Bamberg or Graz?

Neither city is a place for beach time, and both cool off in fresh water. Bamberg's swimming is right in town, at the old river bathing spot in the Hain park on the Regnitz, with gravel-pit lakes on the outskirts. The Mur in Graz is not for swimming, so people head south to the grassy banks and jetties of Schwarzlsee, which warms to about 23°C in high summer.

The two are equally rewarding at the table, and both are proudly regional, but they revolve around different drinks. Bamberg is a beer town. Smoky Rauchbier is poured from wooden barrels, Schäufele and dumplings come out of old brewery taverns, and summer evenings move up to the Bierkeller under the chestnut trees.

Graz is built on Styria's larder and wine. Pumpkin seed oil goes on nearly everything, the morning farmers' markets at Kaiser-Josef-Platz and Lendplatz are worth a visit, and there is crisp Sauvignon Blanc from the southern hills. Neither city offers much beyond its own cuisine.

Both have outstanding historic centres, but you experience them differently. Bamberg is about the townscape as a whole: a UNESCO-listed old town spread over seven hills, the four-towered cathedral with the Bamberg Horseman, and the Old Town Hall standing on its island in the Regnitz. You enjoy it by wandering, because the museums are small.

Graz gives you more to go inside. The Landeszeughaus armoury still holds thousands of suits of armour, and Schloss Eggenberg has state rooms and a peacock park. The blue Kunsthaus and the Murinsel add a modern contrast that Bamberg does not have.

Graz has more to offer after dark, though neither is a clubbing city. In the old-town lanes of the Bermuda Triangle, bars spill outside on summer nights, Lend has artier places, and a few clubs stay open late at weekends.

Bamberg's evenings are slower and centred on beer: brewery taverns after work, student bars in the Sand quarter, and long summer nights in the beer cellars. Most of the town is quiet well before the small hours, and anyone wanting more takes the train to Nuremberg.

Graz has the more varied outdoors on its doorstep. The Schöckl has a cable car, trails and paragliders, the Grazer Bergland is a short bus ride out, and the limestone walls of the Gesäuse and the Hochschwab offer real alpine hiking.

Bamberg's countryside is gentler. The limestone valleys and rock towers of Franconian Switzerland begin less than an hour east, and there are the beech woods of the Steigerwald and cycle paths along the Main. You will find rolling hills and walks from one village brewery to the next, but no mountains or big views.

Bamberg is the stronger base for outings, because the train does the work. Nuremberg's castle, Würzburg's Residence, Coburg's fortress and Bayreuth's opera houses are each about an hour away, with Vierzehnheiligen even closer.

From Graz, the best trips go into the countryside rather than to other cities: the South Styrian Wine Road, Riegersburg on its volcanic crag, the Lipizzaners at Piber and Admont's great library. Most are much easier by car, though Maribor across the Slovenian border is about an hour by train.

Graz is clearly better with children. They can ride the glass lift up the Schlossberg and come down by the long slide inside the hill, take the Märchenbahn through the rock and visit FRida & freD, the children's museum in the Augarten. Trams take buggies easily.

Bamberg is safe and relaxed but offers less for children: playgrounds and boat hire along the Hain, a leisure pool with slides for wet days, and beer gardens where children play among the tables. The steep cobbles up to the cathedral are hard work with a pushchair.

Both centres are easily walked, but Graz is a little easier. Its old town is flat and largely pedestrianised, trams run through the middle on one simple ticket, and a lift and a funicular take the effort out of the Schlossberg.

Bamberg is all on foot, with short but steep cobbled climbs to the cathedral and Michaelsberg, and its station is a fair walk from the old town. In return its rail links reach the rest of the region, whereas outside Graz the buses are sparse.

Graz gives shoppers more to do. Kastner & Öhler, the city's grand department store, has a rooftop terrace, Herrengasse and Sporgasse are lined with traditional shops in old buildings, and Lend adds design studios and vintage stores. Pumpkin seed oil, Schilcher rosé and regional chocolate make good things to take home.

In Bamberg, shopping fills an hour at most. Beyond the chain stores and a few bookshops, the finds are bottled smoked beer, market-garden produce and the antique dealers near the cathedral.

Bamberg is easier on the wallet. Local beer is cheap, a brewery-tavern dinner costs less than in a big city, and rooms are moderately priced apart from weekends and the Christmas market season.

Graz is fair rather than cheap. Student lunch menus and bakeries help, but sit-down dinners and wine are priced like anywhere in Austria. Combined tickets for the Joanneum museums soften the cost of sightseeing.

Graz has much the broader stage. It has Austria's second-largest opera house with a full season of opera, ballet and operetta, the Styriarte early-music festival, steirischer herbst's avant-garde programme in autumn, and a jazz scene fed by the music university.

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

The two are much alike here. Neither has a bathing tradition of its own, so the spa trip happens outside town. From Bamberg, the brine pools of Bad Staffelstein are a simple half hour by train. From Graz, a whole string of thermal villages lies about an hour east, including Hundertwasser's grass-roofed Bad Blumau and Loipersdorf, so there is more choice but a longer trip. In town, Bamberg relaxes in its riverside mornings and beer gardens, while Graz has coffee houses and the shaded paths of the Schlossberg.