Baden-Baden or Rotterdam?

Neither city is a place to go for the beach, but Rotterdam at least has one. Hoek van Holland is a wide sandy North Sea beach with dunes behind it, a metro ride from the centre, where huge ships pass close offshore. It is a good place for a windy walk, though the cold sea puts most visitors off swimming.

Baden-Baden is far inland. Its nearest swimming is in old gravel pits on the Rhine plain and in outdoor pools, which are fine on a hot day but nothing more. People who come here for water come for the thermal baths.

Baden-Baden serves regional food: Flammkuchen, venison, Black Forest ham, Maultaschen and cherry gateau, with a French accent from across the Rhine. Its best evenings are in the wine taverns of Neuweier, Varnhalt and Steinbach, among the Riesling and Pinot Noir slopes. In town the choice is narrow, and much of it is hotel dining and cake.

Rotterdam offers more range over a few days. The port city's immigrant kitchens, Surinamese roti, Turkish bakeries, Cape Verdean and Indonesian food, sit alongside the Markthal stalls and the restaurant streets of the Witte de Withstraat and Nieuwe Binnenweg. What it lacks is a wine country on its doorstep and much of a Dutch cuisine of its own.

The two show opposite eras. Baden-Baden is a nineteenth-century spa resort that has survived almost whole: the Kurhaus casino rooms, the Trinkhalle colonnade, the villas on the hillsides and Roman bath ruins under the old town, with the Frieder Burda museum and the Kunsthalle for art.

Rotterdam offers slightly more to see. Because the old centre was destroyed in 1940, the sights are modern buildings: the Erasmus Bridge, the Cube Houses, the Markthal and the mirrored Depot Boijmans. Add the Kunsthal, the Maritime Museum and old Delfshaven, and there are two or three full days here.

Baden-Baden's evenings are smart and quiet. The night out is the gilded casino in the Kurhaus, with a dress code, followed by a hotel bar or a glass of wine, and the streets are calm well before midnight.

Rotterdam is far livelier, though modest for its size. The Oude Haven and Witte de Withstraat terraces fill on summer evenings, and the clubs are its strong point. This is the city where gabber began, and its warehouse techno and house nights draw people from across the Netherlands.

Baden-Baden has much the better outdoors. The northern Black Forest starts at the edge of town. The Merkur funicular and the Battert cliffs lead to waymarked trails through fir forest, and further up the ridge are the Mummelsee, the Hornisgrinde moorland, waterfalls and some light winter skiing.

Rotterdam's outdoors is flat and shaped by people: cycling along dykes into the polders, sailing on the Kralingse Bos lake, and canoeing or birdwatching in the Biesbosch creeks. It suits a gentle ride, not a hike.

Both are excellent bases, and Rotterdam's edge comes from the trains. Delft is a quarter of an hour away, and The Hague, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Leiden and even Antwerp are within about an hour, with Kinderdijk's windmills reached by water bus.

Baden-Baden's list is just as appealing, with Strasbourg, Heidelberg, Freiburg, Speyer and Maulbronn, but the Alsace wine villages and the Black Forest towns are much easier with a car.

Rotterdam is the easier city with children. Blijdorp zoo and its ocean section, the hands-on harbour area at the Maritime Museum, water taxis and the Euromast all fill days in the city itself, and the flat streets and trams make getting about simple.

Baden-Baden is safe and calm, with the funicular and forest paths, but it is designed for adults. The Friedrichsbad does not admit young children, and families usually drive an hour to Europa-Park for their big day out.

Baden-Baden is small enough to walk: the baths, the Kurhaus, the museums and the Lichtentaler Allee are close together, though some streets climb steeply. The railway station is a bus ride out in Oos, and for the High Road or Alsace you really need a car.

Rotterdam is spread out, but it is much easier to get around overall. Metro, trams, buses and water buses all run on one tap-in system, cycle paths go almost everywhere, and you never need a car.

Baden-Baden's shopping is small and polished. Sophienstraße and Lange Straße have jewellers, watchmakers, boutiques and delicatessens for a wealthy spa clientele, and beyond that there is little except cuckoo clocks and wine.

Rotterdam has far more choice. The Lijnbaan, one of Europe's first pedestrian shopping streets, and the Bijenkorf cover the chains, while the Meent and Nieuwe Binnenweg add vintage, record and design shops, and there is the large Binnenrotte market. It has few luxury labels, which is where Baden-Baden is stronger.

Neither is cheap, but Rotterdam is easier on the budget. Its many business hotels empty at weekends, market stalls and Surinamese snack shops keep lunch simple, and many of the sights are buildings you see from the street for free.

Baden-Baden was built for the rich and still caters to them. The grand hotels set the price level and the baths charge for every visit, so a spa stay adds up quickly, although the wine taverns and bakeries are fair value.

The two are equally strong but in different ways. Baden-Baden is about opera and classical music: the Festspielhaus, one of Germany's largest houses, brings in leading international orchestras and opera productions, and the town carries the legacy of Brahms and Clara Schumann.

Rotterdam has no opera house, but it has the Rotterdam Philharmonic at De Doelen, a lively small-venue jazz scene and the North Sea Jazz Festival each July. Much of its theatre, though, is in Dutch.

This is where Baden-Baden has the clearest advantage. Roman-era hot springs feed the domed Friedrichsbad, with its silent sequence of rooms, scrubs and pools, and the large Caracalla complex next door. The whole town keeps a slow pace around the baths.

Rotterdam offers the Dutch sauna tradition in large complexes on the city's edge, usually textile-free, plus hotel spas in the centre. These are good for an afternoon, but the city's brisk pace does not lend itself to a restful stay.