London or Maastricht?

Neither city suits a beach vacation, but London gives swimmers more. Brighton's pebble shore is about an hour away by train and the sandier Kent coast at Margate and Whitstable is within reach. In the city, the lidos at Brockwell Park and Parliament Hill and the Hampstead Heath ponds have a real outdoor swimming culture.

Maastricht is far from any coast. Its only open water is the old gravel-pit lakes along the Maas, which are pleasant on a hot afternoon but not something to plan around.

London eats the whole world: Bangladeshi cooking on Brick Lane, Cantonese in Chinatown, Punjabi food in Southall and Turkish grills in Green Lanes. On top of that come Borough Market, the weekend food markets and a deep fine-dining tier. You could eat a different cuisine at every meal for a week and not repeat yourself.

Maastricht's table is narrower but has a regional character. Expect sweet-sour zuurvlees, vlaai from the bakeries, seasonal asparagus and game, and Belgian beer and local white wine on the terraces of the Vrijthof. It eats well for its size, but street food and international range are thin.

London's collections are on another scale. The British Museum, the National Gallery, the V&A and the two Tates are mostly free, and the landmarks run through a thousand years, from the Tower and Westminster Abbey to St Paul's and Greenwich. A week there barely scratches the surface.

Maastricht is a satisfying two days by comparison. Its highlights are the Basilica of Saint Servatius, the Helpoort and the medieval walls along the Jeker, the tunnels of the Sint-Pietersberg and the Bonnefanten. The pleasure lies in an old, well-kept centre rather than any single great sight.

A night out in London means choosing a district. There are the late cocktail bars and long-established gay scene of Soho, the warehouse parties of Hackney and Dalston, and the big venues of Brixton, with thousands of pubs underneath them all. Friday and Saturday there are long and loud.

Maastricht's evenings are spent in cafés, with Belgian beer in the brown cafés around the Markt and the Platielstraat. They stay busy with students in term, but there is little club life. Carnival is the exception, when the whole city dresses up and parties in the streets for days.

The two are evenly matched for green space, but it comes in a different form. London's nature is mostly inside the city: the royal parks, the skyline views from Hampstead Heath, the deer of Richmond Park and the gardens at Kew. The Chilterns and the South Downs are an hour or so out by train.

Maastricht has less parkland, but the countryside starts at the edge of town. The marl cliffs of the Sint-Pietersberg, the Jeker valley and the rolling Heuvelland are all close, and the Heuvelland's short climbs are a favourite with road cyclists. Neither has mountains, and both offer gentle walking.

Both are good bases, but London's rail hub gives it the longer and richer list. Oxford, Cambridge, Windsor, Bath, Stonehenge, Canterbury and Brighton are all easy days out, different enough that several outings in a week never repeat a theme.

Maastricht's strength is the number of countries within reach rather than the number of famous names. Aachen and Liège are about half an hour away, Valkenburg and Tongeren are closer still, and Cologne, Brussels and Leuven are within roughly two hours. Crossing a border for lunch is part of the appeal.

London has far more to fill children's days, and much of it is free: the dinosaur halls of the Natural History Museum, the hands-on Science Museum, the Young V&A and the pirate ship at the Diana Memorial Playground. London Zoo, the South Bank aquarium and, further out, Legoland and the Harry Potter studio tour add paid outings.

The cost is effort, with long distances, crowds when schools are out and Tube stairs that are hard with a buggy.\n\nMaastricht is small, flat and calm, so young children are easy to manage, but in town there is little for them beyond the guided walk through the Sint-Pietersberg tunnels. For more you go out to the caves, cable car and fairy-tale park at Valkenburg or the zoo at Kerkrade.

London's network covers far more ground. The Underground, the Elizabeth line, the buses and the Thames riverboats reach almost everywhere on one contactless card, and the central districts are good for walking. The cost is scale, with long journeys between neighbourhoods and packed trains at rush hour.

Maastricht hardly needs a network. Its flat centre can be crossed on foot in about fifteen minutes on either bank, and bikes do the rest. Buses into the hill villages are limited, though, so the countryside is easier with a car or bike.

London is one of the world's great shopping cities. It has the luxury houses of Bond Street, bespoke tailoring on Savile Row, and Harrods, Liberty and Selfridges as sights in their own right. Then come the independents of Marylebone and Seven Dials and the markets of Portobello Road, Camden and Columbia Road.

Maastricht is an attractive weekend browse rather than a shopping destination on that scale. It has designer boutiques in the restored houses of the Stokstraat, the main brands around the Grote Staat, independent shops in Wyck and the weekly market on the Markt.

Neither is cheap, but Maastricht is the easier of the two on a budget. Rooms and meals cost about the usual Dutch amount, the walkable centre removes transport costs, and staying from Sunday to Thursday helps further.

London's central hotels are among the costliest in Europe, and restaurants, theatre and fares add up quickly. Its saving grace is that the national museums, the parks and the markets cost nothing to enjoy.

London is in a different league here. The West End, the National Theatre, the Globe, the Royal Opera House, five major orchestras, the Wigmore Hall and the Proms give a serious choice every night of the year. Jazz in Soho and rock and grime in Camden and Brixton add more.

Maastricht's stage life centres on the theatre on the Vrijthof, home to the regional orchestra and opera. Organ concerts in the churches and the big open-air summer concerts on the square fill out the calendar. It is solid for a provincial city, but few would travel for it.

Maastricht is the more restful choice. The city's slow pace, quiet squares and walks by the Maas and the Jeker do half the work, and real thermal bathing is close by. The spa above Valkenburg is about twenty minutes away, Aachen's baths half an hour, and the Belgian town of Spa within an hour.

London has some surprises, such as the tiled Turkish baths in Bayswater and at Ironmonger Row and the spas of the grand Mayfair hotels. Its pace is fast, though, and for proper thermal waters you take the train to Bath.