Bamberg or Lubeck?

Lübeck has a real coast and Bamberg has none. Travemünde's long sandy beach and the resorts along the bay, from Niendorf to Scharbeutz, are within half an hour. The Baltic there is shallow and calm, though always cool.

In Bamberg, swimming means the old river bathing spot on the Regnitz, the lakes on the edge of town or a public pool. That is fine for cooling off, but it is no beach.

Bamberg is the better place to eat and drink, as long as you like beer. Smoked Rauchbier poured from wooden barrels, brewery taverns centuries old and the hillside Bierkeller make drinking the centre of a visit. Hearty plates of Schäufele and dumplings come with it.

Lübeck's food is more about specialities than a whole culture: marzipan around the town hall, herring and fish sandwiches from the harbour, Rotspon wine and a meal in the old sea captains' guild house. Neither city has much range beyond its local cooking.

These are two of Germany's finest historic towns, both on islands and both listed by UNESCO, but they have different characters. Bamberg's survived largely untouched by the war. Its seven hills are crowned by churches, it has the four-towered cathedral and the Bamberg Horseman, and its Old Town Hall sits in the middle of the river. The pleasure is in the townscape itself.

Lübeck is the Hanseatic brick city of the north, with the Holstentor gate, the Marienkirche and gabled merchants' houses with hidden courtyards behind them. It has the stronger museums, with the Hansemuseum, the Buddenbrookhaus and the houses of Günter Grass and Willy Brandt.

Both towns are quiet at night, and in both places people head for a bigger city if they want to go clubbing: Nuremberg from Bamberg, Hamburg from Lübeck. Bamberg's evenings are more social, filling brewery taverns, the student bars of the Sand quarter and the summer beer cellars. Lübeck's are calmer, with wine bars and pubs along the Obertrave and the Travemünde promenade on summer nights.

Bamberg has the better countryside on its doorstep. Franconian Switzerland is less than an hour away, with limestone valleys, rock towers, caves and castles on crags, and the Steigerwald forests lie to the west. Brewery-to-brewery walks and cycle paths along the Main add to it.

Lübeck's surroundings are flatter: lakes, reeds along the Wakenitz, the clay cliff walk at Brodten and the sea itself. It is better for canoeing and sailing than for hiking.

Bamberg is the stronger base. Nuremberg is under an hour away, and Würzburg's Residence, Coburg and Bayreuth are each about an hour by train. The baroque basilica of Vierzehnheiligen is close by, and Rothenburg is within range for a long day.

Lübeck has one big trip in Hamburg, plus Wismar, Schwerin's island castle and the lake town of Ratzeburg. After that the choice runs out sooner, because the sea limits the options to the north.

Lübeck is the better choice with children, at least in summer. The flat old town is easy to explore, and the shallow, tide-free beach at Travemünde suits small children well. The aquarium and the big Hansa-Park on the coast give children a full day out.

Bamberg is safe and gentle but offers children little. There are playgrounds in the Hain park, boats to hire, a leisure pool and beer gardens where children play among the tables, and that is about it. The steep cobbles up to the cathedral are tiring for small legs.

Both are compact towns where you walk everywhere and never need a car. In Lübeck the station sits just across the river from the Holstentor, the island is flat, and trains reach the beach in about twenty minutes. Bamberg's station is a longer walk from the sights, and its hills mean short but steep climbs on uneven cobbles.

Neither town is much for shopping, and in both the best things to take home are edible. In Lübeck that means boxes of marzipan, with small craft shops and galleries tucked into the courtyard passages. In Bamberg it means bottled smoked beer and produce from the market gardens, plus antique dealers near the cathedral.

Costs are much the same in both, at ordinary Western European levels. Bamberg's cheap local beer and filling tavern meals stretch a budget nicely, though old-town rooms cost more at weekends. In Lübeck the city itself is reasonable, but staying by the sea in Travemünde in July and August costs noticeably more than staying in town.

The two are evenly matched, each with a strong classical side and little else. Bamberg's great asset is its Symphony, an orchestra known well beyond Franconia, and the Bayreuth Festival is an hour away. Lübeck has its own opera at the Art Nouveau Theater Lübeck, the Buxtehude organ tradition at the Marienkirche and the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in summer.

Neither town has a spa tradition of its own, and both are restful mainly because they are slow and quiet. In Bamberg that calm comes from mornings by the river and afternoons in beer gardens, and the warm brine pools at Bad Staffelstein are half an hour away. Lübeck instead has the seaside spa habit of Travemünde, with wellness hotels and a seawater pool complex along the bay.