Bamberg or Stuttgart?

Neither city is right for a beach vacation, and the only difference is how you cool off in summer. In Bamberg you can swim in the river itself, at the old bathing spot in the Hain park, or in the gravel-pit lakes on the edge of town. Stuttgart's Neckar is a working river and not for swimming, so locals use outdoor pools, some fed by mineral springs, and Lake Constance is more than two hours away.

These two are about level, but one is a beer town and the other a wine city. Bamberg's table is built around Rauchbier, poured from wooden barrels in old brewery taverns and drunk in summer under the chestnut trees of the hillside Bierkeller. Alongside it come Schäufele, dumplings and Bratwurst.

Stuttgart has vineyards inside the city limits, so Trollinger and Riesling go with Maultaschen and Käsespätzle, and the seasonal Besen taverns serve wine with onion tart in growers' own houses. Stuttgart also has the deeper fine-dining scene and the Art Nouveau Markthalle, while Bamberg's range beyond Franconian cooking is narrow.

Bamberg has the edge if the place itself is what you want to see. It came through the war largely undamaged, and its whole old town is listed by UNESCO, from the four-towered cathedral and the Neue Residenz down to the frescoed Old Town Hall on its island and the fishermen's houses of Little Venice. The pleasure is in walking it, since the museums are small.

Stuttgart's culture is about industry and modern design. The Mercedes-Benz and Porsche museums and the Staatsgalerie are serious collections, and the Le Corbusier houses on the Weissenhof Estate carry their own UNESCO listing. Bombing left its older heritage in pockets around Schlossplatz and the two palaces.

Stuttgart offers more after dark, though neither city is a reason to travel for nightlife alone. Its bars and lounges line Theodor-Heuss-Strasse, there are basement clubs with a loyal electronic music crowd, and the Cannstatter Volksfest fills enormous beer tents every autumn.

A night out in Bamberg means brewery taverns after work, the student bars of the Sand quarter during term and long summer evenings in the beer cellars. Most of the town is quiet before the small hours, and anyone looking for clubs takes the train to Nuremberg.

Both offer gentle, wooded countryside rather than mountains, and Stuttgart has slightly more of it close at hand. From its basin you can walk straight up into vineyard trails and the Rotwildpark and Schönbuch forests. Both the Swabian Jura's cliff-edge paths and the northern Black Forest's fir ridges are within about an hour.

Bamberg's best landscape is Franconian Switzerland, under an hour east, where climbers come for the rock towers, caves and castle-topped crags. Closer to town are cycle paths along the Main and walks from one village brewery to the next.

Both are good rail bases, but Stuttgart has the longer and more varied list. Ludwigsburg's palace and half-timbered Esslingen are a short S-Bahn ride away, Heidelberg is about forty minutes by fast train, and Tübingen, Hohenzollern Castle, Maulbronn and Ulm all make easy days out, with Strasbourg possible across the border.

From Bamberg, the trips stay in Franconia. Nuremberg is under an hour away, and Würzburg's Residence, Coburg and Bayreuth are about as close, with the baroque basilica of Vierzehnheiligen closer still.

Stuttgart is much better set up for children. Wilhelma, a zoo and botanical garden among Moorish-style pavilions, can fill a whole day. The Killesberg park adds a miniature railway and a lookout tower, older children enjoy the car museums, and Ludwigsburg has a fairy-tale garden for the little ones.

Bamberg is safe and relaxed, with playgrounds and rowing boats in the Hain park, a leisure pool with slides and beer gardens where children play among the tables. Otherwise its sights are churches and cobbled lanes, which are hard going with a pushchair.

Both are easy without a car, but in different ways. In Bamberg your feet do almost everything: the island town, the cathedral hill and Little Venice are minutes apart, with short, steep cobbled climbs and buses for the station.

Stuttgart's flat centre is walkable too, but the city climbs the sides of its basin, so the Stadtbahn and S-Bahn take over on one integrated ticket. That ticket also covers a rack railway and a funicular, and the stepped Stäffele lanes are shortcuts on foot.

Stuttgart is the clear choice for anyone who shops seriously. Königstrasse is one of Germany's longest pedestrian streets, Breuninger has the luxury and designer labels, and the outlet town of Metzingen is half an hour away.

In Bamberg, shopping fills an hour between sights. There are chain stores around Grüner Markt and Lange Strasse, but the best things to take home are produce from the market gardens, bottled smoked beer and finds from the antique dealers near the cathedral.

Bamberg is noticeably easier on the wallet. Beer is cheap, a brewery-tavern meal costs less than in a big German city, and with everything on foot you spend almost nothing on transport. Rooms only get tight at weekends and during the Christmas market.

Stuttgart is a prosperous city and prices above the middle for Western Europe. Its hotels are expensive during big trade fairs, and smart restaurants add up fast. Hearty tavern food and a day ticket for transport keep the basics reasonable, and weekends bring cheaper rooms.

Stuttgart is far ahead here. The Staatsoper, known for bold productions, and the Stuttgart Ballet, one of Europe's most respected companies since John Cranko's time, share the state theatre beside the palace gardens. The Liederhalle hosts orchestras and a strong Bach tradition, and there are big musicals and a well-known jazz club too.

Bamberg's strength is a single fine orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony, along with drama at the ETA Hoffmann Theatre and concerts in the cathedral. It has no opera company of its own, and the Bayreuth Festival an hour away is the region's opera.

Stuttgart has the real bathing culture. Its springs at Bad Cannstatt and Berg feed public baths such as the Mineralbad Leuze, where you can soak in naturally carbonated warm water indoors and out, with saunas in the larger baths.

Bamberg relaxes you through its pace instead: slow mornings by the Regnitz, afternoons in shaded beer gardens and quiet evenings once the day visitors leave. For thermal water, the brine pools of Bad Staffelstein are half an hour away by train.