Bamberg or Munich?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Munich gives a summer swimmer more to work with. The gravel banks of the Isar at the Flaucher are a short ride from the centre, and the Starnberger See and the Ammersee, with lawns, jetties and clear, fresh alpine water, are under an hour by S-Bahn.

Bamberg's swimming is more modest: the old river bathing spot in the Hain park, gravel-pit lakes on the edge of town and public pools. Fine for cooling off after a walk, not for a day out.

Beer drives the table in both, and both serve the same kind of hearty roast pork and dumplings, so the difference is one of character. Bamberg is about small breweries and the smoky Rauchbier poured from wooden barrels, with summer evenings at the Bierkeller on the hillsides and village breweries all around.

Munich works on a bigger scale: the great brewery beer halls, litres of Helles, white sausage before noon and the Viktualienmarkt for snacks. It also has the starred restaurants and the Italian, Turkish and Balkan kitchens that Bamberg largely lacks.

Munich has the greater cultural offer, mainly because of its collections. The Alte Pinakothek and its neighbours in the Kunstareal, the Residenz, Nymphenburg and the Deutsches Museum could fill a week, and the Dachau memorial lies just outside the city.

Bamberg's strength is the townscape itself. Its UNESCO-listed centre survived the war largely untouched, while much of Munich's old town was rebuilt. The four-towered cathedral, the Old Town Hall on its island and the fishermen's houses of Little Venice reward a slow walk more than a museum list.

Munich offers a fuller night out. The cocktail and gay bars of the Glockenbachviertel and Gärtnerplatz, the student pubs of Schwabing and a few serious techno clubs open until morning give it range, and the Oktoberfest tents take over the city each autumn.

In Bamberg the evening means a brewery tavern, a summer beer cellar or the student bars of the Sand quarter in term time, and the town is mostly quiet well before the small hours. Locals who want to dance take the train to Nuremberg.

Munich has the mountains on its doorstep. The Wetterstein and the Zugspitze, Tegernsee and the Isar valley are reachable by train for alpine hiking in summer and skiing in winter, and in town the English Garden even has surfers riding the Eisbach wave.

Bamberg's countryside is softer. Franconian Switzerland, with its limestone valleys, rock towers and castle crags, starts within an hour, and the Steigerwald forests and the cycle paths along the Main make for pleasant walking and riding, often from one village brewery to the next.

Both are good bases, and both reach Nuremberg in about an hour, but Munich's list is longer and more varied. Salzburg and Innsbruck sit across the border, Augsburg and Regensburg are close by, and the royal castles of Neuschwanstein and Herrenchiemsee are classic outings.

From Bamberg the trips stay within Franconia: Würzburg's Residence, Coburg's fortress, Bayreuth's opera houses and the baroque basilica of Vierzehnheiligen, with Rothenburg at the end of a long day.

Munich is much easier with children. The Hellabrunn zoo, the hands-on sections of the Deutsches Museum, the transport museum, the English Garden and the lake beaches give plenty of easy days, and the transport takes pushchairs without trouble.

Bamberg is safe and relaxed, and the Hain park, rowing boats on the Regnitz and the leisure pool help. But its sights are churches and old streets, and the cobbled climb to the cathedral is hard with a pushchair.

Bamberg needs little more than comfortable shoes. The old town is small enough that the island town hall, the cathedral hill and the riverside houses of Little Venice are an easy stroll from one another, and buses or a bicycle cover the trip out to the station and the outer districts. The effort comes on the short, steep cobbled lanes up to the cathedral and Michaelsberg.

Munich is the easier city to get around. It has a compact, largely car-free centre and, on top of that, a full network of U-Bahn, S-Bahn, trams and buses on one system, running out to Nymphenburg, the Olympic Park, the airport and the lakes. The flat streets suit cycling, and regional trains handle the day trips. The weak spot is the shared central S-Bahn line, which is prone to hold-ups.

Munich is the shopping city of the two. Maximilianstrasse and the Theatinerstrasse arcades hold the luxury houses, Neuhauser Strasse carries the department stores, and Glockenbach and Schwabing add independent design. The distinctive buy is Tracht from specialist tailors.

Bamberg fills an hour rather than a day: chain stores and bookshops around Grüner Markt, and better souvenirs in market garden produce, bottled smoked beer and the antique dealers near the cathedral.

Bamberg is noticeably cheaper. Its hotels are moderately priced for most of the year, a tavern meal costs less than in a big German city, and walking replaces transport.

Munich is Germany's most expensive city, and its hotels show it, above all during the Oktoberfest and the big trade fairs. A picnic in a beer garden, the free parks and lakes and the token Sunday entry to several museums ease the bill, but only a little.

Munich is one of Europe's great music cities. The Bavarian State Opera at the National Theatre, three orchestras of real standing, the rococo Cuvilliés Theatre and strong German-language drama at the Residenztheater and Kammerspiele give a full season of evenings.

Bamberg has one real asset in the Bamberg Symphony, an orchestra of international reputation, plus drama at the ETA Hoffmann Theatre and concerts in the cathedral. It has no opera company of its own, though the Bayreuth Festival is an hour away.

Munich has a true bathing culture. The Art Nouveau Müller'sches Volksbad on the Isar, the textile-free public saunas with infusion rituals, the vast thermal baths at Erding and the spa towns of Bad Tölz and Bad Reichenhall offer plenty of ways to unwind.

Bamberg relaxes you mostly through its pace, with quiet riverside mornings and a town that empties of day visitors by evening. For proper thermal bathing, the warm brine pools at Bad Staffelstein are half an hour away by train.