Bamberg or Cologne?

Neither is a beach destination, and in both a summer swim means a gravel-pit lake on the edge of town. The difference is the river. In Bamberg you can swim in the Regnitz itself at the old bathing spot in the Hain park. In Cologne the Rhine is too fast and busy for swimming, so its sandy banks at Rodenkirchen are for sunbathing, and swimmers go to Fühlinger See or Otto-Maigler-See.

Bamberg comes out ahead for anyone who travels to eat and drink local. Its small breweries are packed closely together, smoky Rauchbier is poured from wooden barrels, and summer evenings in the chestnut-shaded Bierkeller are a highlight of the trip in their own right. Schäufele and the local Hörnla potatoes give the hearty Franconian cooking a clear identity.

Cologne's Brauhaus ritual, with the Köbes refilling small Kölsch glasses until you cover yours with a beer mat, is fun but more of a set piece. Where Cologne beats Bamberg is variety: Turkish food along Venloer Strasse, bistros in the Belgian Quarter and a few serious fine-dining kitchens.

These two are about level, but you experience them in opposite ways. Bamberg's attraction is the whole town: an intact, UNESCO-listed centre spread over seven hills, with the Imperial Cathedral, the Old Town Hall on its island and Little Venice. Its museums are small, and the pleasure is in walking.

Cologne gives you landmark buildings and collections rather than a historic whole. The cathedral and its Shrine of the Three Kings, the ring of twelve Romanesque churches, Roman remains and Museum Ludwig, the Wallraf-Richartz and Kolumba make for full museum days, while the streets between them were mostly rebuilt after the war.

Cologne is far ahead after dark. A typical evening moves from the Altstadt brewhouses to cocktail bars in the Belgian Quarter, and then on to clubs in Ehrenfeld's old factories. There is also one of Germany's largest gay scenes around Rudolfplatz, and the street Carnival turns the whole city into a costumed party for days.

In Bamberg, the night is about beer and conversation. Brewery taverns and the Sand quarter's student bars are lively in term time, and the beer cellars stay busy on summer evenings, but the town is quiet before the small hours. Locals who want to go clubbing take the train to Nuremberg.

The outdoors is evenly matched, with gentle hills and woods around both and no mountains near either. Bamberg's best landscape is Franconian Switzerland, with limestone valleys, caves and rock towers popular with climbers, and its walking paths link village breweries. Cologne has more green space inside the city in the Grüngürtel parks. Within an hour it also reaches the volcanic Siebengebirge with the Drachenfels crag, and the Eifel national park with its crater lakes.

Both make good bases, but Cologne's trains reach more places, more quickly. Augustusburg palace at Brühl, Bonn and Düsseldorf are all under half an hour away. Aachen's Charlemagne chapel, the castle towns of the Rhine Gorge and even Maastricht and Brussels are easy outings.

From Bamberg, most of the big names take about an hour each way: Nuremberg's castle, the Würzburg Residence, Coburg and Bayreuth. The baroque basilica of Vierzehnheiligen is closer. Rothenburg is a long day out, so the range is strong but more regional.

Cologne is well ahead for a family trip, because it has places built for children and Bamberg mostly does not. Bamberg's appeal is being small, safe and slow. Its riverside park and the pool with slides cover a day or two, but after that you are back among churches and townscape, and the cobbled climb to the cathedral is hard going with a pushchair.

Cologne can fill a longer stay without running out of ideas. Science centres, adventure playgrounds in the Grüngürtel, boat trips on the Rhine and long, traffic-free promenades by the water give children variety that Bamberg cannot match. Avoid Carnival week, though, when the crowds and drunken streets are no place for small children.

Getting around is easy in both, in different ways. Bamberg is a town you cover entirely on foot or by bike. The only hard parts are the short, steep climbs and the walk in from the station. In Cologne you step out of the station beside the cathedral, but reaching Ehrenfeld, the Belgian Quarter or the zoo means using trams and light rail, which can be crowded and confusing at first.

Cologne offers far more shopping. Schildergasse and Hohe Strasse are among the busiest high streets in Germany. Ehrenstrasse and the Belgian Quarter have independent fashion and design shops, and Eau de Cologne from the historic perfume houses on Glockengasse makes a classic souvenir.

Bamberg's shopping fills an hour between sights. There are chain stores and bookshops around Grüner Markt, antique dealers near the cathedral and bottles of smoked beer from the brewery shops, but little fashion and no design scene.

Bamberg is the cheaper of the two. Tavern meals and local beer cost less, and you spend almost nothing on transport because you walk everywhere. Its rooms get dearer only at weekends and around the Christmas market. Cologne is fair on food, and the cathedral is free to enter, but hotel rates jump during the big Messe trade fairs and Carnival, so the dates you pick matter more there.

Cologne has a much fuller stage life. Its own opera company and theatre, two orchestras and the WDR ensembles in the Philharmonie by the cathedral, jazz and electronic music in Ehrenfeld and the Südstadt, and the dialect songs of the Carnival sessions mean there is something on most nights.

Bamberg's strength is narrower but real. The Bamberg Symphony is an orchestra of international standing, and there are drama at the ETA Hoffmann Theatre and organ concerts in the cathedral. For opera, though, you go to the Bayreuth Festival.

Neither is a spa town, and they relax you in different ways. In Bamberg, the calm comes from the town itself: slow riverside mornings, long beer-garden afternoons and quiet streets once the day visitors leave, with the brine pools of Bad Staffelstein half an hour away. Cologne is busier, but it has better bathing on the doorstep. There are large German sauna complexes and a mineral-spring thermal bath in the Rheinpark facing the cathedral, and Aachen's hot springs are a short train ride away.