Baden-Baden or Como?

Neither town is a beach destination, but only Como gives you a swim worth planning around. Lidos such as the one beside Villa Olmo have lawns, decks and pontoons, and ferries go up to the pebble strands and jetties of Cernobbio, Moltrasio and the Tremezzina between June and early September.

Baden-Baden has nothing like that. On a hot afternoon you would use an outdoor pool or one of the flooded gravel pits on the Rhine plain. Its water culture is the warm water of the thermal baths, which is a different pleasure altogether.

The two eat equally well, but the flavours and rituals differ. Baden-Baden draws on Baden cooking with a French accent, so expect Flammkuchen, venison, Black Forest ham and cherry gateau. The best of it is Riesling and Pinot Noir in the wine taverns of the Rebland villages, and there are celebrated restaurants a drive away in the northern Black Forest.

Como cooks from the lake and the valleys: risotto with perch, sun-dried missoltini and polenta with game or cheese. Its daily ritual is the aperitivo on the squares by the cathedral and San Fedele. In both towns the range is small, and in Como the lakefront terraces charge for the view.

Both reward a day or two of sightseeing, from different eras. Baden-Baden is a Belle Époque spa town kept almost whole, with the gilded Kurhaus, the colonnaded Trinkhalle and the villas along the Lichtentaler Allee. Modern art at the Museum Frieder Burda and the Staatliche Kunsthalle rounds it out.

Como's interest is older and more varied. It has the marble cathedral, Romanesque San Fedele and Sant'Abbondio, and the Tempio Voltiano. It also has Terragni's Casa del Fascio, which draws architects to see 1930s Rationalism, something Baden-Baden has no counterpart to.

Como has a little more evening life, though neither town is for late nights. The aperitivo crowds on the old-town squares and summer strolls along the lakefront give it some warmth, and Milan is a train ride away for a bigger night.

Baden-Baden's evenings are more formal and quieter still. The casino in the Kurhaus, with its dress code, is the outing of the week, the crowd is older and the streets empty early. For clubs you would go to Karlsruhe or Strasbourg.

Como has the more dramatic setting: a long glacial lake hemmed in by steep wooded slopes. The old funicular to Brunate starts the ridge walks, the Via dei Monti Lariani and Greenway del Lago link the villages, and you can kayak, sail or paddleboard on the water. Road cyclists ride the climb to the Madonna del Ghisallo.

Baden-Baden's outdoors is rolling fir-forest upland rather than lake and mountain. The Merkur funicular, the climbing cliffs of the Battert and the Black Forest High Road up to the Mummelsee and the Hornisgrinde moors give long walks and mountain biking. It also has modest skiing in winter.

Como has the richer and easier list. Ferries and hydrofoils reach Bellagio, Varenna and the gardens of Villa Carlotta and Villa del Balbianello. Milan's Last Supper is about forty minutes away by train, Lugano half an hour and Bergamo's upper town not much further, all without a car.

Baden-Baden is also well placed: Strasbourg and the Alsace wine villages are about an hour away, with Heidelberg, Freiburg and the UNESCO sites of Speyer and Maulbronn at a similar distance. The difference is that its Alsace and Black Forest outings go far more smoothly with a car.

Neither town is built around children, and they fall short in different ways. Baden-Baden is made for adults taking the waters. The Friedrichsbad does not admit young children and the evenings are hushed, though the Lichtentaler Allee and the forest trails make easy outings. Its real asset is reach: Europa-Park, one of Europe's largest theme parks, is about an hour south and Karlsruhe's zoo is closer, so families tend to sleep here and spend their days elsewhere.

Como has no zoo, aquarium or theme park within easy reach, and its villas and churches are aimed at grown-ups. What it offers is simple outdoor fun close at hand: ferry rides, the funicular to Brunate, paddling at a summer lido and pushchair walks through the Villa Olmo gardens.

Both centres are easy to walk, but Como's old town and lakefront are flat, while some of Baden-Baden's streets climb steeply and the station sits a bus ride out in Oos. The real difference comes when you leave town. In Como you rely on trains and slow, scenic ferries, while shore roads clog in summer. Baden-Baden has good rail links but works best with a car for the High Road, the wine villages and Alsace.

Each town has one thing worth buying and points serious shoppers elsewhere. In Baden-Baden it is the jewellers, watchmakers and delicatessens of Sophienstraße and Lange Straße, aimed at a well-off spa crowd, with cuckoo clocks as the local craft. In Como it is silk, sold as scarves, ties and fabric in old-town shops and mill outlets, plus a weekend crafts and antiques market by the walls. The bigger shopping lies in Strasbourg and Milan respectively.

Neither town is cheap, but the bill builds up in different ways. In Baden-Baden the cost is tied to the reason you came. Each session at the Friedrichsbad or Caracalla is paid for separately, so a stay built around daily bathing adds up quickly, and the grand hotels raise the general level. You save on the town's plainer side: a simple guesthouse, lunch from a bakery, an evening in a Rebland wine tavern and the local buses.

In Como you pay extra for the water and for summer. Lake-view rooms and villa rentals push the cost up in July and August, and the terraces along the shore charge for the outlook. Staying a few streets inland, eating in trattorias in the old town or the hills, and getting about by train and ferry all help. When you go matters most of all, as spring and autumn are noticeably gentler on the budget than high summer.

Baden-Baden is far stronger for music. The Festspielhaus, one of Germany's largest opera and concert houses, brings international orchestras and soloists through its seasons. The town's philharmonic plays in the Kurhaus, and the memory of Brahms and Clara Schumann is part of the place.

Como's Teatro Sociale offers a decent mix of opera, ballet and concerts, with summer performances in the open-air Arena and chamber music in churches and villas. Beyond that the calendar is thin, and the big nights are at La Scala in Milan.

This is the widest gap between the two towns. Baden-Baden sits on Roman hot springs. The Friedrichsbad's silent sequence of hot rooms, scrubs and pools under a nineteenth-century dome and the modern pools and saunas at Caracalla are reasons in themselves to make the journey.

Como has no springs and no bathing tradition, only the spas of the grand villa hotels and a few day spas. What it offers is a calm setting of gardens, still water and slow ferry rides, which is restful but not a cure.