Berlin or Dresden?

Neither city has a coast, but Berlin makes far more of summer swimming. Strandbad Wannsee, with its sandy shore and wicker beach chairs, the Müggelsee and forest lakes such as Schlachtensee are proper bathing spots a short train ride from the centre, and the water is warm enough in July and August.

In Dresden the Elbe is for deckchairs on the banks, not for swimming, because of the shipping and strong currents. Cooling off there means an outdoor pool, the flooded gravel pits on the edge of the city or the ponds at Moritzburg.

Berlin's strength is range. Decades of Turkish migration shaped it, and it also has good Vietnamese, Levantine and Korean cooking, a serious fine-dining tier and market halls such as Markthalle Neun. Dresden eats more traditionally: sauerbraten, game and dumplings, plus a baking culture that puts Stollen and Eierschecke on the table with afternoon coffee.

What Dresden has that Berlin lacks is local wine from the Elbe valley vineyards around Radebeul and Meissen. Beyond the Neustadt, though, the choice thins out, and the streets around the Frauenkirche lean towards tourist menus. In Berlin, varied eating spreads across several districts.

Both cities have collections of world rank, and Berlin goes a step further. Museum Island, the bust of Nefertiti, the Pergamon collections and the Gemäldegalerie match Dresden for grandeur. On top of that come the Wall Memorial, the Reichstag dome and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, which tell the twentieth-century story at the places where it happened.

Dresden is the more harmonious group of sights. The Zwinger with the Sistine Madonna, the treasures of the Green Vault and the rebuilt Frauenkirche all stand within a short walk of each other by the Elbe. Much of it is reconstruction, but three or four days cover it comfortably, while Berlin's sights are spread across a far larger city.

This is the widest gap between the two cities. Berlin's techno clubs in old power stations and warehouses draw people from around the world, with no fixed closing hours and parties that run into Monday. Behind them is a deep layer of smoky Kneipen in Neukölln and Wedding and cocktail bars in Mitte.

Going out in Dresden means the Äußere Neustadt. There, students fill small bars and pavement beer kiosks on summer nights, and a handful of clubs operate in old industrial buildings. It is friendly enough for a few evenings, but the old town is quiet once dinner is over.

Dresden has the scenery that Berlin lacks. The sandstone towers and gorges of Saxon Switzerland begin less than an hour upriver, with the Bastei view, several days of walking on the Malerweg and a long tradition of free climbing. The Ore Mountains add summer hiking and some cross-country skiing.

Berlin's outdoors is flat and gentle: the Tiergarten, cycling on the Tempelhof runways, walks in the Grunewald, sailing on the Havel and the Wall Trail by bike. It is pleasant, but there is nothing to climb.

Each city has one standout trip close by: Potsdam's palaces from Berlin, and Meissen's cathedral and porcelain from Dresden. Dresden's list goes deeper, though. It includes Moritzburg, the Königstein fortress, Radebeul's vineyards, the old towns of Bautzen and Görlitz, and Prague at the outer edge of a long day.

From Berlin, Wittenberg, Dessau's Bauhaus buildings, the Spreewald and the Sachsenhausen memorial are worthwhile, and Dresden itself makes a long day out. After those, the choice runs out quickly.

Berlin gives children more to do. Two large zoos, an aquarium, the towering dinosaur at the Natural History Museum and the hands-on Museum of Technology fill several days, and the flat streets make prams easy.

Dresden is calmer and smaller in scale. It has a zoo, a miniature railway in the Großer Garten largely run by children, the Transport Museum and trips on the paddle steamers. Older children get the most from it, especially on a day among the rocks of Saxon Switzerland. Cobbles and formal galleries test younger ones.

Berlin has the stronger network. U-Bahn, S-Bahn, trams and buses share one ticket, trains run through the night at weekends, and the flat streets have plenty of bike lanes. You will need all of it, because Mitte, Kreuzberg, Prenzlauer Berg and Charlottenburg are separate centres.

Dresden asks less of you. The old town and the Neustadt are a short walk apart across the Augustus Bridge, trams cover the rest of the city, and suburban trains and paddle steamers follow the Elbe out to the day trips. You need a car in neither city.

Berlin has much more to browse. There are the big brands on the Kurfürstendamm, the KaDeWe food hall and young designers around Hackescher Markt. Above all there are the Sunday flea markets at Mauerpark and Boxhagener Platz, good for vinyl and East German curios.

Dresden's main shopping streets are mostly chains, and the Neustadt and the Kunsthofpassage are where to find something more individual. What it offers that Berlin does not is traditional craft to take home: Meissen porcelain, Ore Mountain wooden toys and, in Advent, the stalls of the Striezelmarkt.

Dresden comes out somewhat cheaper overall, noticeably below the big cities of western and southern Germany. Its costs pile up in the sightseeing, because the Zwinger galleries, the Green Vault and the Albertinum each charge their own entry, so a full museum programme adds up over a few days. Rooms in the old town cost most in Advent, when the Christmas market is on, and around the big festivals.

Berlin's expensive dates fall at other times, around trade fairs and on summer weekends. From day to day it is easy to spend little, with döner, bakeries and modest beer prices in the Kneipen, and one day ticket covers the whole city. A trip built around opera, fine dining and Museum Island costs what it would in any major European capital, though.

Both are serious music cities, and Berlin has more of everything. It has three opera houses, the Berlin Philharmonic in Scharoun's Philharmonie, famous theatres such as the Berliner Ensemble, and the Friedrichstadt-Palast revue. Add a deep circuit of jazz and rock venues and there is something on every night.

Dresden's programme is narrower but distinguished. It has the Semperoper and its Staatskapelle, the Kreuzchor in the Kreuzkirche, Bach at the Frauenkirche and the Dresden Music Festival. Outside classical music and festival time, there is not much rock or jazz.

Neither city has thermal springs, and both share the German habit of the public sauna. Berlin has more of it, with large clothes-free sauna complexes and the columned halls of the Stadtbad Neukölln, along with park afternoons and long Sunday mornings in café gardens.

Dresden relies more on its pace than its spas. It has municipal baths with saunas, the wide Elbe meadows, an old town that empties in the evening, and coffee and cake on a terrace above the river. Bad Schandau's thermal pool is less than an hour away, on the way to Saxon Switzerland.