Haarlem or Oxford?

Haarlem has a real coast within reach. Zandvoort's broad sandy beach is a short train ride away, and the quieter strand at Bloemendaal aan Zee can be reached by bike through the dunes, with beach pavilions along the sand in summer. The North Sea is grey, windy and cool, so most people walk the shore or take a quick dip rather than swim for long.

Oxford has no beach at all, and the south coast is well over an hour away. Swimming there means the river at Port Meadow or the Cherwell, with grassy banks instead of sand, or the open-air pool at Hinksey. That is fine on a hot afternoon, but there are no seaside days.

Neither town is a food destination, and both serve good meals rather than memorable ones, but the character differs. Haarlem eats on café terraces and in brown cafés around the Grote Markt. Its Saturday market sells raw herring and freshly fried kibbeling, and the town's long brewing history shows in its craft beer taps.

Oxford is a pub town, with low-beamed taverns, riverside Sunday roasts and lunch stalls in the old Covered Market. It has more range than Haarlem, thanks to Cowley Road's cheap Middle Eastern, South Asian and Caribbean kitchens and the bistros of Jericho.

Oxford gives the sightseer more to see. Its honey-stone colleges, chapels and libraries are still in use, from Christ Church to Merton, and the Bodleian, Radcliffe Camera and Sheldonian lie within minutes of each other. The Ashmolean, the Pitt Rivers and the Natural History Museum add collections of real depth, enough to fill two or three full days.

Haarlem's appeal is a well-preserved Dutch town with gabled houses, canals and quiet hofjes behind plain doors. Its high points are the Grote Kerk of St Bavo, the Frans Hals Museum and Teylers' 18th-century oval room. It is charming and complete, and two unhurried days will cover it.

Both towns are about a drink after dinner rather than dancing until dawn. Haarlem's evenings play out on the terraces and in the brown cafés around the Grote Markt and the Botermarkt, and for a bigger night most people take the short train ride to Amsterdam.

Oxford's evenings follow the university calendar. Old taverns are full in term time, the riverside pubs are busy on summer evenings, and Cowley Road has late bars and a couple of small clubs. It goes noticeably quiet during the long summer vacation.

Haarlem has wilder country closer to hand. Zuid-Kennemerland's dunes, pine woods and small lakes start at the western edge of town, with highland cattle, wild ponies and deer along the cycle paths. The coast is good for beach walks and kitesurfing, and the bulb fields are in flower in spring. The land is completely flat, though, and often windy.

Oxford's green spaces are meadows and riverbanks: Port Meadow, Christ Church Meadow and the Thames Path, with punting as the classic pastime. What it has that Haarlem lacks is hills within an hour, in the Cotswolds, the Chilterns and along the Ridgeway.

Both make excellent bases, but for different outings. From Haarlem the dense Dutch rail network makes it easy to visit Amsterdam, Leiden, The Hague, Delft and Utrecht on a whim, with Zaanse Schans, Alkmaar and Keukenhof in season close by, and no car or planning needed.

Oxford's day trips are stately homes and countryside as much as cities: Blenheim Palace is close by, while Stratford, Warwick, Windsor and Bath are a little further, and London is an hour by train. The Cotswold villages are its great prize, but many of them are much easier to reach with a car or a tour.

Haarlem gives children space and freedom outdoors. Its centre is small, flat and mostly free of cars, and local families get about with cargo bikes and child seats. The dunes and beach give children room to run, with playgrounds in the national park, and Teylers' fossils suit curious minds.

Oxford's draws are indoors and on the water: dinosaur skeletons at the free Natural History Museum, punting on the Cherwell and the Harry Potter echoes at Christ Church. Neither town has a zoo or theme park of its own, so families add outings, to Amsterdam's zoo from Haarlem or the Cotswold Wildlife Park from Oxford.

Each has a flat centre you can cross on foot in twenty minutes, and a car is a burden in both. In Haarlem the bike does more of the work, with separate paths leading straight out to the dunes and the beach, and one card covers the trains and buses.

In Oxford you mostly walk between colleges, museums and the river. Buses reach the suburbs, and drivers leave their cars at the park-and-ride sites.

Haarlem makes for the better afternoon of browsing in town. The lanes south and west of the Grote Markt, such as Gierstraat and Kleine Houtstraat, are full of independent boutiques, design shops and delicatessens, and the market brings flowers and cheese stalls to the main square.

Oxford's centre is mostly chains and a shopping centre, and the interesting finds are in the Covered Market, Jericho, the antique map sellers and Blackwell's vast bookshop. It does have the designer outlet village near Bicester, which has no counterpart near Haarlem.

Neither is a cheap place to stay, and over a few days the two come to much the same. What differs is where the money goes. In both, the room is the biggest cost and the hardest part to arrange, but the pressure comes from different places. Haarlem's small stock of hotels fills with visitors using it as a quieter base for Amsterdam and the bulb fields, and its guesthouses and apartments seldom undercut them. Oxford's rooms are squeezed by the university's ceremonies and conferences, though it offers more of a way out: staying by the ring road, or coming for the day from London.

Sightseeing tips the other way. Oxford's great museums are free, and you pay mainly to enter the colleges and join the library tours, whereas the Frans Hals Museum and Teylers each mean a ticket. Outings cost something from both, in different forms. From Haarlem it is a steady run of short train fares, while from Oxford the Cotswold villages often mean hiring a car or joining a tour. To keep daily costs down, Haarlem has its market stalls and bakeries at lunchtime, and Oxford has pub meals and the cafés of Cowley Road.

Oxford has the more memorable live experiences. Evensong sung by the choirs of Christ Church, Magdalen and New College is a highlight of any visit, and the Sheldonian and the historic Holywell Music Room add concerts, chamber music and jazz.

Haarlem's own speciality is the organ. St Bavo's great instrument is played in regular concerts and is the centre of a long-running international festival. Beyond that, the Philharmonie offers classical music, while the Stadsschouwburg's theatre is mostly in Dutch, which limits it for many visitors.

Haarlem is better for winding down. It sits in a country with a strong sauna culture, and there are large day-spa complexes with outdoor pools within reach, as well as smaller saunas in town. A cycle through the dunes is another easy way to unwind.

Oxford has few spas of any kind, and its calm is found in gardens instead: the Botanic Garden, Addison's Walk past the Magdalen deer park, or a slow afternoon on a punt.