Bamberg or Karlovy Vary?

Neither town is a beach destination, and the sea is far from both. The swimming differs in kind. In Bamberg you can walk or cycle to the river bathing spot in the Hain park or to the gravel-pit lakes at the edge of town. In Karlovy Vary the best swimming is in the warm spring-fed pools, and the nearest real lake, the flooded mine at Lake Medard, is about half an hour away.

Bamberg is much the better place to eat and drink, and most of the reason is beer. You can drink the smoky local Rauchbier from wooden barrels in old brewery taverns, then sit at long tables under the chestnuts in the hillside cellars on summer evenings. To eat there is Schäufele with crackling and the local Hörnla potatoes, and the market gardeners sell their produce on Grüner Markt.

Karlovy Vary's cooking is plainer Czech fare: roast pork, goulash and svíčková with Pilsner-style beer. Its own specialities are warm spa wafers and Becherovka. The cafés with cake suit an afternoon between springs, but there is no market and only a handful of more ambitious kitchens.

Both are UNESCO-listed townscapes with small museums, but Bamberg has more to explore. Its entire medieval and baroque centre survived the war. You can climb from the Old Town Hall on its island to the four-towered cathedral, with the Bamberg Horseman, then wander through Little Venice and the market gardeners' quarter.

Karlovy Vary is a single, striking set piece of Belle Époque spa architecture. Pastel hotels rise in tiers up the valley, and the colonnades include the one built over the Vřídlo geyser. Add the baroque St Mary Magdalene and the gilded Orthodox church, and a day or two covers it.

Neither is a place for clubbing, but Bamberg has more going on after dark. The brewery taverns fill up after work, the student bars in the Sand quarter stay busy late in term time, and in summer the beer cellars keep people out long into the evening. Nuremberg is a short train ride away for a bigger night.

Karlovy Vary is mostly asleep by eleven. Evenings mean hotel bars, a few wine bars, Czech pubs and the casinos. The film festival week is the only real exception.

These two are fairly even. Both have green, rolling country rather than drama, but Karlovy Vary has the woods closer at hand. Its forest starts right at the edge of the spa quarter, where gentle spa paths lead to the Diana tower and the stag-leap rock. It also has a winter option, with skiing in the Ore Mountains around Klínovec, and easy canoeing on the Ohře.

From Bamberg you need a short trip to reach the best of it. The limestone valleys, rock towers and caves of Franconian Switzerland are good for climbing and hiking. There are also cycle paths along the Main and walks that link one village brewery to the next.

Bamberg is the better base, because it sits on a main rail line. Nuremberg's castle, Würzburg's Residence, Coburg's fortress and Bayreuth's opera house can each be reached in about an hour. The Vierzehnheiligen basilica and Banz Abbey are nearer still.

Karlovy Vary has one superb short outing in Loket, the castle town about twenty minutes away. Beyond it are the other spa towns, the reliquary at Bečov and the mining town of Jáchymov. The regional trains are slow, though, and Prague means about two hours each way by coach.

Bamberg is slightly easier with children. The Hain park has playgrounds and boats for hire on the Regnitz, a leisure pool with slides covers rainy days, and children play freely among the tables in Franconian beer gardens.

Karlovy Vary gives children a few memorable moments: the geyser, sipping warm spring water from spouted cups, and the funicular up to the lookout and its small animal enclosure. But the town is built around adults taking cures. Both towns are steep and tiring with a pushchair.

Bamberg is the easier town to get around. The island town, the cathedral hill and Little Venice are minutes apart on foot, bicycles make light work of the flat lower town, and the station is on a fast main line.

Karlovy Vary stretches along a long, narrow valley. The promenade walk is pleasant, but you will often need a bus or the funicular to reach hilltop hotels. A car helps if you want to explore the forests and villages beyond.

Karlovy Vary is better for shopping, mainly thanks to its own crafts. Moser crystal has been made in the town since the nineteenth century, and you can also buy porcelain from the local factories and Bohemian garnets. The jewellers and boutiques on Stará louka cater to well-off spa guests.

Bamberg has chain stores and a few bookshops on its pedestrian streets. Its best things to take home are edible: bottled smoked beer and produce from the market gardens, plus whatever turns up at the antique dealers near the cathedral.

Costs are much the same in both, but the pattern differs. Bamberg's prices are ordinary for Western Europe, kept down by cheap beer and hearty tavern meals, and old-town rooms get dearer at weekends and in the Christmas market season. Karlovy Vary is dearer than other Czech towns along the colonnades. One street back, though, the pubs charge local prices, which makes it slightly easier on the wallet if you eat where the locals do.

Bamberg has the stronger music, because of the Bamberg Symphony. It is an orchestra of international standing that plays its home season in the concert hall on the Regnitz. The ETA Hoffmann Theatre stages drama, there are organ concerts in the cathedral, and the Bayreuth Festival is an hour away.

Karlovy Vary's orchestra grew out of the old spa bands and mostly plays light classical programmes, some of them outdoors on the colonnades in summer. Its Fellner and Helmer theatre puts on operetta and touring shows. It makes a pleasant evening, though there is no real scene.

This is where Karlovy Vary is far stronger. Thirteen springs feed the colonnades for the drinking cure, and spa hotels and sanatoria offer carbonated baths, peat wraps and medical consultations. Several of them, and the outdoor pool above the river, use the warm spring water.

Bamberg is restful in a quieter way, with mornings by the river and afternoons in shaded beer gardens. For thermal bathing you take the train for about half an hour to the brine pools at Bad Staffelstein.