Baden-Baden or Colmar?

Neither town has a beach, and swimming plays no part in a trip to either. In summer, Baden-Baden has outdoor pools and the flooded gravel pits of the Rhine plain. Colmar has municipal pools and small lakes up in the Vosges valleys. In Baden-Baden, water means warm thermal baths, which Colmar has nothing to match.

Both towns eat the cooking of the Upper Rhine, with tarte flambée on menus on both sides of the river and wine grown on the slopes outside town. Baden-Baden's strength is the Rebland villages of Neuweier and Varnhalt, with Riesling and Pinot Noir served in wine taverns. Its centre leans towards hotel dining and coffee and cake, and keen eaters drive into the Black Forest for the best tables.

Colmar is the better place to eat. Wood-panelled winstubs serve baeckeoffe, choucroute and munster cheese, the covered market by the canal is good for cheese and charcuterie, and cellar tastings of Gewurztraminer and Pinot Gris are a short drive away. Watch out for tired menus on the most photographed lanes.

Baden-Baden's main sight is the town itself. It is a Belle Époque spa town of colonnades, casino rooms and hillside villas, with the Museum Frieder Burda and the Kunsthalle covering modern art. It gives a rewarding day or two of an aristocratic era.

Colmar has more to see. Its painted half-timbered old town survives as a whole, from the Maison Pfister to the canals of Petite Venise. The Unterlinden Museum holds Grünewald's Isenheim Altarpiece, a masterpiece that alone justifies the journey, and Schongauer's Madonna hangs in the Dominican church nearby.

Both towns are quiet after dark, and anyone after clubs heads to Strasbourg. What differs is the kind of evening. Baden-Baden dresses up for the gilded casino in the Kurhaus and its hotel bars, with an older crowd. Colmar's evenings are a long dinner and Alsace wine on summer terraces around Petite Venise.

Both towns have fine wooded uplands at their edge. Baden-Baden has the Black Forest: the Merkur funicular, the Battert cliffs for climbers, and the High Road out to the Mummelsee and the Hornisgrinde moor, some of it reachable without a car.

Colmar looks the other way, to the Vosges. There are vineyard paths between wine villages and the Route des Crêtes over the Hohneck and the Grand Ballon, and the flat wine route makes better cycling country. From Colmar you mostly need a car or a bike to reach the hills.

Both towns are good bases for exploring the Upper Rhine, and they share some of the same destinations. Colmar has the edge because its best outings are closer. Riquewihr, Eguisheim and Kaysersberg are only a few kilometres away, Strasbourg is half an hour by train, and Basel is within easy reach.

From Baden-Baden, the same Alsace villages are a longer drive. In return, Heidelberg, Speyer's cathedral, Maulbronn monastery and the baroque palaces of Rastatt and Karlsruhe are within reach, so it suits a German-side itinerary better.

Colmar is easier with children. The town is flat and small, and kids enjoy the boat rides and nesting storks. A short drive away are the otter and stork park at Hunawihr, free-roaming macaques, an eagle show and a fairy-tale castle, with Mulhouse's train and car museums further on.

Baden-Baden is safe and has the funicular and forest trails, but the town is made for adults, and young children are not admitted to the Friedrichsbad. Families there tend to treat it as a calm base. Europa-Park, about an hour away, is equally reachable from both.

Both centres are compact enough to explore on foot, and in both a car makes the countryside far easier. In Colmar the centre is flat and the station is a short walk away. Baden-Baden's streets climb steeply, and its station is a bus ride away in Oos. In Colmar, cycling between vineyard villages is a pleasure in its own right.

Neither town is a shopping destination, but they sell different things. On Sophienstraße and Lange Straße, Baden-Baden has jewellers, watchmakers and fashion boutiques for its well-off spa guests. Colmar is better for regional goods to take home, such as wine bought from the producer, Soufflenheim pottery, Alsatian table linen and gingerbread, and its Christmas markets are the high point of its year.

Colmar is the cheaper stay. Set lunches and regional wine are reasonably priced, and village tastings often cost little or nothing. Rooms are its weak point in summer and at Christmas, and staying in a nearby village helps.

Baden-Baden was built for the rich and still feels like it. Grand hotels set the tone and each visit to the baths is paid separately, so a spa-centred stay costs more. Simple guesthouses, bakeries and wine taverns help keep the bill down.

Baden-Baden is far stronger for live music. The Festspielhaus, one of Germany's largest opera and concert houses, hosts leading orchestras and soloists through its seasons, and the town's philharmonic plays in the Kurhaus. Brahms and Clara Schumann worked here, and that tradition lives on.

Colmar has a small municipal theatre visited by the Opéra national du Rhin, and its calendar centres on an early-July classical festival and an autumn jazz festival. Outside those weeks, serious concerts mean a trip to Strasbourg or Basel.

This is where Baden-Baden is in a league of its own. Hot springs used by the Romans feed the nineteenth-century Friedrichsbad, with its silent, unclothed sequence of warm rooms and pools, and the modern Caracalla next door adds outdoor pools and a large sauna area. Taking the waters sets the pace of the whole stay.

Colmar has no bathing tradition, only hotel spas. Its restful side lies in quiet canalside evenings once the day-trippers leave, and in long lunches and walks through the vines.