Bamberg or Bratislava?

Neither city is a place for a beach, and both cope with summer heat in a similar, modest way. The difference is in the kind of water.

Bamberg offers river bathing in the Hain park and gravel-pit lakes on the edge of town, while Bratislava has a proper sandy shore at Zlate piesky, reachable by tram, and the larger Senec lakes half an hour out. Bratislava's lakes feel more like a lido day; Bamberg's river spot is the more charming quick dip.

Bamberg is the clear winner for food and drink, almost entirely because of beer. Rauchbier poured from wooden barrels in centuries-old brewery taverns, Schäufele with dumplings, and summer evenings in the hillside Bierkeller give it an identity that a beer lover will travel for.

Bratislava's Slovak cooking, bryndzove halusky, roast duck with lokse and the poppy-seed rolls, is hearty and enjoyable but less distinctive, and the central squares lean towards tourist menus. Its real strength is wine: Veltliner and Frankovka from the Small Carpathians, rarely found outside Slovakia.

Bamberg offers far more to see. Its old town is one of the largest intact historic centres in Germany, and the cathedral hill, the island Old Town Hall, Little Venice and Michaelsberg Abbey make a townscape you can walk for days without exhausting.

Bratislava's Old Town is compact and pretty, with the coronation cathedral, the Primate's Palace and the Blue Church close together, plus the castle and the Most SNP bridge for the twentieth century. It is covered in a day or two, so it rewards a short stop rather than slow exploration.

Bratislava has the livelier evenings. On Friday and Saturday nights its Old Town pubs, wine bars and cocktail bars stay loud and full until late, helped by students and weekend groups from abroad, though weeknights go quiet.

Bamberg's evenings belong to the brewery taverns, the summer beer cellars and the student bars of the Sand quarter, and most of the town is asleep well before the small hours. For a club night, Bamberg sends you to Nuremberg, while Bratislava at least has a few of its own.

The two are evenly matched for the outdoors, both offering gentle hills and woodland rather than mountains. Bamberg's attraction is Franconian Switzerland under an hour east, with limestone valleys, rock towers and caves, plus cycle paths along the Main and hikes from one village brewery to the next.

Bratislava's wild country starts closer to the centre: forest trails climb from Koliba to Kamzik, the Danube floodplain forests line the river, and the whitewater course at Cunovo adds rafting that Bamberg cannot match.

Both are excellent bases, but Bratislava edges ahead thanks to Vienna, a world capital about an hour away by train or boat. Add the Small Carpathian wine villages, Carnuntum, Lake Neusiedl and Lednice-Valtice, and three countries lie within easy reach.

Bamberg's list stays within Franconia but is impressively dense: Nuremberg, Würzburg's Residence, Coburg and Bayreuth all sit about an hour away by rail, with Vierzehnheiligen and Banz Abbey closer still.

For children, the two are much alike: safe, small and easy, but with little made for young visitors. Bamberg leans on the Hain park playgrounds, rowing boats on the Regnitz and beer gardens where children play between the tables, though its cobbled climbs are hard with a pushchair. Bratislava has a little more variety, with the zoo, the Kamzik chairlift and the Senec water park.

Both centres are best on foot, and neither needs a car. Bamberg is the more compact, with the island town, cathedral hill and Little Venice minutes apart, and bicycles handle the flat lower town; only the steep cobbles up the hills slow you down.

Bratislava spreads further, so its trams, trolleybuses and buses do more of the work, reaching Kamzik, the zoo and Devin. Without a metro, longer crossings of the river feel slower than the map suggests.

Shopping is a sideline in both cities, filling an hour rather than a day. What to bring home differs: smoked beer from Bamberg's brewery shops and produce from its market gardens, against Small Carpathian wine and folk crafts such as Modra majolica and lace in Bratislava. Bratislava's riverside malls offer more chain stores, and Vienna is close for serious fashion.

Bratislava is the cheaper of the two. Pub lunch menus, local beer and wine, public transport and museum entry all cost little, and prices only climb on the main squares and in the glass-fronted riverside complexes.

Bamberg is fair value for Germany, with cheap beer and brewery-tavern meals, but its hotel rooms in the old town tighten and rise at weekends and through the Christmas market season, and overall it stays at ordinary Western European levels.

The two are close, but their strengths differ. Bamberg is an orchestra town, home to the internationally known Bamberg Symphony, with drama at the ETA Hoffmann Theatre and choral music in the cathedral, but no opera company of its own.

Bratislava is the place for opera and ballet, staged by the Slovak National Theatre on Hviezdoslav Square, with the Slovak Philharmonic in the Reduta across the way and tickets easy to find from autumn to spring.

Bamberg is the more restful stay. The town empties of day visitors in the evening, the riverside and beer gardens set an unhurried rhythm, and the brine pools of Bad Staffelstein are an easy half-day.

Bratislava is calm for a capital, but wellness in town means hotel spas and café afternoons. Its real baths, the Senec water park and the historic cures of Piestany, need a day set aside.