Berlin or Vienna?

Neither city has the sea, and the Baltic is a three-hour trip from Berlin, but Berlin gives summer bathing a bit more room. Strandbad Wannsee has a long sandy shore and wicker beach chairs, and forest lakes such as Schlachtensee and Krumme Lanke feel like countryside while sitting a short S-Bahn ride from the centre.

Vienna's swimming is river swimming: gravel banks along the Danube Island and the calmer lidos of the Alte Donau, such as the Gänsehäufel. It is easy to fit in after a museum, and the reedy Neusiedler See is there for a lake day, but there is less sand and less choice of setting than around Berlin.

The two eat equally well but in opposite ways. Berlin's strength is range rather than a cuisine of its own: Turkish bakeries and grill houses in Kreuzberg and Neukölln, good Vietnamese and Korean cooking, and street-food nights at Markthalle Neun, all casual and unfussy.

Vienna has a true local kitchen, from Tafelspitz and schnitzel in wood-panelled Beisl taverns to strudel in the grand coffee houses, plus wine grown inside the city limits at the Heuriger of Grinzing and Nussdorf. Come for tradition and Vienna wins, but if you want a different cuisine every night, Berlin offers more.

These are two of Europe's great sightseeing cities, and the difference is the century you came for. Berlin's power lies in recent history and its collections: the Wall Memorial on Bernauer Strasse, the Reichstag dome and the Topography of Terror, alongside Nefertiti and the Pergamon collections on Museum Island. War and division left the streets patchy, so the city is to be understood more than admired.

Vienna is the opposite, an imperial capital that survived largely whole. The Hofburg, Schönbrunn and the baroque lanes around St Stephen's are a pleasure simply to walk through, and the Bruegels, Klimt's The Kiss and the Schiele works add a painting trail with a strong Viennese accent.

This is the widest gap between the two. Berlin is a destination in its own right for clubbing, with techno in former power stations and factories, strict doors, no fixed closing hours and parties that roll from Saturday into Monday. Behind that sits a deep bar scene, from smoky Kneipen in Wedding to summer beers along the canal in Kreuzberg.

Vienna's evenings are pleasant but modest: bars under the Gürtel railway arches, the Bermuda Triangle in the old town and deckchair bars on the Danube Canal. Its one card Berlin cannot play is the winter ball season, when formal balls fill the palaces and visitors can buy their way in.

Vienna has more varied country on its doorstep. The beech-covered Vienna Woods and vineyard paths climb to the Kahlenberg for views over the Danube, the Donau-Auen national park protects wild floodplain forest, and the limestone plateaus of the Rax and Schneeberg give you real mountains within a day.

Berlin is flat from end to end. Its best outdoor experiences are cycling the old Tempelhof runways or the Wall Trail, walking the Grunewald and paddling Brandenburg's lakes. It is green and restful, but there is nothing to climb.

Vienna's central position gives it more options. Bratislava is about an hour away by train or Danube boat, Brno is close too, and the Wachau valley pairs Melk abbey and Dürnstein with apricot orchards and vineyards. Baden, Heiligenkreuz and the Haydn palace at Eisenstadt fill further quiet days.

Berlin has one outstanding excursion in Potsdam's Sanssouci palaces, then Wittenberg, Leipzig and the Bauhaus in Dessau. Dresden is a long day, and beyond that the list runs short.

Both are easy, relaxed cities for children, with big zoos, dinosaur skeletons at their natural history museums and playgrounds everywhere. The difference is the Prater. Vienna's giant Ferris wheel and funfair rides next to open meadows give children a day of fun that Berlin, without any theme park, does not quite match.

Berlin answers with two zoos, the Zoologischer Garten and the vast, leafy Tierpark, and the trains and planes of the German Museum of Technology. Lakes like Wannsee make good summer afternoons for children who like to swim.

Vienna is easier because its sights are close together. The old town inside the Ring is compact and largely pedestrian, and a tram along the Ringstrasse links most of what a visitor wants, with Schönbrunn and the vineyard villages a simple ride out.

Berlin's transport is just as complete, with one ticket across U-Bahn, S-Bahn and trams and trains through the night at weekends, but the city is a cluster of separate centres, so you ride more. Its wide, completely flat streets make it the better city for getting around by bike, whereas Vienna's cobbles and tram tracks need more care.

Berlin is the better city for a shopping wander, as long as luxury is not what you came for. The Sunday flea markets at Mauerpark and Boxhagener Platz turn up vinyl, old furniture and East German curios. Kreuzberg and Prenzlauer Berg add record shops, bookshops and vintage clothing, young designers cluster around Hackescher Markt, and KaDeWe's food hall in the west is an institution of its own.

Vienna's offer is narrower but more polished. The international luxury houses line the Kohlmarkt and Graben, and Augarten porcelain, crystal, Loden coats and sweets in elegant tins make the kind of crafted gifts Berlin barely offers. In the run-up to Christmas, the stalls in front of the neo-Gothic Rathaus and the palace at Schönbrunn put seasonal shopping against an imperial backdrop.

Neither is a bargain, and the costs come out close. Berlin makes cheap eating effortless with döner, Vietnamese canteens and corner-bar beer, and its hotels undercut most big capitals except during trade fairs and summer weekends.

Vienna saves you money in other places. Standing places at the State Opera, free palace gardens and church interiors, and Heuriger buffets cut costs, while hotels tighten during the ball season and the Christmas market weeks. In both cities, the museums and palaces are where the budget goes.

Both cities have world-class music, but Vienna has the edge. Its State Opera stages a different work most nights, cheap standing places put it within anyone's reach, and hearing the Vienna Philharmonic in the Musikverein's Golden Hall is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The Boys' Choir, operetta at the Volksoper and the music of Mozart and Schubert in the city where they worked complete it.

Berlin is broader and more contemporary. It has three opera houses, the Berlin Philharmonic in Scharoun's Philharmonie, and the Friedrichstadt-Palast revue. Its jazz cellars and experimental music spaces suit someone who wants a less formal evening, though much of its famous theatre plays in German.

Berlin relaxes in the sauna, Vienna in warm water. Berlin's large sauna complexes follow the German tradition of mixed, clothes-free sessions with ritual infusions and quiet rest rooms, and the columned halls of the Stadtbad Neukölln are the most atmospheric place to sweat. For spring water you have to travel about an hour into Brandenburg.

Vienna has thermal springs inside the city at Therme Wien in Oberlaa, and the Amalienbad adds an Art Deco sauna hall lined with tiles. Baden, half an hour out, has sulphur springs that have drawn bathers since Roman times. Add long afternoons over a single coffee and walks in the palace gardens, and slowing down takes no effort at all.