Baden-Baden or Bern?

Neither city has a coast, but Bern has a real summer swimming culture. Locals walk upstream from the Marzili, jump into the cold, green Aare and drift back past the Federal Palace. Lake Thun, about twenty minutes away, has calmer bathing spots. Baden-Baden has only gravel pits on the Rhine plain and outdoor pools, and its water is for soaking in, not swimming.

The two are close for food, and the difference is in character. Baden-Baden draws on Baden's wine country and French influence from across the Rhine. Expect Riesling and Pinot Noir from the Rebland villages, Flammkuchen and venison, and some of Germany's most celebrated restaurants a drive away in the northern Black Forest.

Bern's food is heartier and more Alpine: Berner Platte, rösti and fondue in old guildhall dining rooms and vaulted cellars, Emmental cheese at the weekly markets and very good chocolate. It has a somewhat wider spread of international kitchens, but eating out there costs noticeably more.

Bern has more to see. Its UNESCO old town on the loop of the Aare, with covered arcades, painted fountains, the Zytglogge and the Minster, comes with museums of real weight. These include the Zentrum Paul Klee, the Kunstmuseum, which is Switzerland's oldest art museum, and the flat on Kramgasse where Einstein worked out special relativity.

Baden-Baden is a sight in itself, a Belle Époque spa resort of the Kurhaus, the Trinkhalle and villas on the hillsides, with good modern art at the Museum Frieder Burda. It rewards a day or two, but its interest is narrower and centred on one era.

Neither is a party town, but Bern has more going on after dark. Its cellar bars under the arcades and along Aarbergergasse are busy at weekends, there are summer terraces by the Aare, and the Reitschule hosts late, rough-edged parties. In Baden-Baden the evening means the Kurhaus casino, with its dress code, then a hotel or wine bar and quiet streets, and anyone wanting clubs goes to Karlsruhe or Strasbourg.

Bern has the bigger scenery. The Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau are visible from the old town and about an hour away by train, with high-mountain hiking, cable cars and proper skiing. Lake Thun is closer still.

Baden-Baden's outdoors is wooded upland: the Merkur funicular, the Battert cliffs, the Panoramaweg through vineyards and the Black Forest High Road up to the Hornisgrinde moors at over 1,100m. It is lovely for forest walks and autumn colour, but the skiing is modest and the best outings need a car.

Both are good bases, and the difference is in how you travel. From Bern, the Swiss rail network turns Lucerne, Basel, Fribourg, Murten and Thun into simple outings without a car, enough for a different town each day of a week.

Baden-Baden also has fine places within reach. Strasbourg, Heidelberg and Freiburg are each about an hour away, and Speyer and Maulbronn are UNESCO sites. But the Alsace wine route and the Black Forest towns are far easier with a hire car.

Bern is the easier city with children. The bear park, the Dählhölzli zoo, the animal dioramas at the Natural History Museum and the Gurten playground are all in or near the city, and trams take pushchairs. Only the fast-flowing Aare calls for real care.

Baden-Baden is safe and pleasant for a stroll along the Lichtentaler Allee or a ride on the Merkur funicular, but it is made for adults, and the Friedrichsbad does not admit young children. Families tend to spend their days at Europa-Park or Karlsruhe's zoo.

Bern is one of the simplest cities to get around. The old town takes about twenty minutes to cross on foot, the arcades keep you dry, and the main station sits at its upper end, with trams, buses and funiculars covering the rest. Baden-Baden's centre is compact and walkable too, but the railway station is a bus ride out in Oos, and the High Road, the wine villages and Alsace really call for a car.

Bern has more range. Spitalgasse, Marktgasse and Kramgasse run in a line under the arcades, and there is a department store by the station, cellar shops selling antiques and design, weekly markets and a large shopping centre on the edge of the city. Baden-Baden is smaller and more upmarket, with jewellers, watchmakers and boutiques on Sophienstraße and Lange Straße and little beyond them. Serious shoppers there head for Strasbourg.

Both are expensive, but Bern costs far more. Even plain hotels, a sit-down dinner or a beer on a terrace cost much more than in most of Europe. Baden-Baden's grand hotels and the charge for every visit to the baths soon add up, yet its guesthouses, wine taverns and bakeries are reasonable by German standards.

In Bern, money is saved through the tram and bus pass that hotels usually give guests, lunches from supermarket counters, and free pleasures like the bear park and the river paths.

For classical music Baden-Baden has the edge, which is unusual for so small a town. The Festspielhaus, one of Germany's largest opera and concert houses, brings in leading international orchestras and soloists, and the links to Brahms and Clara Schumann run deep.

Bern has a broader mix but fewer big names. There is opera and ballet at the Stadttheater, the symphony orchestra at the Casino, contemporary dance at the Dampfzentrale, a jazz festival every spring and the Gurtenfestival's rock and pop in July.

This is Baden-Baden's defining strength. Hot springs once used by the Romans feed the Friedrichsbad, with its silent, unclothed circuit of hot rooms and scrubs, and the modern Caracalla complex next door. The whole town is set up for rest.

Bern is a calm city to slow down in, with long riverside lunches and quiet Sundays, a thermal complex on its western edge and several hotel spas. But it has no bathing tradition, and visitors who want serious spa time head for mountain spa hotels in the Bernese Oberland.