Cesky Krumlov or Karlovy Vary?

Neither town is a beach destination, but Cesky Krumlov has the better summer swimming. Lipno, half an hour south, is a large lake in the Bohemian Forest with grassy and sandy shores, water that warms to around 20°C in high summer, and sailing and windsurfing as well.

Karlovy Vary's nearest open-water swim is Lake Medard, a flooded former mine near Sokolov, plus a few small reservoirs. Most swimming there happens in the warm spring-fed pools, which at least stay usable in cold weather.

Food is much the same in both towns: hearty Czech roasts, dumplings and svíčková, with good beer, and neither is worth travelling for. Cesky Krumlov leans towards river trout, duck and forest game served in vaulted cellars, with beer brewed in the town for centuries. Karlovy Vary adds its own treats, warm spa wafers from the colonnade stalls and Becherovka liqueur distilled in town, and its promenade cafés are a bigger part of the day than the restaurants.

Cesky Krumlov has the stronger sights. Its whole medieval and Renaissance core curls around a bend of the Vltava under one of the largest castles in the country. Inside the castle is a Baroque theatre that keeps its original stage machinery, a rare survival in Europe, and the town also has the Egon Schiele art centre.

Karlovy Vary's appeal is later and grander. Pastel Belle Époque hotels rise up the Teplá valley, the colonnades are built of stone and carved timber, and the Vřídlo geyser shoots up indoors. Its museums are small, devoted to glass and Becherovka, and in both towns the buildings matter more than the collections.

Both towns are quiet after dinner, but in different ways. In Cesky Krumlov, the evening means riverside terraces in summer and a few cellar bars popular with backpackers. Karlovy Vary has hotel bars, wine bars and casinos, and is asleep by eleven, except during the film festival week in early summer, when parties and outdoor bars fill the valley.

Cesky Krumlov has the slightly better outdoors. It offers a full day floating down the Vltava through wooded meanders, and the Bohemian Forest national park, with its bogs, ridges and long cycle routes, begins half an hour away. Klet hill, close by, looks towards the Alps on clear days.

Karlovy Vary's forest starts right at the edge of town, on graded spa paths up to the Diana tower and other lookouts. In winter it has the advantage of downhill skiing at Klínovec in the Ore Mountains, which Cesky Krumlov's cross-country trails cannot match.

Both towns have a good spread of outings, of different kinds. From Cesky Krumlov the choice runs to castles and old towns: the arcaded square of České Budějovice, white Hluboká, the farmhouse village of Holašovice and Zlatá Koruna monastery, and most of these are much easier with a car.

Karlovy Vary has Loket's castle twenty minutes away, its two sister spa towns, the St Maurus reliquary at Bečov and the brewing city of Plzeň. Prague is possible from Karlovy Vary in a long day by coach, which is not true of Cesky Krumlov.

Cesky Krumlov gives children more to do. The castle feels like a storybook with bears in the moat and a tower to climb, the family raft trip on the river is the highlight, and Lipno's treetop walk and lake shores fill another day.

Karlovy Vary is safe and pleasant, but it is built around adults taking cures. Children enjoy the geyser, the spouted spa cups, the funicular and the outdoor thermal pool, and after that there is little left for them. Both towns are steep in places and hard work with a pushchair.

Karlovy Vary is the easier base without a car. Local buses and the funicular deal with the steep valley sides, regional trains reach Loket, Cheb and Mariánské Lázně, and coaches run to Prague in about two hours.

Cesky Krumlov's centre is smaller, and you can cross it on foot in a quarter of an hour over the cobbles. Beyond České Budějovice, though, public transport thins out, and reaching the forest or the smaller castles usually means hiring a car or joining a tour.

Karlovy Vary is clearly better for shopping. Moser crystal is made in the town and sold from its own showroom, local factories make porcelain, and the promenades have jewellers and fashion boutiques aimed at well-off spa guests.

Cesky Krumlov's lanes mostly sell souvenirs: Bohemian glass, garnets, marionettes, wooden toys and green moldavite, plus a few ceramics workshops. It has no fashion shops at all.

Costs are about the same in both, and in both the setting is what puts prices up. In Cesky Krumlov that means rooms with a castle view, restaurants on the main lanes and castle tours charged one by one, while guesthouses in the old houses and a bed just outside the centre keep a stay cheap. Karlovy Vary costs more than an ordinary Czech town because of its grand spa hotels, but pubs one street back from the colonnades charge local prices, and the festival week is the dearest time to come.

Karlovy Vary has more to attend through the year. Its symphony orchestra, which grew out of the old spa bands, plays regular light classical concerts, some outdoors on the colonnades in summer. The Fellner and Helmer theatre hosts touring drama and operetta, and an autumn Dvořák festival adds a few highlights.

Cesky Krumlov's performances happen almost entirely in summer: plays and opera in the castle garden's revolving open-air theatre, and an international music festival. For the rest of the year there is very little to see.

This is where the two towns differ most. Karlovy Vary exists for the cure. Guests sip from the springs with porcelain cups, spa hotels and sanatoria offer carbonated baths, peat wraps and medical stays, and the outdoor thermal pool sits above the river. Booking a spa hotel stay gives you far more than the few public bathhouses.

Cesky Krumlov has only hotel wellness rooms and beer baths. What it does offer is a still old town once the day visitors leave, and Třeboň's peat baths are a day trip away.