Berlin or Brno?

Neither city has a coast, but Berlin makes far more of its water. Strandbad Wannsee with its sandy shore and wicker chairs, the Müggelsee and the forest lakes at Schlachtensee and Krumme Lanke give a real summer bathing culture on S-Bahn lines.

Brno has the reservoir on the Svratka, reached by tram and river boat, and the Nove Mlyny lakes an hour south. Both suit a hot afternoon, but algae can spoil the reservoir in heatwaves.

Berlin wins on range. Turkish grill houses and bakeries in Kreuzberg and Neukölln, good Vietnamese, Levantine and Korean cooking, street-food evenings at Markthalle Neun and a serious fine-dining tier mean every meal can be different.

Brno is mostly svickova, goulash and dumplings in beer halls, with few good modern bistros. Where it holds its own is drink: Starobrno lager, careful cocktail bars and Moravian whites and Frankovka from vineyards less than an hour south.

Berlin is the heavier cultural destination by a wide margin. The Pergamon collections, Nefertiti and the old masters of the Gemäldegalerie stand beside the places where the twentieth century happened: the Reichstag, the Holocaust memorial and the Wall on Bernauer Strasse.

Brno's strength is narrower and more architectural. Villa Tugendhat and the interwar functionalist districts are outstanding, and the Capuchin Crypt, Spilberk and the Mendel Museum add character, but two or three days covers it.

This is the widest gap between the two. Berlin's clubs in former factories and warehouses have no closing hours and run through the weekend, and the bars of Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg keep going almost round the clock.

Brno is a city for a long night of drinks rather than dancing. Its small hidden cocktail bars and wine cellars around Jakubske namesti are good, but clubbing is modest and the city goes quiet in July and August when the students leave.

Brno has the slightly better outdoors, mostly because of what is close by. The Moravian Karst, half an hour north, has caves, an underground boat ride and the Macocha Abyss. To the south, the Palava limestone ridge and the Dyje valley in Podyji National Park break up the vineyards.

Berlin's green is flatter and gentler but right inside the city: the Tiergarten, the runways of Tempelhof, the Grunewald forest and sailing on the Havel lakes, with the Wall Trail for easy cycling.

Brno is the better base for days out. Lednice-Valtice, the Austerlitz battlefield, Kromeriz, Trebic, Telc and Zelena Hora are all within about two hours, Olomouc and the wine towns of Mikulov and Znojmo are easy, and even Vienna and Bratislava fit in a day.

Berlin has Potsdam's Sanssouci palaces half an hour away, plus Wittenberg, Leipzig, Dessau and Dresden, but after those the options thin out.

Berlin offers children much more. Two large zoos, the dinosaur skeleton at the Natural History Museum, the hands-on German Museum of Technology and playgrounds everywhere fill several days, and the flat streets suit prams.

Brno is safe and easy but has fewer things made for children: the VIDA science centre, the hillside zoo and the Anthropos mammoths. The Punkva Caves boat ride is the outing they will remember, and cobbles and hills call for a sturdy pushchair.

Both are easy, in different ways. Berlin has a full metro-style network of U-Bahn, S-Bahn and trams running all night at weekends, plus flat, bike-friendly streets, but its separate centres mean you ride rather than walk between districts.

Brno is a walking city, with a small, largely pedestrianised centre crossed in a quarter of an hour and trams for the rest. Its single ticket also covers regional trains, which makes the day trips simple, though some streets up to Spilberk are steep.

Berlin is clearly the place to shop. The Kurfürstendamm and KaDeWe's food hall cover the big names, Mitte has concept stores and young designers, and the Sunday flea markets at Mauerpark and Boxhagener Platz turn up vinyl, East German curios and old furniture.

Brno offers high-street chains, malls and a few independent shops. The best things to take home are bottles of Moravian wine from the cellars and produce from Zelny trh.

Brno is the cheaper trip. Hotels, pub lunch menus, beer, local wine, transport and museum entry all cost little, and only the cocktail and coffee bars push the bill up.

Berlin is mid-priced for a capital. Döner, Vietnamese canteens and Kneipe beer keep daily costs down, but museums, opera and fine dining add up quickly on a culture-heavy visit.

Berlin is one of the great stage cities. It has the Staatsoper, Deutsche Oper and Komische Oper, the Berlin Philharmonic in Scharoun's Philharmonie, the Berliner Ensemble and Schaubühne, and jazz cellars and experimental spaces besides, so something is on every night.

Brno punches above its size thanks to Janacek, whose operas anchor the Janacek Theatre, and the Reduta, where the young Mozart played. In both cities the theatre is in the local language, so opera, ballet and concerts are the visitor's best bet.

Berlin offers more ways to unwind. Its large sauna complexes follow the German ritual of infusions and quiet rooms, the columned halls of Stadtbad Neukölln are a memorable place to swim, and Brandenburg's thermal resorts are about an hour out.

Brno has public pools with saunas and a few hotel spas. Its calm comes from café afternoons and the slopes of Luzanky park and Spilberk rather than from any bathing tradition.