Baden-Baden or Dusseldorf?

Neither town is a place for a beach. If you want a swim in summer, you'll be using lakes and pools in both. Around Baden-Baden that means the flooded gravel pits of the Rhine plain. Düsseldorf has Unterbacher See, a proper bathing lake with lawns on the city's edge, which is a little easier to reach for an afternoon. The Rhine's sandy banks look tempting, but the river is too dangerous for swimming.

Düsseldorf gives you more to eat your way through. It has two separate food worlds: the Altstadt brewhouses, with sauerbraten, Halve Hahn and the city's sharp mustard, and one of Europe's largest Japanese communities, whose ramen and izakaya cluster around Immermannstrasse. Carlsplatz market adds snacks and produce.

Baden-Baden's strengths are regional rather than varied. You'll find Flammkuchen, venison and Black Forest gateau with a French touch, and above all the Riesling and Pinot Noir of the Rebland villages just outside town. The centre itself is mostly hotel dining and cake cafés, so keen eaters drive out to the restaurants of the northern Black Forest.

There is a similar amount to see in each town, but the kind of sightseeing is very different. Baden-Baden is itself the sight: an intact nineteenth-century spa resort with the Kurhaus, the Trinkhalle, hillside villas and Roman baths beneath the old town. The Frieder Burda and Kunsthalle add art, and the whole town is covered in a day or two.

Düsseldorf has lost most of its old buildings to wartime bombing, so its strength is its galleries. Klee at K20, the net under K21's dome and the wide-ranging Kunstpalast make it a stronger stop for art lovers. Benrath Palace is the main historic outing.

The gap here is wide. Düsseldorf's Altstadt packs a few hundred bars and brewhouses into a few streets, and on weekends people drink standing in the lanes until well after midnight. Quieter cocktail bars in Carlstadt and the Medienhafen, plus the days of Carnival, add to the choice.

Baden-Baden's big night out is the gilded casino in the Kurhaus, with a dress code to match. After that there are hotel and wine bars with an older crowd. Anyone looking for a club takes the train to Karlsruhe or Strasbourg.

Baden-Baden has much the better outdoors. The northern Black Forest begins at the edge of town. The Merkur funicular climbs to views across the Rhine plain to the Vosges, climbers use the Battert cliffs, and the High Road runs past the Mummelsee to moorland at over 1,100m, with some modest skiing in winter.

Around Düsseldorf the landscape is flatter and gentler. There are long cycle paths along the Rhine meadows to Kaiserswerth, shaded walks in Grafenberg forest and the Neandertal valley, and the Bergisches Land hills half an hour away. It is good for a pleasant day out but has nothing to match the Black Forest's height or forest.

Both towns are excellent bases for day trips, but they suit different travellers. From Baden-Baden you can reach Strasbourg in about an hour, then the Alsace wine villages and Colmar, Heidelberg, Freiburg, and the UNESCO sites at Speyer and Maulbronn. Many of these are much easier by car.

Düsseldorf sits in a dense urban region where fast trains do the work. Cologne Cathedral is under half an hour away, and the Brühl palaces, Bonn, the Zollverein colliery in Essen, Aachen and Maastricht are all within easy reach. You can see the lot without ever hiring a car.

Düsseldorf is the easier city with children. Trams take buggies, and the Aquazoo Löbbecke, the tilted windows of the Rheinturm and the free boar and deer park in Grafenberg forest are all close at hand. Phantasialand is about an hour away.

Baden-Baden is safe and calm, and children enjoy the funicular and the forest paths. But the town is built around adults taking the waters, and the Friedrichsbad does not admit young children. Families usually treat it as a quiet base and drive to Europa-Park for the big day out.

Düsseldorf is easier to get around. Its flat centre links the Altstadt, the Kö and the Japanese quarter on foot, trams and light rail cover the rest, and one regional network reaches Cologne and the Ruhr. Trains from the airport take only minutes.

Baden-Baden's core is also walkable, but some of the streets climb steeply and the station is a bus ride away in Oos. Trains are fine for Karlsruhe and Freiburg, but a car is close to essential for the wine villages, the High Road and Alsace.

Düsseldorf is the shopping city of the two. The Königsallee lines its canal with luxury flagships and arcades, and big department stores sit around Schadowstrasse and the Kö-Bogen. Flingern's design shops and Japanese stationery and homeware add some independent character.

Baden-Baden's Sophienstraße and Lange Straße are polished but short: jewellers, watchmakers and delicatessens for a spa clientele. Beyond cuckoo clocks and local wine there is little else, so it is pleasant for browsing rather than a reason to come.

Neither is cheap, but Düsseldorf costs a little less to stay in. Brewhouse meals, Japanese noodle lunches and museums with free or reduced entry help keep daily costs down. The exception is trade fair weeks, when hotel rooms become scarce and much dearer.

Baden-Baden was built for the wealthy and still feels like it. Grand hotels set the tone, and every visit to the baths adds to the bill. Guesthouses, wine taverns and bakeries help, but a stay centred on the spas soon adds up.

The two are fairly evenly matched, but they offer different things. Baden-Baden is really about classical music. The Festspielhaus in the old railway station brings leading orchestras and opera to a very small town, and the legacy of Brahms and Clara Schumann is still part of its identity, though there is little beyond classical.

Düsseldorf's programme is wider and runs all year. It has the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, the symphony orchestra in the domed Tonhalle, a leading German-language theatre, political cabaret and small jazz venues, plus the city's place in electronic music as the home of Kraftwerk.

This is Baden-Baden's defining strength. The town's hot springs have been used since Roman times, and you can follow the silent, unclothed sequence of warm rooms and pools in the domed Friedrichsbad, then spend the next day in Caracalla's saunas and outdoor pools. The rest of the town keeps to the same slow pace.

Düsseldorf has no springs of its own. It offers ordinary mixed sauna halls in public pools and calm walks in the Hofgarten and the Japanese garden in Nordpark. For proper thermal bathing you would travel out to complexes in the region or to Aachen.