Colmar or Utrecht?

Neither city is a place to swim, but Utrecht has more options. Its recreation lakes, such as the Maarsseveense Plassen, are on the edge of the city, and the North Sea at Zandvoort or Scheveningen is a train ride of about an hour, though the water stays cool.

Colmar is far from any coast. In a hot spell you have the town pools or a small lake up in the Vosges valleys.

Colmar is the better place to eat by a distance. It has a real regional cuisine, choucroute, baeckeoffe, tarte flambée and munster cheese served in wood-panelled winstubs, with Riesling and Gewurztraminer from the slopes outside town and a few ambitious tables along the wine route. Just steer clear of the tired menus in the most photographed streets.

Utrecht has no cooking of its own to match. The pleasure there is the setting, eating at the water's edge on the Oudegracht wharves, plus casual Indonesian and Surinamese kitchens and Belgian beer in the brown cafés.

The two are fairly evenly matched, and both take two or three days. Colmar's appeal is a whole townscape of painted half-timbered houses, Petite Venise and the Koïfhus, with one great painting at its centre: Grünewald's Isenheim Altarpiece in the Unterlinden Museum.

Utrecht offers a medieval centre built around the Dom Tower, which you can climb, and the unusual two-level Oudegracht. Its strength is modern design, with the De Stijl collections of the Centraal Museum and the Rietveld Schröder House, which is on the UNESCO list.

Colmar's evenings centre on the dinner table. After a long meal in a winstub you might move on to a wine bar near Petite Venise or stay out on a summer terrace, but by late evening the old town is mostly asleep. Even the Christmas markets and the summer wine fair, which bring big crowds, do not turn into a late-night scene.

Utrecht has far more going on once dinner is over. Late in the evening the squares of the Neude and the Janskerkhof are still full, people sit drinking on the canal wharves in summer, and a few clubs, some run by cultural organisations, keep going after the bars close. Neither city is the place for a big night out, and both send serious clubbers off by train, Colmar to Strasbourg and Utrecht to Amsterdam.

Colmar has much the richer landscape. Vineyards rise from the Rhine plain to the rounded, forested Vosges, with summer pastures, glacial lakes, the high ridge road past the Grand Ballon and views across to the Black Forest. There is even some modest skiing in winter, although a car helps a great deal.

Utrecht's countryside is flat and pleasant. You can cycle along the Vecht past country estates and windmills, walk the heath and low ridges of the Utrechtse Heuvelrug or sail on the Loosdrecht lakes, but there are no real heights.

Both make excellent bases, but in different ways. From Colmar the best trips are short hops by car or bike to wine villages such as Eguisheim, Riquewihr and Kaysersberg, plus Haut-Koenigsbourg on its ridge. Strasbourg, Basel and Freiburg take you across borders and into three cultures.

Utrecht's trips run on the national railway. Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Delft and Gouda are all an easy train ride away, with Kasteel de Haar and Kinderdijk further out, and you never need a car.

Both are calm, safe places with children. Colmar's charm is in town, with boat rides through Petite Venise and storks on the rooftops, while the big outings are a drive away: the stork park at Hunawihr, the macaques at Kintzheim and Europa-Park across the Rhine.

Utrecht keeps more within walking distance. The Railway Museum and the Miffy museum are in the city itself, which is easier without a car. The thing to watch is the constant stream of bikes.

Utrecht is much easier to get around. Utrecht Centraal sits on the edge of the old town, the sights are a flat walk away, trams and buses use the same tap-in card as the trains, and a rental bike covers everything else.

Colmar's centre is just as walkable, and trains reach Strasbourg and Mulhouse quickly. But the wine villages and the Vosges have only thin bus services, so to see the region properly you need a hired car or bicycle.

Utrecht is the better place to shop. Independent fashion, design and book shops line the Twijnstraat and the Elisabethstraat, the Hoog Catharijne mall by the station has the chains, and there are flower and textile markets.

Colmar's shopping is mostly about things to take home from Alsace: wine bought from the producer, Soufflenheim pottery, printed table linen and gingerbread. Its Christmas markets are the high point of the year.

Colmar is somewhat easier on the wallet. Set lunches and regional wine are reasonable, village tastings cost little or nothing, and staying out of the centre keeps rooms affordable, except during the Christmas weeks.

Utrecht's old town has few hotels, so beds there cost what they would in a large city, and a dinner with drinks adds up. Student lunch cafés and a bike in place of transport help, but the room bill is hard to avoid.

Utrecht has the stronger music life. TivoliVredenburg puts classical, pop, jazz and experimental music under one roof most evenings, and the Festival Oude Muziek draws early-music lovers from across Europe. There is no opera house, though, and most theatre is in Dutch.

Colmar's calendar depends on its festivals: classical music in July, jazz in autumn and the wine-fair concerts. Its small municipal theatre has a modest season, and for anything bigger people travel to Strasbourg or Basel.

Neither city has a tradition of baths. Utrecht has the edge thanks to the large Dutch sauna complexes in the green belt around the city, with steam rooms and outdoor pools, as well as calm spots like the Pandhof cloister garden.

Colmar has only hotel spas in town and in the wine villages. What it offers instead is a slow rhythm of long lunches, quiet canal evenings and walks through the vines.