Haarlem or Maastricht?

Haarlem has a real coastline on its doorstep. Zandvoort's long sandy beach is a short train ride away, and the quieter strand at Bloemendaal aan Zee, backed by dunes, can be reached by bike. The North Sea is cool and windy, so a beach day here usually means walking, sitting in a pavilion and perhaps a quick dip, not hours in the water.

Maastricht is about as far from the sea as you can get in the Netherlands. In summer, locals swim in old gravel-pit lakes along the Maas, which are fine for an afternoon, but anyone who wants the coast should choose Haarlem.

Maastricht eats better. Its Limburg dishes include sweet-sour zuurvlees, vlaai in every bakery, and asparagus and game in season, and it serves Belgian beer and white wine from its own hillsides. The top end of its dining is strong for a city this size, especially in the old centre and in Wyck.

Haarlem's food is well made but plainer. The Saturday market sells herring and kibbeling, the cafés around the Grote Markt are good for lunch, and the town's long brewing history shows in its craft beer taps. You will eat good meals there, but rarely memorable ones.

The two are evenly matched, but their history comes from different eras. Haarlem belongs to the Golden Age: the Frans Hals Museum, the gabled canal streets, the hidden hofjes and St Bavo with the organ Mozart played. Teylers Museum adds an 18th-century cabinet of curiosities that has hardly changed.

Maastricht goes back much further. It has two Romanesque basilicas, stretches of medieval wall with the Helpoort gate, and a 13th-century bridge over the Maas. The guided tunnels inside the Sint-Pietersberg have no counterpart in Haarlem. Each city fills two unhurried days.

Maastricht has more going on after dark. Its large student population keeps the cafés around the Markt and the Platielstraat busy late at weekends during term, and at carnival the whole city parties in the streets for days.

Haarlem's evenings are gentler: terraces on the Grote Markt and the Botermarkt, brown cafés, and most places closing well before dawn. Its advantage is that Amsterdam's clubs are only fifteen minutes away by train, so a big night out is easy to arrange.

There is plenty of countryside close to both cities, but the landscapes are very different. Haarlem's is flat and coastal: the dunes, pine woods and small lakes of Zuid-Kennemerland, with grazing ponies and fallow deer, long beach walks, and the bulb fields in bloom in spring.

Maastricht is where the Netherlands finally gets hills. There are marl cliffs on the Sint-Pietersberg, the green Jeker valley, and the sunken lanes and short climbs of the Heuvelland, which road cyclists love. The heath of Hoge Kempen and the Ardennes are both within reach across the border.

Haarlem has the edge for easy day trips because the Dutch rail network is so dense around it. Amsterdam is fifteen minutes away, Leiden twenty, and The Hague and Delft under an hour. Keukenhof, Alkmaar and Zaanse Schans are simple outings, and you can decide where to go on the morning.

Maastricht's strength is variety rather than ease. In half an hour you can be in Aachen or Liège, Tongeren and Valkenburg are nearer still, and Cologne, Brussels and Leuven are possible on longer days. Some of these trips go better with a car.

Both cities are equally easy with children: small, flat, safe and relaxed. The difference is what there is to do. In Haarlem, it is mostly outdoors, with sand and dunes to run on, playgrounds in the national park and Teylers' fossils on a rainy day, but no zoo or theme park in town.

Maastricht's one children's highlight in the city is the dark tunnel tour. Most family outings are a short trip away, at Valkenburg's caves, cable car and fairy-tale park, or the zoo in Kerkrade.

Both centres are compact and flat, so you can walk almost everywhere. The difference shows once you leave the centre. Haarlem's bike paths run straight to the dunes and the beach, and fast trains make a car pointless.

In Maastricht, you cross the Maas between the old town and Wyck, where the station is, and the cobbles are the only nuisance. Buses do reach Valkenburg and the hill villages, but the countryside is much easier with a bike or a car.

There is little to choose between them; both are good for an afternoon of browsing rather than a reason to travel. Haarlem's strength is independent fashion, design and bookshops on Gierstraat, Kleine Houtstraat and Schagchelstraat, with the chains on the Grote Houtstraat.

Maastricht has a little more polish. Designer boutiques fill the restored houses of the Stokstraat quarter, and Belgian and German visitors come for the weekend just to shop. Smaller shops for vintage and interiors are in Wyck.

Neither city is cheap, but Maastricht is somewhat easier on the budget. Simple lunches and Belgian beer in a brown café cost less than in the larger Dutch cities, the walkable centre keeps transport spending low, and staying from Sunday to Thursday saves the most.

Haarlem is priced like the prosperous Randstad. It has few hotels for the number of visitors who want to stay there, so rooms are small for what they cost and book up early in tulip season and summer. Regular train outings also add to the bill.

For live performance the two are broadly level, though their strengths differ. Haarlem's speciality is the organ: St Bavo's great instrument and a long-running international organ festival, plus classical music at the Philharmonie and a pop venue for touring bands. For opera, you go to Amsterdam.

Maastricht has its regional symphony orchestra and opera company at the theatre on the Vrijthof. In summer the square itself hosts large open-air concerts, and at carnival brass bands march through every street.

The difference is water. Haarlem has none to bathe in, so unwinding there means heat and fresh air. The Dutch take their saunas seriously, and you can book a session in town or go out to one of the big garden sauna complexes in the region. Most visitors find more calm outdoors, though, cycling out through the dunes towards the sea and coming back to canals and hofjes that are almost silent by evening.

Maastricht is the better choice because warm mineral water rises out of the ground in this border country, and people have bathed in it since Roman times. A long soak in a heated pool on a wooded hillside is an easy half-day trip from the city. The city also helps you slow down. Locals like to eat and drink well and take their time over it, lunches often run into the afternoon, and the river paths suit a slow walk better than a brisk one.