Berlin or Malmo?

Neither city is a beach destination, and both get only a few weeks of swimming each summer. What differs is the water. Berlin swims in lakes: the sandy lido at Wannsee, the Müggelsee and small forest lakes such as Schlachtensee, all reached by S-Bahn and a little warmer in high summer.

Malmo has the sea, with Ribersborg's sand and dunes a short cycle from the centre and the Öresund Bridge on the horizon. The shallow, calm water suits small children, but it stays cool, and the finer, quieter sands at Skanör and Falsterbo are half an hour away.

Berlin gives you more choice and more depth. Turkish grill houses and bakeries in Kreuzberg and Neukölln, good Vietnamese and Levantine cooking, Markthalle Neun's street-food evenings and a serious fine-dining tier mean you can eat somewhere different every meal.

Malmo has a narrower range, but some of it is local in a way Berlin's is not. There is falafel around Möllevångstorget, Skåne produce such as smoked eel and goose, and the daily fika ritual. Ambitious kitchens are fewer, and dinner out costs noticeably more.

Berlin is one of Europe's great cities for sightseeing. Museum Island has Nefertiti and the Pergamon collections, and the Gemäldegalerie and Charlottenburg Palace are close by. Berlin also lets you follow the twentieth century on foot, from the Reichstag dome to the Wall Memorial on Bernauer Strasse and the East Side Gallery.

Malmo's sights take a day or two. You can see Stortorget and the half-timbered houses of Lilla Torg, St Petri Church, the moated Malmöhus with its museums, and the Turning Torso out in the Western Harbour. It is a pleasant setting, but it will not fill a week built around culture.

Berlin is one of the world's great places for a night out. There are techno clubs in old power stations with no closing time, deep bar districts in Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg, and canal-side drinking on summer nights.

Malmo is low-key by comparison. Möllevången's bars and small clubs fill at weekends and Lilla Torg's terraces are pleasant on summer evenings, but weeknights are quiet and drink prices keep things restrained. Locals who want a big night tend to go to Copenhagen.

Both cities are flat and green, with gentle landscapes rather than dramatic ones. They differ in what that greenery is. Berlin's is inland and inside the city: the Tiergarten, the runways of Tempelhof, the Grunewald forest and the Havel and Müggelsee lakes for sailing and paddling, with Brandenburg's canoe country beyond.

Malmo's outdoors is about the coast. You get a seafront promenade for sunset cycling and, within an hour, the wooded ravine of Söderåsen and Kullaberg's sea cliffs and kayaking. Birdwatchers have the bonus of the autumn raptor migration over Falsterbo.

Malmo has the better day trips because a second capital is just across the bridge. Copenhagen is about thirty-five minutes by train, Lund's cathedral is ten minutes away, and Kronborg, the Louisiana museum, Roskilde, Ystad and Ales Stenar give you days of variety on both sides of the Öresund.

Berlin has one outstanding trip, Potsdam's Sanssouci palaces, plus Wittenberg, Leipzig, the Spreewald and Sachsenhausen. Dresden is a long but rewarding day. Beyond those, the list is short.

Berlin has far more to keep children busy. It has two large zoos, an aquarium, the dinosaur skeleton at the Natural History Museum and the trains and planes of the German Museum of Technology, with lakes and playgrounds in between. Some of the history sites are heavy going for young children.

Malmo is calm and welcoming with children but has little built for them. Its highlights are the shallow city beach, the small aquarium in Malmöhus and the submarine at the technology and maritime museum. Families with older children may run short of ideas after a few days.

Berlin has the fuller network. U-Bahn, S-Bahn, trams and buses share one ticket and run all night at weekends, which matters because Mitte, Kreuzberg, Prenzlauer Berg and Charlottenburg are separate centres you will travel between.

Malmo is small enough that you rarely need much transport. The squares, the castle park and the beach are all a walk or short cycle apart, and buses cover the rest since there is no metro or tram. Its underground rail link to Lund and Copenhagen is what makes day trips so easy.

Berlin is the better city for shopping, mostly because of its independent and second-hand shops. Its Sunday flea markets at Mauerpark and Boxhagener Platz are full of vinyl and East German curios, Kreuzberg has vintage and record shops, and young designers sell from concept stores around Hackescher Markt. In the west, the Kurfürstendamm has the big brands and KaDeWe, the century-old department store, has its famous food hall.

Malmo's shopping is practical but not a reason to go. Södergatan has the high-street chains, the lanes around Lilla Torg and Gamla Väster have Swedish homeware and design boutiques, and there is a large mall at Hyllie. Serious shoppers tend to save their time for Copenhagen.

Berlin goes further on the same budget, especially in the evening. Döner, Vietnamese canteens and Kneipe beer stay cheap, and hotels undercut most big capitals.

Malmo is gentle by Nordic standards and good value by day, thanks to falafel counters, the weekday set lunch and inexpensive museums. Dinners, drinks and taxis cost well above Berlin's, and heavy alcohol taxes mean nights out are where a Malmo budget goes.

Berlin has one of the deepest stage calendars anywhere. There are three opera houses, the Berlin Philharmonic in Scharoun's Philharmonie, the Konzerthaus, the Friedrichstadt-Palast revue, and jazz cellars and experimental venues most nights.

Malmo does well for its size. Malmö Opera is one of Scandinavia's largest stages, the symphony orchestra plays in Malmö Live, and the August festival brings free concerts to the streets. Theatre in both cities is mostly in the local language, but in Berlin opera and dance give visitors plenty to choose from instead.

Both cities have a sauna culture and no thermal tradition of their own, so the difference is in setting. Berlin has large clothes-free sauna complexes with ritual infusions, and the columned halls of the Stadtbad Neukölln. Spring-water resorts are an hour out in Brandenburg.

Malmo's version is simpler and more elemental: a wooden 1890s bathhouse on a pier, where you go from wood-fired saunas straight into the sea in any season. Afterwards there is a calm stroll home along the waterfront.