Bamberg or Strasbourg?

Neither city is anywhere near the sea, so swimming means fresh water in summer. Bamberg has a traditional river bathing spot in the Hain park on the Regnitz, along with gravel-pit lakes at the edge of town. Strasbourg swims in a ring of lifeguarded gravel-pit lakes such as the Baggersee, which you can reach by tram. Its river is not an option, because the Rhine is unsafe for swimming.

Bamberg's food culture is mostly about beer. The town has a remarkable density of small breweries, smoky Rauchbier is the local speciality, and Schäufele with dumplings is the standard plate, eaten in old taverns or the summer beer cellars. It is satisfying but narrow, with little fine dining and few foreign cuisines.

Strasbourg has the broader table. Alsace mixes French and German cooking, from choucroute and baeckeoffe to tarte flambée and foie gras. Winstubs pour Riesling from nearby vineyards, and there is a real fine-dining tier. The one thing to avoid is the tourist menus around the cathedral.

The two are close in what they offer but different in kind. Bamberg is a townscape to wander. The whole old town is UNESCO-listed, its seven hills are crowned by churches, and the Old Town Hall stands on an island in the Regnitz below the four-towered cathedral. Its museums are small.

Strasbourg pairs its historic centre with real collections. There is the pink sandstone cathedral with its astronomical clock, Petite France and the German-built Neustadt. On top of that come the three museums in the Palais Rohan, a large modern art museum and the European institutions. In Strasbourg you will spend more time indoors with art.

Both cities go quiet early, but Strasbourg has a little more going on. The student bars of Krutenau and around Place Saint-Étienne stay busy, and summer terraces along the quays stay full into the evening. In Bamberg the evening is spent in brewery taverns and beer cellars, with student bars in the Sand quarter during term. For clubbing, people take the train to Nuremberg.

Bamberg's countryside is gentle. The limestone valleys, rock towers and caves of Franconian Switzerland start less than an hour east, the Steigerwald's beech forests lie to the west, and there are cycle paths along the Main and walks from one village brewery to the next.

Strasbourg has bigger hills within reach on both sides. The Vosges rise to the west above the vineyards, with castle ruins and the Mont Sainte-Odile ridge, and the Black Forest to the east has higher ridges for serious hiking. The flat Rhine plain also makes it one of the best cycling cities in France.

Both are good bases, but Strasbourg reaches into two countries. Colmar and the Alsace wine route with Riquewihr and Haut-Koenigsbourg lie to the south, and Baden-Baden, Freiburg and Heidelberg are across the Rhine. Basel and Nancy are also within range. For the wine villages, though, a car or a bike helps.

Bamberg's trips stay within Franconia, and they are all easy by train. Nuremberg, Würzburg's Residence, Coburg and Bayreuth are each about an hour away, and the baroque Vierzehnheiligen basilica is closer still.

Strasbourg is far better set up for children. The flat, car-free centre suits pushchairs, boat trips loop round the Grande Ile, and the Orangerie has storks, playgrounds and rowing boats. Le Vaisseau is built for young visitors, and Europa-Park is about an hour across the border.

Bamberg is safe and relaxed, and its beer gardens welcome families, with children playing between the tables. Beyond the Hain park playgrounds, boat hire on the Regnitz and a leisure pool with slides, though, there is little for children, and the cobbled climb to the cathedral is hard work with a pushchair.

You can walk around both centres, but Strasbourg is easier. It is flat and mostly pedestrianised, trams run out to the station and across the Rhine to Kehl, and separated cycle lanes make a bike the quickest way to get about. Bamberg's sights are only minutes apart, but the cobbled climbs to the cathedral and Michaelsberg are steep, the station is a fair walk out, and buses fill the gaps.

Strasbourg gives shopping more room. There are chain stores and a large department store around Place Kléber, independent delicatessens near the cathedral, and Soufflenheim pottery and printed linens to take home. Its Christmas market, one of the oldest in Europe, makes December the high point.

In Bamberg, shopping fills an hour between sights. It comes down to high-street names on Lange Strasse, produce from the market gardens, bottled smoked beer from the breweries and a few antique dealers near the cathedral.

Bamberg is the easier place on the wallet. Beer is cheap, a tavern dinner of pork and dumplings costs less than in a big city, and rooms are moderately priced for most of the year, apart from weekends and the Christmas season.

Strasbourg is fairly priced for a French regional city, and the winstub meals, wine by the pichet and trams are all good value. Rooms are the expensive part, and prices climb sharply during the Christmas market and the European Parliament sessions.

Strasbourg has the fuller arts calendar. The Opéra national du Rhin, a philharmonic orchestra and the Théâtre National de Strasbourg, one of France's leading stages, perform through the season, and the Musica festival makes the city a centre for contemporary music every autumn.

Bamberg's strength is a single institution, the Bamberg Symphony, an orchestra with an international name. Add drama at the ETA Hoffmann Theatre and organ concerts in the cathedral, but there is no opera company. For opera, people go to Bayreuth.

Strasbourg has a bathing tradition of its own in the Bains municipaux, a tiled early twentieth-century bathhouse with a hammam and saunas. The Friedrichsbad and Caracalla baths at Baden-Baden are under an hour away. Bamberg relaxes you mainly through its slow pace and shady beer gardens. For thermal water, the brine pools at Bad Staffelstein are about half an hour away by train.