Bamberg or Luxembourg?

Neither city has a beach, so swimming is a hot-afternoon outing in both. Bamberg's is closer to hand: the old river bathing spot in the Hain park and gravel-pit lakes on the edge of town.

Luxembourg's best water lies further out, at the wooded shores of the Upper Sûre reservoir about an hour north, or the Remerschen lakes in the Moselle valley. If you are willing to make the trip, that gives you more of a lake day.

Bamberg has the more distinctive table, and it is built on beer. Smoky Rauchbier is poured from wooden barrels in centuries-old taverns, and the summer Bierkeller sit under chestnut trees on the hillsides, with Schäufele and dumplings to go with it. The range is narrow, though.

Luxembourg mixes French, German and Portuguese traditions, and for its size it has a serious fine-dining tier. Its real local pleasure is Moselle Riesling and crémant rather than beer. Casual eating is thinner there, so lunch is the meal to plan around.

Bamberg gives the fuller day of sightseeing. The whole old town is UNESCO-listed, spread over seven hills, with the Imperial Cathedral and its Bamberg Horseman, the Neue Residenz, and the frescoed Old Town Hall standing in the Regnitz. Its museums are small, and the town itself is the attraction.

Luxembourg's draw is its setting. The fortress remains wrap a sandstone plateau above the gorges, and you can walk through the Bock casemates and look down on the Grund from the Corniche. Add the National Museum of History and Art and MUDAM on Kirchberg, and two days covers it.

Both are quiet after dark, and the difference is in the setting. A Bamberg evening means brewery taverns, the student bars of the Sand quarter during term, or a long summer night in a hillside beer cellar. Anyone wanting clubs takes the train to Nuremberg.

Luxembourg has a few more late options, with bars and a couple of clubs at the Rives de Clausen, riverside pubs in the Grund and later venues in Hollerich. The crowd is international, Thursday and Friday are the busy nights, and weekends can feel empty.

Both offer gentle wooded country rather than mountains, but Luxembourg's green starts inside the city, with paths along the floors of the Pétrusse and Alzette gorges. Half an hour away, the mossy sandstone passages of the Müllerthal are more striking than anything near Bamberg.

From Bamberg, the limestone valleys, caves and rock towers of Franconian Switzerland begin within an hour. Cycle paths follow the Main through orchard villages, and walks can link one village brewery to the next, which gives the outdoors a sociable flavour.

Both are excellent bases, and the difference is borders. From Bamberg, everything is in Franconia: Nuremberg's castle and Würzburg's Residence are each about an hour away by train, and Coburg's fortress and Bayreuth's opera houses are as close. The baroque basilica of Vierzehnheiligen is nearer still.

From Luxembourg, a day trip can take you into another country. Roman Trier in Germany and Gothic Metz in France are each under an hour by train. Within Luxembourg, free buses run to Vianden's hilltop castle, the abbey town of Echternach and the Moselle wine villages.

Luxembourg works better with children. Lifts and a funicular spare you the climbs with a buggy, the casemate tunnels and ramparts make the fortress an adventure, and there is a natural history museum and the small Parc Merveilleux at Bettembourg.

Bamberg is safe and relaxed, with playgrounds and boat hire in the Hain park and beer gardens where children play among the tables. But its sights are churches, and the cobbled lanes up the cathedral hill are hard work with a pushchair.

Bamberg is a walking town. Buses and bicycles cover the flat lower town and the outer districts, but the steep cobbled climbs to the cathedral are done on foot. The station is a fair walk from the old town.

Luxembourg makes things easier still, because public transport is free across the whole country. The tram runs from the station to Kirchberg, and trains go as far as Clervaux in the north without a ticket. Public lifts and a funicular take the strain out of a city built on several levels.

Luxembourg has more to browse. The Grand-Rue carries international luxury and premium fashion, there is a Villeroy & Boch porcelain outlet, and Moselle crémant makes a good thing to take home.

Bamberg's pedestrian streets have mostly chain stores, plus a few bookshops and antique dealers near the cathedral. Its best buys are edible: smoked beer from the brewery shops and produce from the market gardens.

This is where the two differ most. Bamberg keeps to ordinary Western European prices, with cheap beer, modest tavern meals and moderate guesthouses, though rooms in the old town get dearer at weekends.

Luxembourg's hotels and restaurants are priced for business travel and the EU institutions. Free transport, free museums and good-value lunch menus help, and some visitors sleep in Trier or Metz to keep the bill down.

Luxembourg has the broader programme. The Philharmonie on Kirchberg has excellent acoustics and draws touring orchestras, the Grand Théâtre hosts visiting opera and dance, and Neimënster puts on summer concerts in an old abbey.

Bamberg's strength is a home-grown one: the Bamberg Symphony is an orchestra of real international standing, and there are organ concerts in the cathedral. There is little beyond that, though Bayreuth's Wagner festival is an hour away.

Each city has a thermal spa about half an hour away, which makes an easy half-day out. From Bamberg, you take the train to the warm brine pools of Bad Staffelstein. From Luxembourg, you go to the mineral spring baths of Mondorf-les-Bains, set in a landscaped park.

Otherwise, both towns relax you through their slow pace. In Bamberg, that means long afternoons in beer gardens and a town that empties of day visitors by evening. In Luxembourg, it means quiet walks along the Pétrusse valley and the Grund.