Baden-Baden or Bamberg?

Neither town has a beach, and neither is worth choosing for swimming. The difference is the kind of water. Baden-Baden's is the warm water of its thermal pools, with gravel pits out on the Rhine plain for a summer swim. Bamberg has a long-established river bathing spot in the Hain park on the Regnitz, a pleasant place to cool off right in town.

Bamberg is the stronger place to eat and drink, as long as you like beer. Its brewery taverns pour smoky Rauchbier from wooden barrels, the hillside beer cellars fill on summer evenings, and plates of Schäufele with dumplings are hearty and local.

Baden-Baden's strength is wine. Riesling and Pinot Noir come from the Rebland villages just outside town, and the cooking has a French accent and plenty of cake. In town the choice is narrower and leans towards hotel dining, so the best tables mean a drive into the Black Forest.

Bamberg has more to see. Its entire old town escaped wartime damage and is listed by UNESCO. The highlights are the four-towered cathedral with the Bamberg Horseman, the Old Town Hall on its island in the Regnitz, the fishermen's houses of Little Venice and the abbey on Michaelsberg. The museums are small, and the pleasure is the walk itself.

Baden-Baden is a single, very complete period piece: a Belle Époque spa resort of the Kurhaus, the Trinkhalle and hillside villas. Its art is stronger, with the Museum Frieder Burda and the Kunsthalle side by side. Even so, it fills a day or two, while Bamberg's lanes repay a longer stay.

Neither town is a party place, but Bamberg has more going on after dark. Its brewery taverns fill after work, the student bars in the Sand quarter stay busy in term time, and the beer cellars make for long summer evenings.

In Baden-Baden the night out is the Kurhaus casino in smart dress, followed by a hotel or wine bar, and the streets are quiet early. For clubs, people go from Bamberg to Nuremberg, and from Baden-Baden to Karlsruhe or Strasbourg.

Baden-Baden has the bigger landscape on its doorstep. The northern Black Forest begins at the edge of town, the Merkur funicular climbs to views across the Rhine plain to the Vosges, and the High Road follows the ridge to the Mummelsee and the Hornisgrinde moorland above 1,100m, with some skiing in winter.

Bamberg's countryside is gentler: rolling hills, the beech woods of the Steigerwald and cycle paths along the Main. The best of it for hikers and climbers is Franconian Switzerland, with its limestone valleys, caves and rock towers, under an hour to the east.

Both towns make excellent bases, and Baden-Baden has the slightly richer list because it reaches across the border. Strasbourg and the Alsace wine villages sit alongside Heidelberg, Freiburg and the UNESCO sites of Speyer and Maulbronn, though several of the best outings are easier by car.

Bamberg's outings are all in Franconia and all reachable by rail. Nuremberg, the Residence at Würzburg, Coburg and Bayreuth are each about an hour away, the basilica of Vierzehnheiligen is closer, and Rothenburg makes a long but rewarding day.

Baden-Baden works slightly better with children, mostly because of what lies nearby. Europa-Park is about an hour south, Karlsruhe's zoo is closer, and the funicular and forest trails make good outings. The town itself is made for adults, though, and the Friedrichsbad does not admit young children.

Bamberg is relaxed with children. There are playgrounds in the Hain, boats to hire on the Regnitz, a leisure pool with slides, and beer gardens where children play among the tables. It has no big attraction made for them, however, and the cobbled climbs are hard work with a pushchair.

Bamberg is the easier town to manage without a car. The island town, the cathedral hill and Little Venice are minutes apart on foot, the lower town is flat enough for bicycles, and the station connects straight to the rest of Franconia.

Baden-Baden's centre is also easy to walk, but the station is a bus ride away in Oos, some streets climb steeply, and the High Road, the wine villages and Alsace all really need a car.

Shopping is a side pleasure in both towns, but they suit different shoppers. Baden-Baden is the one for browsing fine things: its two main streets are lined with jewellers, watch shops, fashion boutiques and delicatessens kept for people who come to take the waters, so it rewards someone who likes to window-shop between baths and perhaps buy one good piece. Beyond that, the souvenirs are cuckoo clocks and Rebland wine.

Bamberg has no luxury end at all. Around Grüner Markt you find the familiar high-street names and a few independent bookshops, and the better buys are local: vegetables from the town's market gardens, smoked beer from the brewery shops and old pieces from the antique dealers near the cathedral. It suits anyone after edible souvenirs or antiques, though neither town will fill more than an afternoon.

Bamberg is clearly the cheaper of the two. Beer and brewery-tavern meals cost little, hotels are moderately priced for most of the year, and you walk everywhere.

Baden-Baden was built for the wealthy and still prices itself that way. Grand hotels set the tone and every visit to the baths is paid for. Simple guesthouses and wine taverns help, but a stay centred on the spas soon adds up.

Both towns are unusually strong in classical music for their size, and Baden-Baden goes further. The Festspielhaus, one of Germany's largest opera and concert houses, brings leading orchestras and opera productions, and the Kurhaus philharmonic and the small nineteenth-century theatre add to the programme.

Bamberg's pride is its orchestra rather than its venues. The Bamberg Symphony has a real international reputation, and the ETA Hoffmann Theatre and church concerts add to it. The town has no opera company of its own, so opera lovers look to Bayreuth.

This is where the two towns differ most. Baden-Baden exists for its hot springs. The domed Friedrichsbad takes you through a fixed sequence of rooms in silence, Caracalla has indoor and outdoor pools and a large sauna area, and the grand hotels have spas of their own, all in a town that runs at a slow pace.

Bamberg relaxes you in a different way, with mornings by the river and afternoons in beer gardens, and its only sauna is at the leisure pool. For thermal bathing you take a half-day trip to the brine pools of Bad Staffelstein.