Bamberg or Rothenburg ob der Tauber?

Neither town is a place for swimming, and both are far from any coast. The difference is where the water is. Bamberg has its traditional river bathing spot in the Hain park and gravel-pit lakes on the edge of town, so a cooling swim is close at hand. In Rothenburg it means the town's outdoor pool, or an hour's drive to the grassy shores of the Altmühlsee and the other Franconian lakes.

Bamberg is far stronger on food and drink, and almost entirely because of beer. Dozens of small breweries in and around town pour smoky Rauchbier in centuries-old taverns, and in summer whole evenings move up to the Bierkeller under the chestnut trees. Add the Hörnla potatoes and the market gardeners' stalls on Grüner Markt, and the local food is a reason to come in its own right.

Rothenburg serves the same Schäufele and dumplings, but with more Silvaner wine than beer. Many kitchens around the Marktplatz cater to coach parties, and the sugary Schneeball is more photogenic than good. The better meals are in family guesthouses and Tauber valley wine taverns away from the square. Neither town has much fine dining or international food.

Both are among Germany's best-preserved historic towns, but they feel different to visit. Bamberg is larger and more varied. The four-towered Imperial Cathedral and Neue Residenz crown one of its seven hills, the frescoed Old Town Hall stands on an island in the Regnitz, and Little Venice and the market gardeners' quarter take several days to explore.

Rothenburg is the more concentrated picture: a complete medieval walled town with a walkway along its ramparts, the Plönlein fork and Riemenschneider's Holy Blood Altar in St Jakob's. The Medieval Crime Museum gives it a stronger single museum, but it is a rewarding day rather than a long stay.

Bamberg is the only one of the two with an evening scene worth the name. The brewery taverns fill after work, the student bars of the Sand quarter stay busy late during term, and summer nights stretch out in the beer cellars. Rothenburg goes quiet once the day visitors leave. The night watchman's tour is the main event, the wine taverns close early and the lanes are silent by eleven. For a real night out, both towns send you to Nuremberg.

Bamberg has more countryside within reach. Franconian Switzerland, with its rock towers, caves and castle-topped crags for climbing and hiking, begins less than an hour east. The Steigerwald's beech forests lie to the west, and cycle routes follow the Main and Regnitz past orchard villages.

Rothenburg's outdoors is smaller in scale but closer to the door. Paths drop straight from the walls into the Tauber valley past mills and the Topplerschlösschen, and the family-friendly Tauber valley cycle path heads downstream through vineyards. Beyond that there is only the gently rolling Frankenhöhe.

Both make good bases, but for different kinds of outing. From Bamberg, the main rail line puts Nuremberg, Würzburg, Coburg and Bayreuth each within about an hour without a car, and the baroque basilica of Vierzehnheiligen faces Banz Abbey just up the Main.

Rothenburg's strength is the Romantic Road. Dinkelsbühl, crater-ringed Nördlingen, Schwäbisch Hall and Weikersheim's palace gardens are all near, though trains are poor and these trips really need a car.

Neither town is built around children, and both have steep cobbles that are hard on pushchairs. They appeal in different ways. Bamberg offers ordinary outdoor fun: playgrounds and open space in the Hain park, rowing boats on the Regnitz, a leisure pool with slides and beer gardens where children play between the tables.

Rothenburg is more of an adventure for a day or two. Children can walk the ramparts, climb the Rathaus tower and follow the lantern-carrying night watchman, and older ones tend to love the shame masks in the Crime Museum.

Both centres are walked rather than driven, but Bamberg is easier once you look beyond the old town. Its city buses, flat lower town for cycling and main-line station connect it to the rest of Franconia, so a visit needs no car at all.

Inside Rothenburg's walls, you can cross the whole town in a quarter of an hour. Beyond them, the town sits at the end of a branch line that usually means changing at Steinach, and village buses are sparse. For most visitors, that makes a car the practical choice.

The two towns are much of a muchness for shopping, but they suit quite different shoppers. Bamberg is the one for everyday browsing and for things you can eat or drink at home: bottles of smoked beer from the brewery shops, produce grown in the market gardeners' plots inside the town, and an hour in the antique dealers below the cathedral or the independent bookshops among the chains on the pedestrian streets. It rewards someone who picks things up along the way, not anyone hunting for fashion.

Rothenburg is for the visitor who wants Christmas, whatever the month. Its year-round shops of glass baubles, nutcrackers, smoking men and Erzgebirge carvings are reason enough for some people to make the journey, and in December the market on the Marktplatz is one of the most atmospheric in Germany. For clothes, design or ordinary errands it offers even less than Bamberg, and most of what is for sale is made with souvenirs in mind.

Bamberg is the easier town on the wallet. Its beer is cheap, a roast pork plate in a brewery tavern costs less than in a big city, and as a walkable town on a main rail line it adds little in transport. Rothenburg puts a tourist premium on rooms inside the walls and meals around the Marktplatz, and a car often becomes part of the cost. Sleeping outside the walls or in a nearby village cuts the bill noticeably. In both towns, prices climb during the Christmas market season.

Bamberg has by far the richer stage. The Bamberg Symphony is an orchestra of international standing with its own concert hall on the Regnitz, the ETA Hoffmann Theatre stages drama through the season and the cathedral holds organ and choral concerts. Bayreuth's Wagner festival is within easy reach by train.

Rothenburg's performances are mostly about its own history. The costumed Meistertrunk play retells the town's rescue in the Thirty Years' War, and there are summer open-air productions and concerts in St Jakob's. On most evenings there is no show at all.

Both towns relax you through their pace rather than through spas, and neither has a bathing tradition of its own. Bamberg's calm comes from slow mornings by the river and long afternoons in beer gardens. Its leisure pool has a sauna, and the brine pools of Bad Staffelstein are a short train ride away. Rothenburg is most peaceful early and late, when the walls and valley paths empty. Its thermal options, the floating salt pool at Bad Windsheim and the spa town of Bad Mergentheim, are within about an hour's drive.