Bamberg or Brussels?

Neither city is a swimming destination, but Brussels at least has a real coast within reach. Ostend, De Haan and Knokke are a little over an hour away by train, with wide sandy North Sea beaches. The water is cool and the season short, so it makes a breezy day out rather than a reason to come.

Bamberg is a full day from any sea. Swimming there means the old river bathing spot in the Hain, the gravel-pit lakes on the edge of town and the public pools. That is enough to cool off on a hot afternoon, and nothing more.

Both cities take beer seriously, but in different ways. Bamberg is about depth in one tradition: smoky Rauchbier poured from wooden barrels, Schäufele with dumplings, and summer tables in the Bierkeller. It has little to offer beyond Franconian cooking.

Brussels eats more broadly and more ambitiously. It has French-Belgian classics like waterzooi and carbonnade, hundreds of beer styles including the city's own lambics, and praline makers around the Sablon. Matonge, Saint-Josse and Ixelles add immigrant cooking that Bamberg cannot match.

Brussels has more to see, Bamberg the more complete townscape. The Grand-Place is one of Europe's great squares, and add Horta's UNESCO-listed Art Nouveau houses, the Royal Museums with Bruegel and Magritte, and the Cinquantenaire collections, and you have days of sightseeing. The catch is the city in between, where office blocks break up the historic quarters.

Bamberg is the reverse. The museums are small, but the whole old town is a UNESCO site: the four-towered cathedral on its hill, the Old Town Hall on its island in the Regnitz, and the fishermen's houses of Little Venice. Here the town itself is the sight.

Brussels is much the livelier city after dark. Bars fill the streets around Saint-Géry and the Bourse, locals gather around Place Flagey and Châtelain, and there is a techno club in the Marolles that draws DJs from across Europe, plus an active queer scene.

Bamberg's evenings are brewery taverns, beer cellars on summer nights and student bars in the Sand quarter during term. The town is quiet well before the small hours, and for a proper night out locals take the train to Nuremberg.

Bamberg has the better countryside on its doorstep. Franconian Switzerland's limestone valleys, rock towers and caves begin less than an hour away, the Steigerwald beech forests lie to the west, and cycle paths along the Main link orchard villages and their breweries.

Brussels has one fine forest, the Sonian Forest, with its tall beech stands on the city's edge. Beyond it the land is flat farmland. For hills you need the Ardennes valleys around Dinant, a much longer trip.

Both are good bases, but Brussels is one of the best in Europe. Ghent is about half an hour away, Antwerp about forty minutes and Bruges about an hour, with Leuven and Mechelen closer still. High-speed trains also put Paris within a long day's reach.

Bamberg's circle is regional and still rewarding. Nuremberg, Würzburg's Residence, Coburg and Bayreuth are each about an hour away, and the baroque Vierzehnheiligen and Banz Abbey face each other across the Main valley. These are fine towns, but not the run of first-rank cities that Brussels offers.

Brussels gives children far more to do. The Atomium and Mini-Europe stand side by side, the Natural Sciences museum has its herd of Iguanodons, comic murals cover the centre's walls, and Walibi and Pairi Daiza are easy outings. Heavy traffic and rainy days are the drawbacks.

Bamberg is safer and calmer but has little made for young visitors. There are playgrounds and boat hire in the Hain, a leisure pool with slides for rainy days, and beer gardens where children play among the tables, but most of the sights are churches.

Both are easy without a car, in different ways. In Bamberg you walk: the island town, the cathedral hill and Little Venice are minutes apart, bikes suit the flat lower town, and only the short cobbled climbs and the walk from the station take any effort.

Brussels is bigger and depends on transport. The historic core is compact, but you reach Ixelles, Saint-Gilles and the Bois de la Cambre by tram or metro, paying with a tap of a bank card. Driving is a burden in either city, and much more so in Brussels.

Brussels is a real shopping city where Bamberg is not. It has chocolatiers in the Galeries Royales and on the Sablon, antiques and the Jeu de Balle flea market in the Marolles, Belgian designers on Rue Antoine Dansaert and luxury brands on Avenue Louise.

Bamberg fills an hour or so. There are chain stores and independent bookshops around Grüner Markt, smoked beer from the brewery shops and produce from the market gardens to take home, but no fashion or design scene.

Bamberg is the cheaper stay. Beer and tavern meals cost less than in a big city, guesthouses are moderately priced outside weekends and the Christmas market season, and you walk everywhere.

Brussels is mid-to-upper priced. Weekday hotels are aimed at EU and business travellers, so weekends are the better deal. Frites and the immigrant neighbourhoods keep daily spending down, but sit-down dinners add up quickly.

Bamberg has one real asset: the Bamberg Symphony, an orchestra with an international reputation, alongside the ETA Hoffmann Theatre and church concerts. It has no opera company of its own, and Bayreuth's festival is the nearest.

Brussels offers far more. La Monnaie stages adventurous opera, Bozar and Flagey host major orchestras, the Queen Elisabeth Competition is a fixture of the classical calendar, and dance, theatre and touring rock acts add range.

Bamberg is the more restful of the two, mostly because of its pace: quiet riverside mornings, shaded beer gardens and a town that settles by evening. The leisure pool has a sauna, and the thermal brine baths of Bad Staffelstein are half an hour away by train.

Brussels offers hammams, day spas and Art Deco pools. Its slow pleasures, a long lunch in Ixelles or a walk in the Sonian Forest, come against heavy traffic, and Spa itself is a long way off.