Paris or Rotterdam?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Rotterdam at least has a real one. Hoek van Holland is a wide sandy North Sea strand with dunes behind it and container ships passing close by, and the metro gets you there in under an hour. The catch is a cold, windy sea, so it works better for a walk than a swim.

Paris has no coast at all. Its summer river beaches and the swimming spots on the Bassin de la Villette are fine for cooling off, and the Art Deco public pools are a pleasure in themselves, but for the sea you are looking at the Normandy resorts, about two hours away by train.

This is one of the widest gaps between the two. In Paris, eating well is woven into daily life, from the boulangerie and cheese shop on every street to zinc-counter bistros, natural wine bars, the inventive neo-bistros of the eastern arrondissements and the haute cuisine that set the standard for fine dining. Belleville couscous and Vietnamese pho in the 13th widen the range further, and pastry alone could justify the trip.

Rotterdam eats well in a narrower way. Its strength is the port city's immigrant cooking, Surinamese roti, Turkish bakeries and Cape Verdean and Indonesian kitchens, best found around the Markthal, the Witte de Withstraat and the Nieuwe Binnenweg. Dutch cooking itself barely goes beyond herring and bitterballen, and serious fine dining is scarce.

Paris has one of the deepest concentrations of art and monuments anywhere: the Louvre, the Impressionists at Orsay, Monet's water lilies at the Orangerie, the Gothic glass of the Sainte-Chapelle and the unified Haussmann cityscape along the UNESCO-listed Seine. The challenge is choosing and queueing, not finding enough to see.

Rotterdam offers something Paris does not, a city rebuilt after 1940 as a showcase of modern architecture, from the Cube Houses and Erasmus Bridge to the mirrored Depot Boijmans van Beuningen. Its museums are solid rather than famous, and old Rotterdam survives only in pockets such as Delfshaven, so a couple of days covers it.

Paris has the fuller night out. Evenings start on a terrace or in a wine bar and drift through the crowded bars of Oberkampf, Belleville and the Canal Saint-Martin, the cocktail bars of South Pigalle or the gay scene in the Marais, with house and techno clubs and summer barges carrying on until dawn. It is stylish rather than wild, and doors can be picky.

Rotterdam is quieter on ordinary nights, when the Witte de Withstraat and Oude Haven bars wind down early. Its clubs are the real draw: this is the home of gabber, and the warehouse and harbour venues pull in hard techno crowds from across the country at weekends.

Both are flat cities where the outdoors is gentle, and Paris has slightly more to offer. Its formal gardens, the cliffs and lake of the Buttes-Chaumont, and the big woods of Boulogne and Vincennes cover the city itself, while the forest of Fontainebleau, with its sandstone boulders and marked trails, is about forty minutes away by train.

Rotterdam's outdoors is about water and bikes. Cycle paths run straight out along dykes into polder country, the Kralingse Bos has a lake for sailing, and the Biesbosch creeks suit canoeing and birdwatching. The dunes at Hoek van Holland add coastal walks, but there is no great forest close by in the way Fontainebleau is for Paris.

Both make excellent bases, and Paris has the richer list. Versailles, Fontainebleau and Chantilly are châteaux within an hour, Chartres and Giverny are close, and fast trains bring the Champagne houses of Reims, Rouen's old town and the Loire valley within a day. These are destinations in their own right, enough to fill a second week.

Rotterdam's strength is distance rather than grandeur. Delft is a quarter of an hour away, The Hague, Leiden, Utrecht and Amsterdam all within about an hour, and the Kinderdijk windmills a water-bus ride, with Antwerp, Ghent and Bruges across the Belgian border.

Paris has more for children to do. Disneyland Paris and Parc Astérix are under an hour out, the Cité des Sciences is a vast hands-on museum, and the Jardin des Plantes skeletons, the Vincennes zoo and the carousels and toy boats of the Luxembourg fill shorter days. The hard part is logistics: stairs in the metro, crowded trains, small hotel rooms and long queues.

Rotterdam has less on offer but is easier day to day, with flat streets, wide pavements and trams. Blijdorp zoo, the children's harbour at the Maritime Museum and the water taxis are the highlights, and Madurodam is a short train ride away.

Paris is easier to get around because its centre is so compact and walkable: the riverside walk from the Louvre to the Eiffel Tower is a highlight in itself, and the dense metro means a station is never far. Long stairways, rush-hour crowds and confusing metro-RER changes are the price.

Rotterdam's single tap-in system for metro, tram and bus is simple, and water taxis across the Maas add some fun. Its postwar centre is spread out, though, with wide roads and windy walks between the sights, so most visitors mix the tram with a bike on the city's separate cycle paths.

Paris is in a different class here. The couture houses on Avenue Montaigne and the Faubourg Saint-Honoré, the department stores of Galeries Lafayette and Le Bon Marché, independent designers in the Marais and the antiques maze at Saint-Ouen give it range at every level, and chocolate, cheese and mustard make good souvenirs.

Rotterdam is a solid high-street city built around the Lijnbaan, one of Europe's first pedestrian shopping streets, and the Bijenkorf. Its independent fashion, vintage and record shops on the Meent and Nieuwe Binnenweg are worth a browse, but luxury labels are few.

Both are expensive, and Rotterdam is the gentler on a budget, mainly because of its rooms. Hotels are plentiful, business hotels empty out at weekends, and much of the sightseeing is architecture viewed from the street. Restaurant meals and drinks cost as much as anywhere in the Netherlands, so the savings come from the Markthal and snack shops.

Paris hotels are dear and small, especially in the central arrondissements, and the major museums charge full admission. Free permanent collections at the city's own museums, bakery lunches and a picnic by the Seine help a lot.

Paris offers a full calendar on world stages: opera at the Bastille, ballet at the Palais Garnier, orchestras at the Philharmonie and the Maison de la Radio, chamber music beneath the Sainte-Chapelle's glass, plus cellar jazz clubs and Pigalle cabaret. Much of the theatre is in French.

Rotterdam's highlights are the Philharmonic at De Doelen and the North Sea Jazz Festival each July, one of the world's major jazz gatherings. There is no resident opera, and most theatre needs Dutch.

Neither city is built for slowing down, and they come out about level, with different traditions. Paris has the North African hammam, best experienced at the tiled steam rooms of the Grande Mosquée with mint tea afterwards, along with luxury hotel spas.

Rotterdam leans on the Dutch sauna culture, large complexes on the city's edge with pools and gardens and textile-free sauna areas, which suit a full lazy afternoon better than a quick steam.