Bamberg or Brno?

Neither city is for beach lovers. In both, swimming is a local summer habit rather than a reason to visit. Bamberg keeps it close to home, with its old river bathing spot in the Hain park and gravel-pit lakes on the edge of town. Brno's swimmers take a tram and then a river boat out to the reservoir on the Svratka, where algae can spoil the water in hot spells, or drive an hour south to the Nove Mlyny lakes below the Palava hills.

Bamberg eats and drinks better, mainly because of its beer. Smoky Rauchbier poured from wooden barrels in centuries-old brewery taverns, summer evenings in the Bierkeller under chestnut trees and plates of Schäufele with dumplings give a meal there a strong sense of place that few towns its size can match.

Brno's Czech cooking covers similar hearty ground with svickova, goulash and roast pork, but the food itself is less distinctive. Its strength is in the glass: Moravian wine from vineyards less than an hour south, specialty coffee and carefully made cocktails. Neither city has much variety or fine dining.

In Bamberg the whole old town is the sight. It is an intact, UNESCO-listed townscape spread over seven hills, with the four-towered Imperial Cathedral and the Bamberg Horseman above and the frescoed Old Town Hall on its island in the Regnitz below. Walking through it is the experience, and it hangs together in a way Brno's centre does not.

Brno's appeal is more modern and more spread out. Villa Tugendhat and the city's interwar functionalist buildings are the main draw, backed by the Moravian Gallery, the Mendel Museum and the mummified monks of the Capuchin Crypt. Its museums are stronger than Bamberg's small ones, but the historic core is compact and two or three days covers it.

Brno has the livelier evenings. In term time students fill the bars around Jakubske namesti until late, and the city's cocktail bars, hidden behind unmarked doors and down cellar steps, are worth going out for in themselves. Wine bars pouring Moravian wine and beer pubs cover the cheaper end.

Bamberg's nights are slower and built around beer: brewery taverns after work, the student bars of the Sand quarter and long summer evenings in the hillside cellars. Neither city has much in the way of clubs. In Bamberg, a proper big night out means taking the train to Nuremberg.

The countryside around both cities is gentle limestone and woodland rather than mountains, and each is a good base for marked trails and long-distance cycling. The difference lies in the main attraction.

From Bamberg it is Franconian Switzerland, with rock towers, castle-topped crags and climbing, as well as the Steigerwald beech forests and village-to-village brewery walks. From Brno it is the caves of the Moravian Karst, where a boat follows an underground river below the Macocha Abyss, with the Palava ridge and the Dyje valley of Podyji National Park further south.

Both are well placed on the railway, but Brno has the longer list. Within an hour or two lie the Lednice-Valtice estate, the Austerlitz battlefield, Kromeriz, Trebic, Telc and Zelena Hora, a run of UNESCO sites that is hard to equal. Vienna and Bratislava both also fit into a day.

Bamberg's options are good too, though they all belong to one region: Nuremberg's castle, the Würzburg Residence, Coburg, Bayreuth and the basilica of Vierzehnheiligen, with Rothenburg at the end of a long day. It shows you Franconia in depth rather than two countries and their capitals.

Both cities are safe and relaxed with children, but Brno has more made for them. The VIDA science centre, the zoo on its wooded hillside, the prehistory displays at the Anthropos pavilion and the planetarium on Kravi hora can fill several days, and the cave boat in the Moravian Karst is usually the highlight.

Bamberg relies on simpler pleasures: playgrounds in the Hain, rowing boats on the Regnitz, a leisure pool with slides and beer gardens where children play among the tables. Its sights are mostly churches, and the cobbled climb to the cathedral is hard going with a pushchair.

Both centres are small enough to walk, and neither city needs a car. Bamberg is more purely a walking town, with the island town, cathedral hill and Little Venice minutes apart, bicycles on the flat lower town and buses for everything else.

Brno relies on its trams to reach outlying sights such as Villa Tugendhat and the reservoir. Its single ticket also covers regional trains across South Moravia, which makes day trips simpler. Brno's station is at the edge of the old town, while Bamberg's is a fair walk out.

In both cities shopping is a sideline, with chain stores along the pedestrian streets and a few independent bookshops. The things worth taking home differ. In Bamberg they are smoked beer from the brewery shops, produce from the market gardens and finds from the antique dealers near the cathedral. In Brno it is Moravian wine bought straight from the cellars, along with vintage and design shops in the old-town arcades and large malls by the station.

Brno is clearly the cheaper place to stay. Hotels and apartments cost little for central Europe, weekday lunch menus are very good value, and tram tickets and museum entries barely register. Only cocktails and specialty coffee push the bill up, though big trade fairs can fill the rooms.

Bamberg is reasonably priced for Germany, with cheap local beer and tavern meals that cost less than in the big cities. Still, its prices are Western European, and old-town rooms get scarcer and dearer at weekends.

Brno has the fuller stage life, and Janacek's legacy runs through it. The National Theatre Brno stages opera and ballet in the Janacek Theatre, drama at the ornate Mahen Theatre and performances at the historic Reduta, where the young Mozart once played. There is also a Philharmonic season and a festival devoted to the composer.

Bamberg's offer is narrower but serious: the internationally known Bamberg Symphony in its concert hall on the Regnitz, the ETA Hoffmann Theatre and concerts in the cathedral and churches. It has no opera company of its own, though the Bayreuth Festival is an hour away.

Bamberg is the easier place to unwind. Unhurried mornings by the river and afternoons in shaded beer gardens, in a town that empties of day visitors by evening, already slow things down. The warm brine pools of Bad Staffelstein, half an hour away by train, add real thermal bathing.

Brno has no spa tradition and no thermal springs. Relaxing there means the sauna at a swimming complex or a hotel spa, café afternoons and quiet walks in Luzanky park or on the Spilberk slopes.