by fast train, and Hohenzollern Castle and Maulbronn monastery are further out. Several of these are best combined, so the days out run longer.

Stuttgart does more for children. Wilhelma, a zoo and botanical garden among Moorish-style pavilions, can fill a whole day, and the Killesberg park adds a miniature railway and animal enclosures. There are also good outdoor pools and the rack railway.

Ghent is safe, and its centre is largely free of cars, but its attractions for children come down to the Gravensteen's battlements, canal boat trips and the House of Alijn's old toys. The nearest zoo is in Antwerp, and cobbles make pushchairs hard work. Stuttgart's hills are a different challenge for pushchairs.

Ghent is slightly easier to get around, because everything a visitor wants is in a flat, largely car-free centre that is easy to cover on foot or by bike. The main station is a twenty-minute walk or a short tram ride south.

Stuttgart's centre is just as compact, but the city climbs steeply up the sides of its basin. Past the core, you rely on the Stadtbahn and S-Bahn, a rack railway, a funicular or the long public stairways called Stäffele. One ticket covers it all, so the hills slow you down without getting in the way.

Stuttgart is the better choice if you shop for brands. Königstrasse is one of Germany's longest pedestrian shopping streets, Breuninger department store is the place for designer fashion, and the outlet town of Metzingen is about half an hour away.

Ghent is better for browsing than buying big. It has independent fashion on the Serpentstraat, vintage in the student quarter and weekend flea and flower markets. Its best buys are edible, such as cuberdons, mustard and Belgian beer.

Neither city is cheap, and both cost about the same overall. Where the money goes is different. In Ghent, sit-down dinners with a few beers are what add up, while frites stands, set lunches and free entry to several churches, St Bavo's among them, help balance the bill. Rooms only become really expensive around the Gentse Feesten.

Stuttgart's hotel prices follow the trade fairs, so a weekend or quiet-season visit can come in noticeably cheaper. Tavern meals give generous portions for the price.

Stuttgart is the city to visit for its stages. The Stuttgart Ballet, famous since John Cranko's time, and a bold opera company share the state theatre by the palace gardens. The Liederhalle has a strong Bach tradition, and long-running musicals fill two large theatres in Möhringen.

Ghent's scene is strong for a city its size, but it is more local. You can see opera and ballet in the nineteenth-century opera house, and early music in De Bijloke's medieval hospital hall. NTGent's acclaimed productions are mostly in Dutch.

Stuttgart has a real bathing culture, which Ghent lacks. Its springs are among Europe's most productive mineral sources and supply public baths such as the Mineralbad Cannstatt and the Mineralbad Leuze, where you soak in warm, naturally fizzy water. Plan on an afternoon there, not a full spa retreat.

Ghent's way of relaxing is to slow down. That means the enclosed gardens of the beguinages, walks along the Coupure canal, long terrace afternoons and quiet Sundays, with only a few hotel spas.