Baden-Baden or Basel?

Neither place has a beach, but Basel has the Rhine. On summer afternoons people walk up the Kleinbasel bank, float back down past the old town in their swim bags and sunbathe on the gravel banks. It is a real local ritual, though the current calls for confident swimmers.

Baden-Baden's water is hot and indoors. In summer, outdoor swimming means a public pool or a gravel-pit lake out on the Rhine plain, which is fine for cooling off but nothing to plan around.

You eat about equally well in both, but the character differs. Baden-Baden is the more regional: Flammkuchen, venison, Black Forest ham and cherry gateau, plus Riesling and Pinot Noir drunk in the wine taverns of Varnhalt and Neuweier just outside town. Some of Germany's most celebrated restaurants are a short drive into the forest.

Basel has fewer dishes of its own and borrows from Alsace, Baden and Swiss-German cooking. It makes up for that with the Markthalle and the Marktplatz market for casual eating, and a small, very good fine-dining tier.

Basel has much more to see. The Kunstmuseum's Old Masters, the Fondation Beyeler's Impressionists in its Renzo Piano building, and the Tinguely and the Antikenmuseum fill several days. Around them sit the red sandstone Münster, the painted Rathaus and the guild houses climbing to the Spalentor.

In Baden-Baden the town itself is the main exhibit: the Kurhaus, the Trinkhalle, the hillside villas and Roman bath ruins, with the Museum Frieder Burda and the Kunsthalle for art. It makes an elegant day or two, not a museum trip.

Neither is a party town, but Basel gives you more to do after dinner. In summer people drink on the river steps by the Kleinbasel kiosks, and there are bars around the Kaserne and weekend clubs in old harbour buildings. Fasnacht, the three-day carnival that starts at four in the morning, is like nothing in Baden-Baden.

Baden-Baden's evenings centre on the gilded Kurhaus casino with its dress code, then a hotel bar or wine bar. The streets are calm well before midnight.

Baden-Baden is the closer of the two to real forest. The Merkur funicular, the Battert climbing cliffs and the Panoramaweg trail start from town, and the Black Forest High Road leads to the Mummelsee and the Hornisgrinde moorland.

Basel gives you more variety, but you have to travel for it. The Jura, the southern Black Forest with the higher Feldberg, and the Vosges are all within reach, and the flat Rhine paths are good for cycling. The city itself is not where the scenery is.

Both are excellent bases for the Upper Rhine, and Strasbourg, Colmar and Freiburg are about an hour from either. Basel pulls ahead because it adds Switzerland: Lucerne, Bern and Zurich are each about an hour by train, with Augusta Raurica and the Rhine Falls on top, and fast trains take you to nearly all of it.

Baden-Baden's list leans north, to Heidelberg, Speyer's cathedral, Maulbronn monastery and the palaces of Rastatt and Karlsruhe. For Alsace and the forest towns, a car helps a lot.

Basel suits children better. The Zolli, one of Europe's best zoos, is a short walk from the station, and the rope-pulled Rhine ferries, the toy museum and the free animal park in the Lange Erlen are easy wins. Trams take prams without fuss.

Baden-Baden is safe and pleasant, and the funicular and forest trails go down well. But it is built for adults: the Friedrichsbad turns young children away. Families from either town make the same big outing to Europa-Park.

Basel is far easier without a car. Trams cover the city and cross into Germany and France, hotel guests get a free transport card, and the main station sends direct trains in three directions.

Baden-Baden's centre is walkable, though some streets are steep. The railway station sits out in Oos, a bus ride from town, and the wine villages, the high road and Alsace really call for a car.

Basel has a little more range. Freie Strasse and Gerbergasse carry Swiss watches and chocolatiers, the Spalenberg lanes have small design and craft shops, and the Münster Christmas market is a pretty one. Baden-Baden is narrower and more upmarket: jewellers, boutiques and delicatessens along Sophienstraße and Lange Straße for a wealthy spa crowd, and not much else besides cuckoo clocks and local wine.

Both are expensive, but Basel is in another league. Hotels, meals, drinks and museum entry all come at Swiss prices, and rooms get scarce during trade fairs such as Art Basel. Free trams and cheaper meals over the border help a little.

Baden-Baden's grand hotels and bath entry fees add up. Still, its simple guesthouses, bakeries and wine taverns are priced by German standards, so a modest stay is far more manageable.

Both are strong in classical music for their size, in different ways. Baden-Baden's Festspielhaus, one of Germany's largest houses, brings star orchestras and opera on tour, and the music history of Brahms and Clara Schumann adds to the appeal.

Basel puts on its own productions. Theater Basel is known for bold opera, ballet and drama, the Sinfonieorchester plays at the Stadtcasino, and early-music concerts and a jazz school add variety. Its season goes quiet in July and August.

This is Baden-Baden's reason for being, and Basel cannot match it. You can follow the silent, unclothed sequence of hot rooms and pools at the domed Friedrichsbad, or use the large sauna area and outdoor thermal pools at Caracalla, and the whole town keeps to that unhurried pace.

Basel is calm, with quiet Sundays and a riverside made for idling. For proper bathing, though, you take a trip out to the saline baths at Rheinfelden or the spa towns of southern Baden.