Cesky Krumlov or Dresden?

Neither is a beach destination, but Cesky Krumlov has the better summer swim. Lipno reservoir, about half an hour's drive south, has grassy and sandy shores and water near 20°C in high summer. In Dresden the sandy banks of the Elbe are for deckchairs, not swimming, so cooling off means outdoor pools, flooded gravel pits or the ponds around Moritzburg.

Both serve the hearty cooking of their regions, with roast meats, dumplings and game, but Dresden has more variety. In Cesky Krumlov the highlights are the local beer and the vaulted cellar dining rooms, but the range is narrow and many menus are aimed at day visitors.

Dresden adds a coffee-and-cake culture built around Stollen and Eierschecke, and dry wines from the Elbe vineyards around Meissen. In the Neustadt there is a casual mix of Vietnamese and Middle Eastern places and beer gardens, which a small town cannot match.

Cesky Krumlov is the town itself: a UNESCO-listed set of painted Renaissance and Baroque houses in a bend of the river, under one of the country's largest castles with its rare Baroque theatre. The townscape is what you come for, and a day or two covers it.

Dresden has the great collections that Cesky Krumlov lacks: Raphael's Sistine Madonna in the Zwinger, the treasures of the Green Vault, Romantic painting in the Albertinum, and the rebuilt Frauenkirche. It deserves three or four days. Much of its old town is reconstruction with post-war blocks close by, whereas Cesky Krumlov's centre has survived intact.

Cesky Krumlov goes quiet after dinner. It has a handful of pubs and cellar bars, riverside terraces that stay busy on summer nights, and no clubs. Dresden has a real going-out district in the Äußere Neustadt, where student bars, beer kiosks and drinking on the pavements carry on late at weekends, and a few clubs fill old industrial buildings.

Both have good country nearby, but Dresden's is more dramatic and easier to reach. The sandstone towers of Saxon Switzerland, the Bastei view and the Malerweg trail are under an hour away by suburban train, and the area is one of the birthplaces of free climbing.

Cesky Krumlov's outdoors is gentler: a day canoeing or rafting down the wooded Vltava, the spruce forest and peat bogs of the Bohemian Forest, and views from Klet towards the Alps. It is lovely, soft country, but most of it is easier to reach by car.

From Cesky Krumlov there is a good round of South Bohemian outings: the arcaded square of České Budějovice, the white castle at Hluboká, the Baroque farmhouses of Holašovice and the fish-pond spa town of Třeboň. Most are much easier with a car.

Dresden reaches further, and by train. Meissen, home of European porcelain, is about forty minutes away and Leipzig about an hour, with Bautzen, Görlitz and the Königstein fortress also in range. Prague is a long but possible day from Dresden, while from Cesky Krumlov it is too far to do comfortably.

Cesky Krumlov has a storybook castle with bears in the moat and a gentle family raft trip, but steep cobbles are hard work with a pushchair and the town fills only a couple of days. Dresden can keep children busy for much longer. It has the zoo and the miniature railway run by children in the Großer Garten, the trams and trains of the Transport Museum, the hands-on children's section of the Hygiene Museum, and paddle-steamer trips on the Elbe.

Both centres are made for walking, though Cesky Krumlov's is smaller and steeper: a quarter of an hour across, with a climb up to the castle. The difference comes when you leave town. Regional buses and trains are thin, so most visitors hire a car or join tours.

Dresden has a dense tram network and suburban trains along the Elbe to Meissen and Saxon Switzerland, with paddle steamers to Pillnitz, so a car is never needed.

Cesky Krumlov's lanes sell souvenirs: Bohemian glass, garnets, marionettes and green moldavite, with a few craft workshops and little else. Dresden offers more, though fashion is thin. There are chain stores on Prager Straße, second-hand and design shops around the Neustadt's Kunsthofpassage, showrooms of Meissen porcelain, and in Advent the centuries-old Striezelmarkt.

Both are good value by Western European standards, and Cesky Krumlov is a little cheaper. Family guesthouses, Czech meals and beer keep daily costs moderate, though rooms with castle views and the separately priced castle tours add up.

Dresden is cheap for Germany rather than cheap outright. Eating in the Neustadt is good value and one day ticket covers trams and trains, but separate museum entries mount up, and rooms in the old town cost more during the Christmas market.

This is where the two differ most. Performance in Cesky Krumlov is mostly a summer affair: plays and opera in the castle garden's revolving open-air theatre, and a classical music festival, with very little for the rest of the year.

Dresden has music all year round. The Semperoper is home to the Staatskapelle, the Dresden Philharmonic plays in the Kulturpalast, the Kreuzchor sings in the Kreuzkirche, and there is Bach at the Frauenkirche. Theatre, operetta and a long-running Dixieland festival add to that.

Neither has thermal springs of its own, but Dresden makes it easier to unwind. An afternoon in the sauna and cold plunges at the city baths is ordinary local practice, and the thermal pool at Bad Schandau is under an hour away. Cesky Krumlov has only hotel wellness rooms and beer baths, and Třeboň's peat baths are the nearest proper treatment. What it offers instead is the stillness of the old town once the day visitors have gone.