Baden-Baden or Strasbourg?

Neither has any sea, and in summer both swim the same way, in old gravel-pit lakes on the Rhine plain. The difference is getting there. Strasbourg's lifeguarded lakes, above all the Baggersee, are a tram ride from the centre. Baden-Baden's are out on the plain to the west, so most visitors settle for an outdoor pool or the warm water of the baths.

Both cook from the same Upper Rhine larder. You find tarte flambée, or Flammkuchen, on both sides of the river, and Riesling from nearby slopes. Baden-Baden is too small for much range, though. The centre leans towards hotel dining and cafés serving cake and coffee, and its best evenings are in the wine taverns of the Rebland villages just outside town.

Strasbourg has the fuller table. Winstub cooking, from choucroute garnie to baeckeoffe and foie gras, is a reason to visit in itself, the covered market is good for Munster and charcuterie, and there is a strong tier of fine dining. Just avoid the tourist menus around the cathedral.

In Baden-Baden the main sight is the Belle Époque spa town itself: the Kurhaus, the colonnaded Trinkhalle and the Lichtentaler Allee, with the Museum Frieder Burda and the Kunsthalle for art. It fills a day or two well.

Strasbourg goes back further and runs deeper. The pink sandstone cathedral with its astronomical clock, the timber-framed Grande Ile with Petite France, and the German-built Neustadt together make up a UNESCO ensemble, and the Palais Rohan alone holds three museums. Allow two or three days, with the European institutions as a modern contrast.

Neither is a late city, but Strasbourg does have a going-out scene. Students fill the bars and beer cellars of Krutenau and the streets around Place Saint-Étienne, and in summer the terraces on the quays stay busy well into the evening.

Baden-Baden's night out is a dressed-up affair: the gilded casino in the Kurhaus, then a hotel bar or a wine bar, then quiet streets. Clubbers staying there head to Karlsruhe or Strasbourg, though even Strasbourg has only a handful of clubs.

Baden-Baden has the forest on its doorstep. The Merkur funicular and the Battert cliffs lead straight onto trails into the northern Black Forest, and the High Road climbs past the Mummelsee to the moorland of the Hornisgrinde at over 1,100m.

Strasbourg is flat, and its green spaces are tame rather than wild: the Orangerie, and riverside forests full of storks and herons. Long, level cycle routes follow the Rhine, but the Vosges and the Black Forest are about an hour away. That makes it a good base for cycling but a weaker one for walking straight out of the door.

Both are excellent bases, and they share much of the same map; each lists the other as a day out. From Baden-Baden the trips run along the German side. Heidelberg and Freiburg are each about an hour by train, and there are the UNESCO sites of Speyer and Maulbronn and Black Forest towns such as Gengenbach.

Strasbourg's strength is having Alsace on its doorstep. Colmar is half an hour by train, and the wine route runs through Obernai, Riquewihr and Eguisheim below Haut-Koenigsbourg. Basel, Nancy and Mulhouse add further options. From either town, a car makes the vineyard days much easier.

Strasbourg is the easier place with children. The centre is flat and largely car-free, and there are boat trips around the Grande Ile, rowing boats and nesting storks in the Orangerie, the hands-on Le Vaisseau science centre and the moving figures of the astronomical clock.

Baden-Baden is safe and pleasant for a walk or a ride on the Merkur funicular. But it is built for adults who want to rest, and the Friedrichsbad does not admit young children. Europa-Park is about an hour from either town, so families based in Baden-Baden tend to spend their days elsewhere.

Strasbourg's island centre is flat and largely pedestrianised. Trams run to the station, the European quarter and across the Rhine to Kehl, and separated bike lanes often make cycling the quickest way about. You won't need a car in the city.

Baden-Baden's centre is compact but steep in places, and the station is a few kilometres out in Oos, so arrivals start with a bus. Trains along the Rhine are easy, but the High Road and the wine villages really call for a car.

Strasbourg has more range. There are chain stores and a large department store around Place Kléber, independent shops and bookshops near the cathedral, and Alsatian pottery, printed linens and kougelhopf moulds to take home. What it lacks is luxury.

That is Baden-Baden's niche. Sophienstraße and Lange Straße are lined with jewellers, watchmakers and boutiques for a well-off spa clientele, good for an unhurried browse. Beyond those two streets there is little, and the local goods come down to cuckoo clocks and wine.

Neither is cheap, but Strasbourg is easier on a budget. Winstub meals and wine by the pichet are good value, trams and bike hire are cheap, and the cathedral and old town are free to wander. Hotel rooms are the main cost, especially during the Christmas market and the weeks when the European Parliament sits.

Baden-Baden was built for the wealthy and still prices itself that way. Grand hotels set the level and every visit to the baths is paid for. Guesthouses, bakeries and wine taverns soften the bill, but a stay built around the spas soon adds up.

Both offer more than their size suggests, but in different directions. Baden-Baden is a classical town. The Festspielhaus, one of Germany's largest opera and concert houses, brings in leading international orchestras and soloists, and the legacy of Brahms and Clara Schumann runs through the place. Beyond classical music there is little.

Strasbourg's programme is broader. The Opéra national du Rhin and the Philharmonic cover the classics, the Théâtre National de Strasbourg is a major drama stage, and the Musica festival, jazz, dance and touring bands add variety. Opera lovers may lean towards Baden-Baden, while theatre-goers and anyone who wants variety will do better in Strasbourg.

Baden-Baden is one of Europe's great spa towns and is in a different league here. The Friedrichsbad's silent, unclothed circuit of hot rooms and pools and the modern Caracalla complex both draw on springs the Romans used, and the whole town moves at a resting pace.

Strasbourg's Bains municipaux, with tiled pools, a hammam and saunas, is a pleasant local bathhouse, and canal walks and riverside cycling keep the pace gentle. Its best wellness option, though, is the trip of under an hour to Baden-Baden.