Bamberg or Zermatt?

Neither is a place for a beach, but Bamberg at least offers a proper summer swim. The river bathing spot in the Hain park and the gravel-pit lakes on the edge of town are good on a warm afternoon. Zermatt's tarns are glacial meltwater, beautiful under the Matterhorn but too cold to swim in, so bathing there means a hotel pool.

Bamberg has the stronger and more distinctive table, built around its dense cluster of small breweries. Smoky Rauchbier poured from wooden barrels, Schäufele with dumplings and long summer evenings at the hillside Bierkeller make eating out a central part of a visit, though the choice beyond Franconian cooking is thin.

Zermatt's best meals are up the mountain, in the chalet restaurants of Findeln, Furi and Zum See, with raclette, air-dried beef and Valais wines such as Petite Arvine on a sunny terrace. The village adds a few ambitious fine-dining kitchens that Bamberg lacks, but the choice is narrow, cheap eating is rare and many places close between seasons.

This is where Bamberg pulls far ahead. Its old town survived the war almost untouched, and walking from the four-towered cathedral and the Neue Residenz down to the frescoed town hall on the Regnitz and the fishermen's houses of Little Venice is a day's sightseeing in itself.

Zermatt's heritage is small and centred on mountaineering: the underground Matterhorn Museum telling the story of the 1865 first ascent, the climbers' cemetery and the old larch-wood granaries of the Hinterdorf. It is worth a morning, but nobody chooses Zermatt for its monuments.

Both are quiet after dark, but in different ways. Bamberg's evenings are spent in brewery taverns, the student bars of the Sand quarter during term and the beer cellars in summer, and most of the town is asleep well before the small hours. Zermatt comes alive mainly in winter, when loud après-ski on the slopes gives way to a few bars and small clubs on the main street, while its summer evenings end after dinner.

Zermatt is one of the great Alpine bases. The Matterhorn rises directly over the village, lifts reach the Gornergrat and the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise at over 3,800m, skiing links into Italy, and summer opens hundreds of kilometres of trails with marmots, ibex and guided climbs on four-thousanders.

Bamberg's outdoors is pleasant and gentle by comparison. The limestone valleys and rock towers of Franconian Switzerland lie less than an hour east, the Steigerwald forests to the west, and cycle paths follow the Main through orchard villages, but there are rolling hills rather than peaks.

Bamberg is much the better base for exploring. Nuremberg's castle and old town, Würzburg's Residence, Coburg's fortress and Bayreuth's opera houses all lie within about an hour by train, with the baroque basilica of Vierzehnheiligen nearer still.

From Zermatt every outing begins with the long train ride down the valley. Sion, with its castle hills and vineyards, is the most rewarding, and Brig and Saas-Fee are possible, but most visitors spend their spare days on the mountain instead.

Zermatt works somewhat better with children, mainly because its streets are free of cars and the activities suit families who ski or hike. Ski schools and nursery slopes at Sunnegga, marmot spotting and rides on cog railways keep children busy, though rainy days are hard to fill and the highest viewpoints can be too cold and thin-aired for small ones.

Bamberg is safe and easy at a slow pace, with playgrounds and boat hire in the Hain park, a leisure pool with slides and family-friendly beer gardens. Beyond that its sights are churches and cobbled lanes that make heavy work of a pushchair.

Both are towns you walk, with Zermatt slightly easier once you arrive: the village is car-free, and the cog railway, the underground funicular and the gondolas start within walking distance of the centre. The catch is that leaving the valley takes over an hour by train.

Bamberg's island town, cathedral hill and Little Venice are minutes apart, buses and bicycles cover the rest, and the steep cobbled climbs are short. Its station sits on a main line, so the wider region is far more accessible than from Zermatt.

Bamberg's pedestrian streets around Grüner Markt and Lange Strasse are for everyday browsing, with high-street chains, independent bookshops and antique dealers near the cathedral. The things worth taking home are local: vegetables and herbs from the town's market gardens and bottled Rauchbier from the brewery shops.

Zermatt's one main street aims at a richer, narrower market. It has Swiss watch and jewellery boutiques for wealthy skiers, shops full of cowbells and chocolate, and well-stocked ski and mountaineering outfitters, which are the real reason to go in if you need kit. Neither town has a fashion or design scene, so in each, shopping fills an hour rather than a day.

The gap here is wide. Bamberg costs what an ordinary Western European town costs, with cheap local beer, modest tavern meals and almost nothing spent on transport, though old-town rooms tighten at weekends and around the Christmas market.

Zermatt is among the most expensive places in the Alps, and lift and railway tickets come on top of steep rooms and meals. Self-catering and staying down the valley in Täsch help, but it remains a splurge.

Bamberg has a real musical life for its size. The Bamberg Symphony is an orchestra of international standing, the ETA Hoffmann Theatre stages drama through the season, organ concerts fill the cathedral, and the Bayreuth Festival is an hour away.

Zermatt has no theatre or concert hall, so its offer rests on two festivals: Zermatt Unplugged with acoustic sets in spring and a chamber music festival in the village church in late summer. Outside those weeks, live music means an après-ski band.

The two are close here, but they rest in different ways. Bamberg's calm comes from its pace, slow mornings by the river and long afternoons under the chestnut trees, with the warm brine pools of Bad Staffelstein half an hour away by train for proper bathing. Zermatt relies on its many polished hotel spas with mountain views, and on car-free, quiet streets, though the mood in peak weeks is active rather than slow.