Paris or Amsterdam?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Amsterdam comes closer. A half-hour train ride reaches the wide sand and dunes at Zandvoort and Bloemendaal. The North Sea is cold and windy, so most visitors walk the shore rather than swim, while locals cool off at IJburg and the Sloterplas.

Paris has only sand laid out on its riverbanks in summer and swimming spots on the Bassin de la Villette, which are fine for cooling off but nothing like a coast. The real sea in Normandy is about two hours away.

This is where the two cities differ most. In Amsterdam, the best eating comes from its trading past: Indonesian rijsttafel, Surinamese roti, herring from street stalls and stroopwafels at the Albert Cuyp market. The real local pleasure is drinking, with jenever in old tasting rooms and beer with bitterballen in a brown café.

Paris makes good food part of everyday life. Every neighbourhood has its bakery and cheese shop, and the range runs from zinc-counter bistros and natural wine bars to haute cuisine. Add couscous in Belleville and pho in the 13th, and food alone can justify the trip.

Amsterdam has first-class collections in a small space. The Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum and the Stedelijk share the Museumplein, the canal ring is a sight in itself, and the Anne Frank House is the visit people remember most.

Paris works on a far larger scale. The Louvre alone could take a week, and the Orsay, the Orangerie, the Musée Rodin and the Cluny would each be the main museum in most other cities. Then come Notre-Dame, the Sainte-Chapelle and Haussmann's boulevards. Amsterdam can be seen properly in a few days, while Paris always leaves things for a return visit.

Both cities give a good night out, but in different ways. Amsterdam is known above all for electronic music. Clubs with all-night licences fill converted industrial buildings and spread across the IJ into Noord, and the Amsterdam Dance Event takes over the city each October. The gentler side is a beer in a candlelit brown café in the Jordaan.

In Paris, the night is built around bars rather than clubs. Wine bars and crowded bars along Oberkampf, the Canal Saint-Martin and Belleville carry on until about 2am, and the clubs that follow are chic and can be choosy at the door.

The outdoors around both cities is gentle, with Paris slightly ahead. Amsterdam's version is flat and open: a ferry and a bike take you into the polders and wooden villages of Waterland, and the coastal dunes of Zuid-Kennemerland have grazing bison.

Paris is greener in a more formal, wooded way. It has the Luxembourg gardens, the cliffs and lake of the Buttes-Chaumont, and the large woods of Boulogne and Vincennes. Forty minutes away, the forest of Fontainebleau has sandstone boulders that draw climbers.

Amsterdam's day trips are to small, close-together Dutch towns, while Paris's lead to palaces, cathedrals and whole wine regions. From Amsterdam, short train rides reach Haarlem, Leiden, Delft and Utrecht, each with its own canals and old centre. Add the Mauritshuis in The Hague, the windmills at Zaanse Schans and Kinderdijk, and the Keukenhof in spring.

From Paris, the outings are grander and the range is a little wider. Versailles, Fontainebleau and Chartres are each about an hour away, as is Monet's garden at Giverny. Fast trains also reach the Champagne houses of Reims and the Loire châteaux.

Amsterdam is easy with children: safe, relaxed and compact, with Artis zoo, the hands-on NEMO museum and good playgrounds in the parks. The catches are fast bikes and unfenced canal edges, and the nearest big theme park, Efteling, is an hour and a half away.

Paris offers children more. Disneyland and Parc Astérix are each about forty minutes away, the Cité des Sciences is a huge science museum, and the Luxembourg has puppet shows and toy boats. Getting around is harder with small children, though: many metro stations have only stairs, and hotel rooms are small.

Amsterdam is a city for the bike and the tram, Paris a city for the metro and long walks by the river. Amsterdam is small and flat. Trams cover the canal ring, free ferries cross the IJ, and a hired bike is the most natural way to get about, as long as you are confident in busy bike lanes.

Paris relies on its dense metro, so a station is never far away, and the walks along the Seine link the main sights well. Expect long corridors and stairs at many stations, packed trains at rush hour and pickpockets on the busiest lines.

Amsterdam's shopping is pleasant and on a small scale. It has boutiques and vintage shops in the Nine Streets, luxury labels on PC Hooftstraat and markets such as the Waterlooplein flea market and the floating Bloemenmarkt. Delft blue pottery and cheese are the classic things to take home.

Paris is in another league. It has the flagships of the great fashion houses, Galeries Lafayette and Le Bon Marché, and Marais designers. Beyond fashion there are the covered passages, the antiques dealers of Saint-Ouen, the bouquinistes along the Seine and old-established chocolate and cheese shops.

Both are expensive, and in both the hotel room is the biggest cost. Amsterdam's rooms around the canal ring are among the dearest in Europe and come with a tourist tax. Staying in Haarlem or Utrecht is a common way to save.

Paris rooms are costly and often small, and terrace drinks add up quickly. The city does offer more ways to save: its own museums have free permanent collections, lunchtime set menus are good value, and a picnic by the river is a local habit.

Amsterdam has one world-class venue in the Concertgebouw, famous for its acoustics. The Dutch National Opera and Ballet perform on the Amstel, the Bimhuis covers jazz, and Paradiso and the Melkweg bring in touring bands.

Paris has more of everything: ballet at the Palais Garnier, opera at the Bastille, the Philharmonie and chamber concerts in the Sainte-Chapelle. There are also jazz cellars in Saint-Germain and cabaret in Pigalle. In both cities most theatre is in the local language, which limits it for many visitors.

Neither city is a place to unwind, and neither has thermal baths, but each has its own way of relaxing. Amsterdam has a Northern European sauna culture, with large day spas on the edge of the city that are usually mixed and nude.

Paris has its hammams, above all the tiled steam rooms of the Grande Mosquée, where mint tea is served afterwards. In both cities, rest comes in short breaks: a quiet canal early in the morning, or an hour on a chair in the Luxembourg gardens.