Bamberg or Nuremberg?

Neither city is a place to swim, and the difference lies in where the water is. Bamberg keeps its swimming close: a traditional river bathing spot in the Hain park and gravel-pit lakes on the edge of town.

Nuremberg's best water is about an hour south in the Franconian Lake District, where the Brombachsee has grassy shores and small sandy strips, which makes for a better day at the lake but a longer trip to get there.

Both eat the same hearty Franconian food of Schäufele, dumplings and bratwurst, but Bamberg makes the stronger case for eating and drinking. Its smoky Rauchbier, its brewery taverns and the shaded Bierkeller on the hills are the main reason many people visit, and the market gardeners' stalls on Grüner Markt add local produce.

Nuremberg answers with its small grilled bratwurst on pewter plates and centuries of Lebkuchen, plus taverns and beer gardens along the Pegnitz. Its restaurant scene is ordinary for its size, and neither city offers much range beyond Franconian cooking.

Both are among the finest historic towns in Germany, but they offer different experiences. Bamberg came through the war largely intact and is listed by UNESCO as a whole. The point is the townscape itself, from the four-towered cathedral and the Bamberg Horseman to the island town hall and Little Venice, with only small museums.

Nuremberg's walled centre and Kaiserburg were carefully rebuilt after the bombing, and the city makes up for that with depth. The Germanisches Nationalmuseum can fill a day, and the Rally Grounds and Courtroom 600 tell the twentieth century in a way Bamberg cannot.

Nuremberg gives the better night out, chiefly thanks to Gostenhof, where small bars and alternative venues fill the old working-class streets west of the walls, with students from Erlangen keeping weekends busy.

Bamberg's evenings are about beer: full brewery taverns, the student bars of the Sand quarter in term time and long summer nights in the beer cellars. Most of the town goes quiet early, and its own residents take the train to Nuremberg for a bigger night.

The countryside is much the same around both, gentle forest and farmland rather than mountains, and both reach the limestone valleys and climbing crags of Franconian Switzerland in under an hour. Bamberg leans to the beech woods of the Steigerwald and the cycle paths along the Main and Regnitz, with village-to-brewery hikes. Nuremberg has the pine Reichswald at its edge and the lakes to the south for sailing and paddling.

Bamberg makes a good base for the north of Franconia. Coburg's fortress and ducal palaces, the baroque basilica of Vierzehnheiligen facing Banz Abbey across the upper Main, Bayreuth's Margravial Opera House and Würzburg's Residence are all within about an hour, and Nuremberg is the obvious big-city outing.

Nuremberg reaches further, and that gives it the edge. Regensburg's Roman and medieval centre on the Danube is about an hour away, Munich is the same by fast train, and the walled towns of Rothenburg and Dinkelsbühl make a full day rather than a stretched one. Closer in, Fürth is a short U-Bahn ride and Erlangen a quick S-Bahn or regional train trip, so both make easy half days.

Nuremberg is far better set up for children. Its toy-making past fills a Toy Museum, the railway museum has real locomotives, the zoo has a dolphin and manatee house, and in Advent there is a separate children's market with carousels.

Bamberg is safe and easy at a slow pace, with playgrounds and rowing boats in the Hain park and beer gardens where children play among the tables. Beyond that its sights are churches and townscape, and the cobbled cathedral hill is hard work with a pushchair.

Both centres are walkable and neither needs a car, with steep cobbles up to the castle or cathedral in each. Nuremberg has the edge, as its station sits just outside the walls and one ticket covers the U-Bahn, trams and S-Bahn out to the zoo, the Rally Grounds and Fürth.

In Bamberg the station is a fair walk from the old town, and buses and bicycles cover the rest, though in practice little beyond the river and the hills needs reaching.

Nuremberg gives shopping more to work with: Lebkuchen in decorated tins, wooden toys and tin figures, the workshops of the Handwerkerhof and, in Advent, the stalls of the Christkindlesmarkt.

Bamberg's streets around Grüner Markt fill an hour, and its best buys are edible or old: market-garden produce, bottled Rauchbier from the brewery shops and the antique dealers near the cathedral.

The two cost much the same, with ordinary Western European prices kept modest by cheap local beer and filling tavern meals, and Bamberg's walkable size makes it slightly easier on the budget. What differs is when rooms get dear. In Nuremberg it is during the big trade fairs and Advent, while in Bamberg old-town rooms tighten at weekends and around the Christmas market.

Nuremberg offers the fuller programme, with opera, ballet and drama in repertory at the Art Nouveau Staatstheater, two orchestras, and summer events such as the free Bardentreffen and the open-air concert in the Luitpoldhain.

Bamberg's strength is narrower but distinguished. The Bamberg Symphony has a real international name, and the ETA Hoffmann Theatre and church concerts add to it, but there is no opera company of its own.

Neither has bathing traditions of its own, so both send you out of town for warm water. From Bamberg it is the brine pools of Bad Staffelstein, about half an hour by train. From Nuremberg it is the large thermal spa with sauna gardens in Fürth, a short U-Bahn ride away. Bamberg's calm mostly comes from the town emptying of day visitors in the evening, while Nuremberg relies on slow afternoons along the Pegnitz.