Bamberg or Utrecht?

Neither city is a beach destination, and in both the summer swim is a local lake. Bamberg has the river bathing spot in the Hain park on the Regnitz and gravel-pit lakes on the edge of town, with the sea a full day away. Utrecht has recreation lakes such as the Maarsseveense Plassen, and it also has the North Sea at Zandvoort or Scheveningen about an hour or more away by train, though the water there stays cool.

Bamberg is the one to choose for food and drink, as long as beer and hearty cooking are what you are after. Smoky Rauchbier poured from wooden barrels, Schäufele with dumplings and long evenings at the hillside Bierkeller give it a character Utrecht simply does not have.

Utrecht offers range instead. Its Indonesian and Surinamese kitchens and bistros around the Twijnstraat and Lombok are varied and casual, and eating on the cellar wharves of the Oudegracht is the memorable part. The setting matters more than the cooking there.

Both have medieval centres that escaped heavy damage, but Bamberg's is the richer townscape. It is UNESCO-listed as a whole, with the four-towered Imperial Cathedral and the Bamberg Horseman, the Old Town Hall on its island in the Regnitz, and Michaelsberg Abbey above Little Venice.

Utrecht is a smaller set of highlights with stronger collections. You can climb the Dom Tower, see the cloister standing apart from it, and visit the Centraal Museum's De Stijl rooms and the Rietveld Schröder House. Bamberg is for wandering, Utrecht for a few targeted visits.

Utrecht has the livelier evenings. Its large student population fills the bars around the Neude, the Janskerkhof and the Oudegracht on weeknights too, and it has a handful of clubs. Bamberg's nights are slower and built around beer: brewery taverns after work, student bars in the Sand quarter during term, and quiet streets well before the small hours. Each city sends its serious party-goers to a bigger neighbour, Amsterdam or Nuremberg.

Bamberg has the more varied countryside on its doorstep. Franconian Switzerland, with limestone valleys, rock towers, caves and castle-topped crags, starts less than an hour east, and the Steigerwald beech forests lie to the west. Walkers can link one village brewery to the next.

Utrecht's surroundings are flatter and best seen by bike, along the Vecht past windmills and country estates and into the polders. The heath and wooded ridges of the Utrechtse Heuvelrug are its closest thing to walking country, and the Loosdrecht lakes add sailing.

Both make good bases, but Utrecht's position at the hub of the Dutch rail network is hard to beat. Amsterdam is under half an hour away, and Rotterdam, The Hague, Delft, Leiden and Gouda are all simple rides, so you can cover much of the country without moving hotel.

Bamberg's outings take a little longer and are more regional. Nuremberg, the Würzburg Residence, Coburg and Bayreuth are each around an hour, and the baroque basilica of Vierzehnheiligen is closer still.

Utrecht is much the better city for children. The national Railway Museum and the Miffy museum are aimed squarely at them, and the castle at De Haar makes a fairy-tale outing. The only real hazard is the constant stream of bikes.

Bamberg is safe and relaxed, with playgrounds and boat hire in the Hain park and beer gardens where children play among the tables. Beyond those it has little made for young visitors, and pushing a buggy up the cathedral hill is hard work.

Both centres are walkable and neither needs a car, but Utrecht is the smoother of the two. Its main station sits right at the edge of the old town, the streets are flat, and trams, buses and trains share one tap-in card. Bamberg is compact too, but the station is a fair walk out, and the short climbs to the cathedral and Michaelsberg are steep and cobbled.

Utrecht is the better place to shop. Independent fashion, design and homeware shops line the Oudegracht wharves, the Elisabethstraat and the Twijnstraat, Hoog Catharijne covers the chains, and the flower and textile markets add colour.

Bamberg has mostly chain stores on Grüner Markt and Lange Strasse. Its best buys are edible: market-garden produce and bottled smoked beer, plus the antique dealers near the cathedral.

Bamberg is clearly the cheaper stay. Beer and tavern meals cost less than in a big city, and rooms are moderately priced except at weekends and during the Christmas market season.

In Utrecht the bed is the problem. Central hotels are few and priced like those in any large Western European city, and dinners with drinks add up. Cheap student cafés and the compact centre help, but they do not close the gap.

Utrecht has the broader stage life. TivoliVredenburg stacks classical, pop, jazz and experimental music under one roof, and the Festival Oude Muziek draws early-music lovers from across Europe. Theatre, however, is mostly in Dutch.

Bamberg's strength is narrower but real: the Bamberg Symphony is an orchestra of international standing, and the cathedral hosts organ and choral concerts. The Bayreuth Festival is within an hour for opera.

Neither city has a bathing tradition of its own, so in both the calm comes mostly from the pace. What differs is the spa trip: from Bamberg it is a half-hour train ride to the warm brine pools of Bad Staffelstein, while from Utrecht you take a short drive or bus to the large Dutch sauna complexes in the green belt. For quiet moments, Bamberg has its shaded beer gardens and Utrecht has the Pandhof cloister garden and its canal wharves in the evening.