Colmar or Karlovy Vary?

Neither town has anything to swim towards, and nobody should pick either for the water. The difference is in the substitutes. Colmar has municipal pools and small lakes up in the Vosges valleys, while Karlovy Vary has Lake Medard in a flooded mine near Sokolov and outdoor pools warmed by its own springs, which make a swim possible even on a cool day.

Colmar eats far better. Wood-panelled winstubs serve baeckeoffe, choucroute and tarte flambée with munster cheese from the valleys above town, and every meal comes with Riesling or Gewurztraminer from the surrounding slopes. Cellar tastings in the villages and a covered market by the canal fill out the picture, although the busiest lanes have their share of tired menus.

Karlovy Vary sticks to hearty Czech cooking: roast pork, dumplings and svíčková with good lager. Its pleasures are smaller ones, such as warm spa wafers from the colonnade stalls, Becherovka distilled in town and cake in the riverside cafés. There is no market and very little ambitious cooking.

Both towns are themselves the main sight, and either can be seen properly in two days. Colmar comes out ahead because it has a masterpiece as well as a pretty townscape. The Unterlinden Museum holds Grünewald's Isenheim Altarpiece, and Schongauer's Madonna in the Dominican church and the carved Maison des Têtes add to a late-medieval old town that survived as a whole.

Karlovy Vary's appeal is architectural theatre: pastel Belle Époque hotels stacked up the Teplá valley, colonnades of stone, timber and columns, and the Vřídlo geyser rising inside the Hot Spring Colonnade. Its museums of glass and Becherovka are small, so the art here is the setting rather than what hangs on the walls.

Both are early-to-bed towns, and the night revolves around dinner. In Colmar that means wine bars and terraces around Petite Venise, with Strasbourg half an hour away by train for anything later. Karlovy Vary has hotel bars, Czech pubs and casinos, and comes alive only during its film festival week in early summer.

Colmar has the more varied country on its doorstep. Vineyard paths link the wine villages within half an hour, and further up the Munster and Kaysersberg valleys the Route des Crêtes runs past the Hohneck and Grand Ballon, with glacial lakes, high pastures and views to the Alps on clear days. The flat plain is good for cycling, but a car helps.

Karlovy Vary's strength is that the forest begins at the hotel door. Gentle, graded spa paths climb to the Diana tower and the stag-leap rock, the Slavkov Forest has quiet upland moors, and the Ore Mountains offer skiing around Klínovec. It is green, rolling country, softer than the Vosges.

This is where Colmar pulls well ahead. Eguisheim, Riquewihr, Kaysersberg and Ribeauvillé lie a few kilometres apart along the wine route, Haut-Koenigsbourg watches over the plain, and Strasbourg, Basel and Freiburg put three countries within about an hour.

Karlovy Vary has a good handful of outings rather than a whole region. Loket's castle in its river loop is the best of them, and the sister spa towns, the reliquary at Bečov and the mining town of Jáchymov fill a few more days. Prague is a long coach day away.

Colmar is much the easier choice with children. In town there are flat streets, boat rides on the canals, storks and a little tourist train. Within a short drive are the stork and otter park at Hunawihr, free-roaming macaques and an eagle show at Kintzheim, the train and car museums in Mulhouse, and Europa-Park.

Karlovy Vary keeps children happy for a day or two with the geyser, the spouted cups of spring water, the funicular and the outdoor thermal pool, plus an outing to Loket. After that it is a town made for adults, and its steep slopes are hard work with a pushchair.

Colmar's centre is flat and compact. The old town, Petite Venise and the museums are a few minutes apart, and the station is a short walk away. Karlovy Vary has a different shape: a long, narrow strip along the Teplá. It is easy going along the promenades, but steep on either side, so the funicular and local buses do the climbing to hotels and viewpoints.

Beyond town, the difference is speed. Colmar's regional trains reach Strasbourg and Mulhouse quickly, although the wine villages and the Vosges really need a car or a bike, and cycling between villages through the vines is a pleasure in itself. Karlovy Vary's rail lines to Loket, Cheb and Mariánské Lázně are slow and regional, so you will spend more of the day in transit.

Neither is a shopping destination, and what you take home differs. Colmar is for edible and kitchen souvenirs: wine bought from the producer, kougelhopf moulds, Soufflenheim pottery and printed table linen, with the Christmas markets as the high point. Karlovy Vary leans towards glass and jewels, with Moser crystal from its own showroom, local porcelain, Bohemian garnets and promenade boutiques for well-off spa guests.

In Colmar, the money goes on the bed. Meals are fairly priced for a well-known French town, from set lunches to a glass of regional wine, and cellar tastings in the villages cost little. Rooms are another matter. The town is small and much in demand, so the old town gets expensive in summer and books out early in the Christmas market weeks. Sleeping in a nearby village is the usual way round it.

Karlovy Vary works out cheaper overall, though it is dearer than ordinary Czech towns. Here you pay for the setting: a grand spa hotel, a table with a view of the colonnades or a booked course of treatments is where the budget goes. Skip those and ordinary days cost little. Rooms are cheapest outside summer, and the film festival week is the dearest time to stay.

Colmar's music comes mostly in festival weeks, while Karlovy Vary's runs through the year, and that gives the spa town a slight edge. Colmar's small Italian-style theatre has a season, with visits from the Opéra national du Rhin, but the calendar peaks with the classical festival in early July and jazz in autumn. Outside those weeks, serious opera or orchestral evenings mean the train to Strasbourg or Basel.

Karlovy Vary's symphony orchestra grew out of the bands that once played to spa guests. It still gives regular concerts, mostly light classical, and some are held outdoors on the colonnades in summer. The ornate Fellner and Helmer theatre takes touring drama and operetta, which makes for a pleasant evening rather than a real scene.

The gap is wide here. Karlovy Vary exists for wellness: thirteen springs piped into the colonnades, a drinking cure followed for centuries, and dozens of spa hotels offering carbonated baths, peat wraps and pools of warm spring water. A booked spa stay gets the most from it, since public bathhouses are few.

Colmar has no bathing tradition at all. Its rest comes from long lunches, quiet canal-side evenings and walks through the vines, and for treatments you are limited to hotel spas.