Brno or Innsbruck?

Neither city is a place to swim, but Innsbruck has the slightly better water. The shallow plateau lakes such as the Lanser See warm up nicely in high summer, and the clear Achensee is lovely to look at even if it is cold to swim in. Brno has the reservoir on the Svratka, reached by tram and boat, where algae can cloud the water in hot spells, or the Nove Mlyny lakes an hour south.

Both cities serve hearty food built around meat and dumplings, so the difference lies in where you eat and what you drink. Brno is the better city for drinks: lager from the local Starobrno brewery, specialty coffee, cocktail bars and Moravian whites and Frankovka from vineyards less than an hour away, plus a produce market on Zelny trh.

Innsbruck's best meals are up in the mountains, Gröstl or Kaiserschmarrn in a hut after a cable car ride or a walk. In town its Viennese-style coffee houses are good for strudel and cake, but it has no market culture and its wine comes from elsewhere.

The two are evenly matched, and each needs two or three days, but they belong to different centuries. Brno is a city of interwar modernism, with Mies van der Rohe's Villa Tugendhat and streets of functionalist buildings, plus the macabre Capuchin Crypt and the abbey where Mendel founded genetics.

Innsbruck is imperial and older in feel. Its arcaded old town gathers the Golden Roof, the Hofburg and the Hofkirche, where bronze giants surround Maximilian I's tomb, and Ambras Castle adds a Renaissance cabinet of curiosities.

Brno makes the better night out, as long as you want drinks rather than dancing. Its small cocktail bars behind unmarked doors, wine bars and student cellars around Jakubske namesti keep going late during term, though the city quietens when students leave in July and August.

Innsbruck has a smaller scene, much of it in the bars and small clubs under the railway viaduct arches. In winter, many visitors go out to après-ski in the resorts instead of staying in town.

This is where Innsbruck pulls far ahead. From the old town, a funicular and cable cars take you up to a ridge at about 2,300m, with the Karwendel nature park behind it and the Stubai glacier keeping snow for most of the year. Skiing in winter and hiking, paragliding and rafting in summer are all close at hand.

Brno's outdoors is gentler. The Moravian Karst, with its underground boat ride below the Macocha Abyss, is the highlight, and the Palava limestone hills and the Dyje valley suit walkers and cyclists, but there are no mountains to climb.

Both cities make good bases, but Brno has more within easy reach. The Lednice-Valtice estate, the Austerlitz battlefield and UNESCO towns such as Telc, Trebic and Kromeriz lie within an hour or two, along with wine towns like Mikulov and two capitals, Vienna and Bratislava.

Innsbruck's trips cover a wider area across three countries: Hall and Rattenberg nearby, Munich and Salzburg by train, Bolzano and the Iceman over the Brenner Pass, and Neuschwanstein by car. Most of these are longer journeys.

Innsbruck gives children more to do, mostly outdoors. The Alpenzoo with its ibex and bears, mountain adventure trails, plateau lakes for swimming and ski schools all fill a stay, although rainy days need some planning.

Brno is safe and easy, and it has more indoor options in bad weather, such as the VIDA science centre, the Anthropos mammoths and the planetarium. Beyond those and the cave boat ride, though, there is little made for children.

Both are easy without a car, with small centres you can walk across and good trams. Brno's advantage is a single ticket that also covers regional trains across South Moravia, which makes its many day trips simple, though the streets up to Spilberk are steep. Innsbruck's centre is flat, and its transport goes up as well as along, with the funicular to the Nordkette and ski buses in winter.

Neither city is worth the trip for its shops, and both have the familiar chains and malls. Innsbruck still has more that you would not find at home. Brno's appeal lies away from its main streets, in a few independent design, vintage and book shops. The bottles of Moravian wine you carry back from the cellars are the best thing to take home.

Innsbruck's shops feel more local. The arcades of the old town sell crystal, Tyrolean crafts and traditional clothes such as loden jackets and dirndls, along with mountain food like Speck and schnapps. Anyone heading for the slopes or the trails will also find well-stocked specialist ski and outdoor shops, which Brno does not offer.

Brno is much the cheaper of the two, and noticeably cheaper than Prague as well. The specialty coffee and cocktail bars charge more than the pubs, but not enough to change the overall picture. The one thing to watch is the big trade fairs at the exhibition grounds, which can fill rooms across the city.

In Innsbruck, hotel prices follow the seasons, peaking in the ski months and around the Christmas markets, and falling clearly in spring and autumn. The guest and city cards, which bundle transport with lifts and sights, are the best way to keep an active stay in check, and student cafés and bakeries help with everyday meals.

Brno has the stronger stage, largely thanks to Janacek. His operas lead the repertoire at the Janacek Theatre, the Reduta is where the young Mozart once played, and the Brno Philharmonic gives a full season. Because much of the drama is in Czech, opera and concerts suit visitors best.

Innsbruck has a respectable programme at the Tiroler Landestheater and one special event, the summer Festival of Early Music, with concerts in historic settings such as the Spanish Hall at Ambras.

Brno has no spa tradition, so relaxing there means public swimming complexes with sauna areas, a few day spas and slow afternoons in Luzanky park or on the Spilberk slopes.

Innsbruck is clearly the better choice for unwinding, although it has no thermal springs of its own either. Hotels in Igls and the plateau villages have spas with mountain views, and the large thermal complexes in the Ötztal and Zillertal are about an hour away.