Paris or The Hague?

The Hague has a real beach and Paris does not. Scheveningen's long, wide sand and promenade are a short tram ride from the centre, and Kijkduin, further south, is smaller and calmer, with dunes behind it. A warm afternoon on the sand fits easily into a city day. The North Sea stays cold, though, so this is a beach for sunbathing and quick dips.

Paris has summer sand along the riverbanks, swimming spots on the Bassin de la Villette and in the Seine, and handsome Art Deco pools, but no sea. The nearest coast is in Normandy, about two hours away by train, and the Channel there is cool as well.

Food is one of the widest gaps between the two cities. In Paris, eating well is part of ordinary life. Every neighbourhood has its bakery and cheese shop, markets such as Aligre run on set mornings, and the range runs from zinc-counter bistros through natural wine bars and the small, inventive neo-bistros of the eastern arrondissements to a fine-dining tradition the rest of the world followed. Immigrant kitchens widen it further, with couscous in Belleville, pho in the Asian quarter of the south-east, and Lebanese and West African cooking across the north and east.

The Hague has one real strength: Indonesian cooking, from a full rijsttafel to plates of rendang and sate, which few cities outside Indonesia can match. Beyond that, brown cafés, the fish stalls at Scheveningen harbour and herring from street carts make for pleasant meals, but they are not a reason to travel.

Paris could fill a week with the Louvre alone. Add the Orsay's Impressionists, the Pompidou, Monet's water lilies in the Orangerie, and the Gothic glass of Notre-Dame and the Sainte-Chapelle, all set among Haussmann's boulevards, which are a sight in their own right. The cost is queues and the need to book ahead.

The Hague works on a smaller, quieter scale. Beside the medieval Binnenhof, the Mauritshuis holds Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring in a compact collection of the highest quality. The Kunstmuseum's Mondrians, Escher and the Panorama Mesdag fill out two or three unhurried days rather than a week.

Paris offers a proper night out. It starts with wine bars and crowded bars around Oberkampf, the Canal Saint-Martin and Belleville, moves on to cocktails in South Pigalle and the gay scene in the Marais, and ends in clubs playing house and techno until dawn. Expect selective doors and expensive drinks.

Evenings in The Hague are civil and end earlier. The terraces on the Plein and the Grote Markt, and the beach pavilions at Scheveningen in summer, are pleasant, but the club scene is small. Anyone wanting a late night takes the train to Rotterdam or Amsterdam.

Neither city has big landscapes, but their green space is of a different kind. Paris is a city of formal gardens such as the Luxembourg, with the cliffs and lake of the Buttes-Chaumont and large woods at Boulogne and Vincennes. Fontainebleau's sandstone boulders and marked trails are about forty minutes away by train.

The Hague has the sea and dunes on its doorstep: Meijendel's sand hills and ponds, the Westduinpark, beach walks in any season and wind for kitesurfing. Outdoors, The Hague is wilder and breezier, and Paris is more manicured.

Both are excellent bases, and Paris has the slightly grander list. You can reach Versailles, Fontainebleau and Chantilly, Chartres cathedral and Monet's Giverny easily. Fast trains add Reims and its Champagne houses, Rouen's old town and the Loire châteaux, enough to fill a long stay.

The Hague's trips are shorter and come thick and fast. Delft and Leiden are about fifteen minutes away, with Rotterdam and Gouda soon after, and Amsterdam, Haarlem and Utrecht are all within the hour. Add Kinderdijk's windmills and Keukenhof in spring, and you can see much of the Netherlands while sleeping somewhere quiet.

Paris has more of the big outings children remember. Disneyland Paris and Parc Astérix are a short ride out, and in the city there are the hands-on Cité des Sciences, the Jardin d'Acclimatation, and carousels and toy sailboats in the Luxembourg. Day-to-day life is harder, with stair-only metro stations, cramped hotel rooms and long queues.

The Hague is easier to manage but has fewer headline draws. Madurodam's miniature Netherlands, the sea aquarium at Scheveningen and Duinrell's water park make good days out. Trams take pushchairs and the city is flat and calm, but a rainy day sends everyone indoors.

Paris is the easier city to get around. Its centre is one of the great walks, from the Marais to Saint-Germain or along the river to the Eiffel Tower, and the metro is so dense that a station is always close. The price is stairs, long corridors and packed trains at rush hour.

The Hague's centre is small and flat, but the beach, Madurodam and the Peace Palace are spread out, so trams do more of the work. Its real advantage is the bicycle, with separate lanes almost everywhere. Its rail links also make Delft and Leiden feel like suburbs.

Paris is one of the world's great shopping cities. It has the fashion houses on Avenue Montaigne, Galeries Lafayette and Le Bon Marché, designers and vintage shops in the Marais, the nineteenth-century covered passages, the vast Saint-Ouen flea market and the bouquinistes along the Seine. Chocolate, cheese and mustard make good things to take home.

The Hague is refined but small. The antique dealers and boutiques along the Denneweg and Noordeinde, the glass-roofed Passage from the 1880s and the Haagse Markt, piled with fabrics and spices, are worth a browse, but there is little luxury and nothing distinctive to bring back.

Neither city is cheap, but The Hague is easier on a budget. Prices are at Northern European levels, yet central hotels are often easier to find at a reasonable price at weekends, when the government travellers leave. Indonesian and Surinamese eateries serve filling plates for less, and a bike or the tram covers the city cheaply.

Paris costs more at almost every turn, from small, expensive hotel rooms to drinks on a terrace and full museum admissions. Bakeries, markets, set lunches, the free collections of the city-run museums and long walks all help, as does staying in the outer arrondissements.

Paris has the far fuller stage. There are the Palais Garnier and the Opéra Bastille, the Philharmonie, chamber concerts in the Sainte-Chapelle, jazz cellars around the rue des Lombards, and cabaret in Pigalle. Much of the theatre is in French, but the music needs no translation.

The Hague's appeal is narrower but very particular: the chance to see Nederlands Dans Theater, one of the world's leading contemporary dance companies, in its home city. The Residentie Orkest and the conservatory concerts add more, but there is no resident opera company and most drama is in Dutch.

Paris offers steam in the North African manner, and The Hague offers the Dutch sauna. In Paris the hammam of the Grande Mosquée in the Latin Quarter, with its tiled steam rooms and mint tea, is the place to go, and hotel and day spas cover massage. Beyond that, rest comes in short breaks on a café terrace or a chair in the Luxembourg gardens, away from a fast, loud city.

The Hague's sauna complexes are built for a whole day of saunas, cold plunges, gardens and quiet rooms, and nudity is usually the rule. The city's calm, orderly streets also make unwinding easier than in Paris.