Basel or Salzburg?

Neither city has a beach, so the choice comes down to river or lake. In Basel the swimming is in the middle of town: you walk up the Kleinbasel bank and let the Rhine's current carry you back past the old town. It is a strong current, so this is for confident swimmers.

Salzburg's own river is too cold and fast for swimming. Instead, people drive half an hour or more to the clear Salzkammergut lakes and swim from lawns, jetties and small pebble shores. That makes the lakes the gentler option for weaker swimmers, but Basel's swim is the one you can do in the middle of a day of sightseeing.

Neither city is worth travelling to for the food alone, but the two eat very differently. Basel borrows from its neighbours, with Alsatian tarte flambée, Baden wines and a small but very good fine-dining tier. It is also easy to cross the border for a cheaper meal in an Alsace wine village.

Salzburg's strengths are the old Viennese-style coffee houses, Austrian dishes like the Salzburger Nockerl, and the monastery brewery in Mülln, where you drink in a chestnut-shaded garden and can bring your own food. Avoid the tourist menus in its old town.

The two are about equal, but their appeal is different. Basel is a city of museums: the Kunstmuseum's Holbeins, the Fondation Beyeler in its park in Riehen, the Museum Tinguely and the Vitra campus just over the German border. Modern buildings by Herzog & de Meuron stand alongside the red sandstone Münster.

In Salzburg the city itself is the main sight. Its UNESCO-listed Baroque centre takes in the cathedral, the Residenz, the Mozart houses and Mirabell, all under the Hohensalzburg fortress, and you can cover it in fewer days.

Basel offers more after dark, though neither city is a party destination. In summer people drink on the Kleinbasel riverside steps until late, the bars cluster around the Kaserne, and a few clubs in old harbour buildings play electronic music at weekends. Fasnacht, when drums and lantern processions run through the night for three days, has no equivalent in Salzburg.

In Salzburg a night out usually means a concert and a litre mug in a beer hall, and the old town is quiet by midnight. For clubbing, people take the train to Munich.

Salzburg wins easily for scenery. Wooded ridges rise inside the city, the Untersberg cable car takes you to limestone walks at about 1,800m, and Königssee and the Salzkammergut lakes add sailing and paddling. Bigger ski areas are about an hour away.

Basel's countryside is gentler and still pleasant. The Jura, the Black Forest and the Vosges all have good marked trails, and the flat Rhine paths make easy cycling into France and Germany. The real Alps are a couple of hours away.

Both cities make excellent bases, and Basel has a slight edge because it borders three countries and the trains are so fast. Colmar and the Alsace wine villages, Freiburg, Strasbourg, Lucerne and Bern are all simple rail trips, with Roman Augusta Raurica almost on the doorstep.

Salzburg's trips are more about landscape and salt. There is Hallstatt, the show mines at Hallein and Berchtesgaden, St Wolfgang on its lake and the fortress at Werfen, with Munich for a city day. Several of the lake villages are much easier to reach by car.

Both are small, safe and easy with children, with a good zoo in each, but the outings differ. Basel has the Zolli near the station, the little ferries pulled across the Rhine by the current, and Europa-Park about an hour away for a big theme-park day.

Salzburg has more hands-on fun. Children get sprayed by the trick fountains at Hellbrunn, and at the salt mines they ride miners' slides and take boats across underground lakes. Its cobbles and steep lanes are harder going with a pushchair.

Basel is noticeably easier. Its green trams cover the whole city and some cross into France and Germany. Hotel guests travel free, and the main station has direct trains to all three countries, so you never need a car.

Salzburg's centre is a pleasure to walk, and trolleybuses reach Hellbrunn and the Untersberg cable car. There is no tram, though, and the regional buses to the lakes are slow, which is why many visitors hire a car.

Neither city is a shopping destination, and they are close enough that the real difference is in what you come home with. Basel's buys are Swiss: watches, jewellery and chocolate along Freie Strasse and Gerbergasse, with small design and interior shops in the Spalenberg lanes and around St Johann. Beyond that the high street is ordinary and costly, which is why so many locals do their everyday shopping over the border in Germany.

Salzburg has the more distinctive speciality in Tracht. Workshops around the old town make dirndls, loden jackets and leather goods to measure, and Basel has nothing like it. Getreidegasse, with its wrought-iron guild signs, is a pleasure to walk. Much of the old town, though, sells Mozartkugeln and souvenirs, and there is little luxury shopping. Both cities come into their own in Advent. Basel's market is a pretty one spread around the Münster and Barfüsserplatz, while Salzburg's on Domplatz, below the fortress, is the more famous of the two.

Both cities are expensive, but Basel is the harder on the wallet. Hotels, meals, drinks and museum entry all cost Swiss prices, and rooms become scarce during the big trade fairs. Free transport for hotel guests and cheaper meals across the border in France and Germany help a little.

Salzburg is costly mainly in the old town and during the festival and Advent seasons. Inns in the outer districts, a combined city card and a room across the river bring the cost down more than anything Basel offers.

Salzburg is the stronger choice for music. Its summer festival brings opera, concerts and theatre by leading performers to the Felsenreitschule and the Festspielhaus, and Mozart Week and the Easter Festival add more seasons. The Mozarteum, the Landestheater and the Marionette Theatre perform through the rest of the year.

Basel is good for its size. Theater Basel is known for bold opera and ballet, and the Stadtcasino and the city's early-music tradition fill the concert calendar. Its season fades in July and August, which is exactly when Salzburg is at its busiest.

Both cities are calm places with good spas just outside rather than in town. In Basel the slow pace comes from quiet Sundays and the riverbank. For bathing, the saline baths at Rheinfelden are close, and the German spa towns of Baden are within reach.

Salzburg has a public bath with saunas in the city park, the brine spa of Bad Reichenhall across the border, and the radon springs and Belle Époque hotels of the Gastein valley further south.