Bamberg or Colmar?

Neither town is a place for swimming, and both are far from the sea. Bamberg's options are closer to hand: the old river bathing spot in the Hain park and the gravel-pit lakes on the edge of town mean a hot-afternoon swim needs no planning. In Colmar it means the municipal pools or a drive up into the Vosges valleys to a small mountain lake.

The two are evenly matched at the table, and the real difference is what is in the glass. Bamberg is a beer town, with Rauchbier poured from wooden barrels in old brewery taverns, summer evenings under the chestnut trees of the Bierkeller, and heavy Franconian plates of roast pork and dumplings.

Colmar answers with Alsace wine: Riesling and Gewurztraminer are poured in every winstub, and the villages offer tastings. The cooking leans on choucroute, baeckeoffe and tarte flambée. Colmar also has a small fine-dining tier that Bamberg largely lacks, though in both towns there is little choice beyond the regional cooking.

Both are intact old towns that came through the wars largely unharmed, and they offer much the same amount. Bamberg's strength is the townscape itself: seven hills, each topped by a church or monastery, the four-towered cathedral with the Bamberg Horseman, and the Old Town Hall standing in the river. Its museums are small.

Colmar is more compact but holds a single great artwork, Grünewald's Isenheim Altarpiece in the Unterlinden Museum, with Schongauer's Madonna of the Rose Bush nearby. Choose Bamberg for walking a whole hilltop town of churches, and Colmar for painted half-timbered lanes and one serious museum visit.

Bamberg has the livelier evenings. The brewery taverns fill up after work, the student bars of the Sand quarter stay busy into the night during term time, and in summer evenings stretch out in the hillside beer cellars.

Colmar is quieter: a long dinner, a glass in a wine bar near Petite Venise, then streets that empty early. If you want clubs, both towns send you by train to a bigger city, Nuremberg in one case and Strasbourg in the other.

Colmar has the more striking landscape on its doorstep. Vineyard paths begin within half an hour of town, and the valleys climb to the Route des Crêtes along the Vosges ridge. Up there are glacial lakes, summer pastures, views to the Black Forest and a little skiing in winter.

Bamberg's countryside is gentler. It has the limestone valleys and rock towers of Franconian Switzerland, the beech woods of the Steigerwald, and river cycle paths through orchard villages, often linking one village brewery to the next. The walking is pleasant but there are no real heights, while Colmar's best walking really needs a car.

Both are good bases, but Colmar has more within close reach, spread across three countries. Strasbourg is about half an hour away by train and Basel and Freiburg about an hour. The wine villages of Eguisheim, Riquewihr and Kaysersberg lie a few kilometres apart, though you need a car or a bike to reach them.

Bamberg's strength is its main rail line through Franconia. Nuremberg, Würzburg, Coburg and Bayreuth are each around an hour away, and the baroque basilica of Vierzehnheiligen is closer still, all easy to reach without a car.

Colmar is the stronger choice for families. In town there are boat rides through Petite Venise, storks nesting on the roofs and a little tourist train. The surrounding area adds the macaques at Kintzheim, the otter park at Hunawihr, the train and car museums of Mulhouse, and Europa-Park across the Rhine.

Bamberg is safe and relaxed, with playgrounds and hire boats in the Hain park, a leisure pool with slides, and beer gardens where children play among the tables. Beyond that, little is made for them, and the cobbled climb to the cathedral is hard work with a pushchair.

Both old towns are compact enough to walk, but Bamberg is easier once you look beyond the centre. Buses reach the outer districts, bikes suit the flat lower town, and trains run to the other Franconian towns, so no car is needed. The trade-off is the steep, cobbled climbs to the cathedral and Michaelsberg.

Colmar is flat and its station is closer to the centre. The problem is that buses to the wine villages and the Vosges are limited, so most visitors hire a car or a bicycle.

Neither town is worth visiting for the shopping, and both are better for things to take home than for fashion. In Bamberg that means produce from the market gardens, bottled smoked beer from the brewery shops and antiques around the cathedral quarter. In Colmar it is wine bought from the producers, Soufflenheim pottery, Alsatian table linen and gingerbread, and its Christmas markets, spread across several squares, are the shopping highlight of the year.

Bamberg is the cheaper place to stay. The local beer is cheap, a brewery-tavern meal costs less than in a big city, rooms are moderately priced for most of the year, and you will spend almost nothing on getting around.

Colmar is moderately priced too, with reasonable set lunches and village wine tastings that are often free or cheap. But rooms are scarce and expensive in summer and during the Christmas market weeks, and the car most visitors hire adds to the bill.

Bamberg is the better town for music. The Bamberg Symphony is an orchestra of international reputation that plays its home season in the concert hall on the Regnitz. The ETA Hoffmann Theatre runs a drama season, the cathedral holds organ and choral concerts, and the Bayreuth Festival is an hour away.

Colmar's offer centres on its small Italian-style theatre and a few festivals, with classical music in early July and jazz in autumn. Outside those weeks, serious concerts mean taking the train to Strasbourg or Basel.

Bamberg has the edge for a restful stay. Its leisure pool has a sauna, and the warm brine pools of Bad Staffelstein are about half an hour away by train, which makes an easy half-day of thermal bathing.

Colmar has no bathing tradition, and its spa options come down to hotel spas. Both towns have quiet evenings once the day visitors leave, by the Regnitz in Bamberg and along the canals in Colmar, where long lunches and unhurried walks through the vines add to the slow pace.