Haarlem or Paris?

Haarlem has a real coast close by. The train reaches the long sands of Zandvoort in about ten minutes, and you can cycle through the dunes to the quieter strand at Bloemendaal aan Zee. The limit is the North Sea, which is grey, windy and cool, so most beach afternoons go on walking and sheltering from the wind.

Paris is inland. In summer it lays sand and deckchairs along the Seine, and you can swim at the Bassin de la Villette or in its Art Deco public pools, but the nearest real sea is in Normandy, about two hours away.

Haarlem eats well in a modest way. You get herring and kibbeling from the Saturday market on the Grote Markt, cosy brown cafés, a few modern bistros and a strong craft beer tradition, but meals are good rather than memorable.

Paris is one of the world's great places to eat. Everyday cheese shops and markets such as Aligre feed zinc-counter bistros, the small neo-bistros of the 10th and 11th and the haute cuisine tradition. Vietnamese pho in the south-east, couscous in Belleville and serious pastry add a range Haarlem cannot match.

Haarlem's centre is a well-kept Golden Age town. It has the Gothic bulk of St Bavo, Frans Hals's portraits, the old oval room of Teylers Museum and almshouse courtyards behind plain doors. It makes a satisfying two days.

Paris works on a different scale. The Louvre alone could take a week, and the Orsay, the Orangerie, Cluny and the Pompidou would each lead in a smaller city. Add Sainte-Chapelle, Haussmann's boulevards and the Marais townhouses, and a first visit barely scratches the surface.

Evenings in Haarlem are sociable but short. People gather on terraces and in brown cafés around the Grote Markt and the Botermarkt, and anyone wanting a club takes the train to Amsterdam.

Paris keeps going far later. Bars crowd Oberkampf, the Canal Saint-Martin and Belleville, South Pigalle has the cocktail bars and the Marais the gay scene. After the bars close at about 2am, the clubs and summer barges play house and techno until dawn, though some doors are selective.

Haarlem has the better outdoors, because it starts at the edge of town. Zuid-Kennemerland's dunes, woods and small lakes have highland cattle and wild ponies, the water-supply dunes to the south have tame fallow deer, and in spring you can cycle through the bulb fields.

Paris offers formal gardens, the cliffs of the Buttes-Chaumont and the big woods of Boulogne and Vincennes. For real forest you take the train to Fontainebleau, known for its climbing boulders. Neither place has any hills worth the name.

Both are excellent bases, and the difference is in the kind of trips. From Haarlem, the hops are short and many: Amsterdam in a quarter of an hour, Leiden, The Hague and Delft within the hour, plus Alkmaar's cheese market, Zaanse Schans and Keukenhof in spring.

Paris has the longer and grander list. Versailles, Fontainebleau and Chartres are close, and Giverny and Auvers-sur-Oise are within easy reach. Fast trains also put Champagne in Reims, Rouen, the Loire châteaux and Brussels within a day.

Paris offers far more for children. Disneyland and Parc Astérix are both close, and in the city there are the hands-on Cité des Sciences, the zoo at Vincennes, the skeletons at the Jardin des Plantes and the toy sailboats on the Luxembourg pond. The cost is daily wear: metro stairs with a pushchair, small rooms and long queues.

Haarlem is easier day to day, with a flat, mostly car-free centre, Teylers' fossils and the dunes to run in. It has no zoo or theme park of its own, though, so families end up going to Amsterdam for those.

Both centres are best on foot. You can cross Haarlem's in about twenty minutes, the station sits at its edge, and bike paths run out to the dunes and the beach. It is simple, but there is not much ground to cover.

Paris lets you go much further without a car. The dense metro puts a station a few minutes from almost anywhere, and the RER reaches Versailles, Disneyland and the airports. Expect stairs and corridors in the stations and packed lines at rush hour.

Haarlem's lanes off the Grote Markt, such as Gierstraat and Kleine Houtstraat, are good for independent boutiques, design shops and delis, with the chains on the Grote Houtstraat. It has no luxury street and no department store.

Paris is one of the world's shopping capitals. You have couture on Avenue Montaigne, Galeries Lafayette and Le Bon Marché, Marais designers and vintage shops, the covered passages, the Saint-Ouen flea market and the bouquinistes along the Seine.

Neither is cheap, but Haarlem goes a little easier on the budget. Getting around town by bike costs almost nothing and the market stalls keep lunch cheap. Its hotels are few, small and fill early, and train fares for outings add up.

In Paris, hotel rooms, terrace drinks and full-price admissions bite harder. The ways to save are real, though: the city's own museums have free permanent collections, transport is reasonable, picnics by the river are a local habit, and rooms cost less in the outer arrondissements.

Paris has far more on stage. There are two opera houses, with ballet at the Palais Garnier, and a world-class Philharmonie at La Villette. You can also see Molière at the Comédie-Française, hear jazz in cellar clubs around the rue des Lombards and catch cabaret in Pigalle, though much of the theatre is in French.

Haarlem has its own Philharmonie for classical and chamber music and a Dutch-language theatre. Its distinctive offer is the organ: concerts on St Bavo's great instrument and a long-running international organ festival.

The two are about level, and neither has thermal springs. In Haarlem, rest comes from the setting: quiet canals after dark, almshouse courtyards, rides into the dunes and the Dutch habit of large sauna complexes in the surrounding region.

Paris offers the tiled steam rooms and mint tea of the Grande Mosquée hammam, plus hotel day spas. Its streets are loud and fast, though, so calm comes in short breaks on a Luxembourg chair or along the Seine.