Basel or Strasbourg?

Neither city is anywhere near the sea, but the Rhine gives Basel a real summer swimming culture. People walk upstream along the Kleinbasel bank, get in with a waterproof bag and drift back past the Münster, then lie out on the gravel. The current is strong, so this is for confident swimmers only.

In Strasbourg the Rhine is not safe for swimming, so people swim in lifeguarded gravel-pit lakes such as the Baggersee, which the tram reaches. The water is calmer and easier for children, but these lakes are a way to cool off for an afternoon, not a reason to visit.

Strasbourg is the city to travel to for food. Its winstubs serve choucroute garnie, baeckeoffe and tarte flambée with Riesling or Sylvaner from the vineyards just south of the city, and above them sit foie gras and a strong fine-dining tier. Just avoid the tourist menus around the cathedral.

Basel eats well, but much of its cooking is borrowed from Alsace and Baden. Läckerli and the Fasnacht flour soup are among its few local specialities. The Markthalle is the best place for a casual meal, and everyday restaurant food can feel expensive for what you get.

Both reward a few days of sightseeing, but in different ways. Basel is above all a museum city: Holbein in the Kunstmuseum, modern art at the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen, Tinguely's machines by the river and the Vitra architecture just over the border. Modern buildings by Herzog & de Meuron stand among its old guild houses.

In Strasbourg the main attraction is the city itself. The pink sandstone cathedral with its astronomical clock, the timber-framed lanes of Petite France and the German-built Neustadt together form a UNESCO-listed ensemble. The Palais Rohan museums and the European institutions add to it.

Evenings are low-key in both, and the difference is in the setting. Basel's best nights are outdoors in summer, with drinks on the steps by the Kleinbasel riverside kiosks and a few clubs in old harbour buildings. For three days each late winter, Fasnacht hands the city over to drums and lanterns from four in the morning.

In Strasbourg, students set the tone, in the bars and beer cellars of Krutenau and around Place Saint-Étienne, with terraces on the quays in summer. Drinks cost less than in Basel, but few nights go on late.

The two share much of the same countryside, with the Vosges on one side and the Black Forest on the other, so the difference is what lies closest. Basel has the wooded Jura ridges starting at its southern edge, Black Forest summits such as the Feldberg within an hour and the Lange Erlen park for running. The real Alps are a couple of hours away.

Strasbourg is flat but green inside the city, with storks, herons and beavers in the Rhine forests, and it is one of France's best cities for cycling. For walking you go to the Vosges, around Mont Sainte-Odile and the sandstone castle ruins, which are easier to reach with a car.

Each city makes a good day trip from the other, but Basel has the edge because Switzerland is added to Alsace and Baden. Lucerne, Bern and Zurich are each about an hour by train, Roman Augusta Raurica is a quarter of an hour away, and Colmar and Freiburg take about an hour or less, all without a car.

Strasbourg is closer to Colmar, half an hour away, and to the Alsace wine route, and it has Baden-Baden, Heidelberg and Nancy within reach. The wine villages themselves are much easier by car or bike than by train.

Both are compact, safe and easy with a pushchair, and Europa-Park is about an hour from each. Basel's big draw is the Zolli, one of Europe's best zoos, a short walk from the station, along with the Rhine ferries pulled across by the current and the free animal park in the Lange Erlen. The river itself is too strong for small children.

Strasbourg's appeal is spread across more places: boat trips around the Grande Ile, the storks, playgrounds and rowing boats of the Orangerie, the hands-on Le Vaisseau science centre and the moving figures of the astronomical clock. The Vosges add stork and monkey parks.

Basel is the easier of the two. Both banks of the Rhine are walkable, green trams reach the whole city and cross into Germany and France, and hotel guests travel free. Direct trains from the main station handle every day trip without a car.

Strasbourg's island centre can be crossed on foot in twenty minutes, its trams are good and one line runs to Kehl, and with separated cycle lanes a bike is often the quickest way about. It falls behind outside the city, where the wine villages and hills are much easier with a car.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Strasbourg has more worth taking home. Its lanes near the cathedral have delicatessens and bookshops, and Alsace wine, Soufflenheim pottery, printed linens and kougelhopf moulds make proper regional souvenirs, with chain stores and a department store around Place Kléber.

Basel's Freie Strasse is stronger on Swiss watches, jewellery and chocolate, and the Spalenberg lanes have small design shops. Both hold well-known Christmas markets, and Strasbourg's is one of the oldest in Europe.

This is where the two differ most. Basel is very expensive, with Swiss prices for rooms, meals, drinks and museums, and rooms get scarce and dear during fairs such as Art Basel. Free transport for hotel guests and cheaper meals over the border help a little.

Strasbourg costs what a large French regional city does. Winstub meals and wine by the pichet are reasonably priced, trams are cheap and the cathedral is free. Hotels are the main expense, and prices climb in December and in the weeks when the European Parliament sits.

Both have more on stage than their size suggests, and Basel is a step ahead. Theater Basel stages opera, ballet and drama under one roof and is known for bold productions. The Stadtcasino's fine acoustics serve its orchestras, and early-music concerts are a local speciality. The city's stages go quiet in July and August.

Strasbourg has the Opéra national du Rhin, a full Philharmonic season and the Théâtre National de Strasbourg. Its autumn Musica festival makes it the better choice for contemporary music.

Neither city is a spa destination in itself, and both send you a short way out for warm water. Basel has the saline baths at Rheinfelden about twenty minutes away and German spa towns such as Badenweiler just over the border, and its quiet Sundays set a calm pace.

Strasbourg has its own Bains municipaux, an early twentieth-century bathhouse with tiled pools, a hammam and saunas, and the Friedrichsbad and Caracalla baths in Baden-Baden are under an hour away. Long winstub lunches suit an unhurried stay, except in December, when crowds fill the centre.