Bled or Rothenburg ob der Tauber?

Bled has no sea, but its lake warms to around 24°C in high summer. You swim from grassy lidos, wooden piers and rocks along the shore path, or strike out for the island. The colder, wilder Lake Bohinj is half an hour away.

Rothenburg has no water of its own beyond the town's outdoor pool, and the nearest lake bathing is about an hour's drive away in the Franconian lake district. In summer, swimming is part of a Bled trip and only an afterthought in Rothenburg.

Neither town is a place to travel for food, but Rothenburg has the edge. Its timbered inns serve Schäufele, bratwurst and roast pork with dumplings, and the wine taverns pour Tauber valley wines and dry Silvaner, so dinner has more local character.

Bled relies on hotel dining rooms and pizzerias, with trout, žlikrofi and buckwheat dishes in a few inns, and its best meals are out in the valley farm inns. Each town has its famous sweet, the custard kremšnita by the lake and the sugary Schneeball pastry.

Rothenburg is the sightseeing town of the two. The whole walled centre is the attraction: the covered wall walk, the Plönlein, the view from the Rathaus tower and Riemenschneider's Holy Blood Altar in St Jakob's, with the Medieval Crime Museum for a longer look.

Bled's sights come down to the cliff-top castle with its small museum and the baroque island church reached by pletna boat. They make a memorable day, but they are more scenery than substance, and anyone wanting museums goes elsewhere.

Both towns go quiet early, so what differs is the kind of evening. In Bled it is a drink on a lakeside terrace and a walk along the lit shore. In Rothenburg it is a wine tavern and the night watchman's tour through the emptied lanes. For a real night out, Bled sends you to Ljubljana and Rothenburg to Würzburg or Nuremberg.

This is where Bled pulls far ahead. It sits at the gateway to the Julian Alps and Triglav National Park, with the Ojstrica and Osojnica viewpoints, the Vintgar Gorge, Lake Bohinj and the Pokljuka plateau close by. Activities run from rafting and canyoning to hut-to-hut hiking and winter skiing.

Rothenburg's outdoors is the Tauber valley below the walls, with meadows, mills, orchards and a well-known cycle path, and the rolling Frankenhöhe beyond. It is lovely for an easy afternoon, but there are no mountains or wild country.

Both make good bases, but the trips point in different directions. From Bled they cover a whole small country and its borders: Ljubljana in under an hour, medieval Radovljica down the road, the Postojna cave, the Adriatic at Piran and Austria's Wörthersee.

From Rothenburg the theme is more towns in the same mould: walled Dinkelsbühl and crater-ringed Nördlingen on the Romantic Road, and Würzburg's Residenz and Nuremberg's castle about an hour away. Bled offers more variety of landscape, while Rothenburg offers a closer run of historic towns.

Bled gives children more to do, nearly all of it outdoors. They can row to the island to ring the bell, swim from the shallow lidos, ride the toboggan run and try the rope park on Straža, and older children can walk the gorge. The flat lake path suits pushchairs.

Rothenburg is a storybook for a day or two, with ramparts to walk, the Rathaus tower to climb and the night watchman with his lantern. But cobbles and steep valley paths make it harder with small children. Neither has much for a rainy day.

Both centres are best on foot. You can cross Rothenburg's walled town in fifteen minutes on cobbles, while Bled spreads around its lake on a level shoreline path, with a small tourist train in summer.

The difference lies beyond. Bled has buses to Ljubljana and Bohinj and two railway stations, though the mountain trailheads really need a car. Rothenburg is at the end of a branch line with sparse buses, so the other Romantic Road towns are far easier to reach by car.

Rothenburg has a real if narrow shopping identity. Its shops sell Christmas goods all year, from glass baubles and nutcrackers to Erzgebirge carvings, along with cuckoo clocks, pewter and Franconian wine, and its Christmas market on the Marktplatz is famous.

Bled has only a few lakeside stalls selling honey, lace and painted beehive panels. Neither town suits anyone after fashion or everyday shopping.

Both charge a resort premium over the rest of their country, so the difference lies in how to soften it. In Bled you save by staying in village guesthouses, at the lakeside campsite or in Radovljica or Bohinj. The lake path and mountain trails are free, though the boat, the castle and the gorge charge entry.

In Rothenburg it pays to sleep outside the walls and eat in inns away from the Marktplatz. Prices peak in December and on summer weekends there, compared with July and August in Bled.

Rothenburg has a little more, and it is tied to its history. There is the costumed Meistertrunk play about the Thirty Years' War legend, a small open-air summer theatre, and organ and choral concerts in St Jakob's. Bled offers only occasional summer concerts in the castle or churches and folk evenings for visitors. In both, proper opera or theatre means a trip to the nearest city.

Bled grew up as a health resort. Mild springs at the eastern end of the lake feed the spas and indoor pools of the big lakeside hotels, some of which take day guests. Early mornings by the still water do the rest.

Rothenburg's calm comes when the coach groups leave and the walls and valley paths empty. Its hotels have small spas, but for real thermal bathing you drive about an hour to Bad Windsheim or Bad Mergentheim.