Cologne or Hamburg?

Neither city is for a beach vacation, but Hamburg gives you more to work with. Its sandy Elbe banks at Oevelgoenne are a pleasant place to watch container ships at sunset. Real Baltic bathing, with wicker beach chairs, is about an hour away at Travemuende or Timmendorfer Strand.

Cologne has no sea within reach of a day out. Swimming means the flooded gravel pits on the city's edge, such as Fühlinger See or Otto-Maigler-See, which are fine for a warm afternoon on the grass and little more.

The two are much alike in quality, and the difference lies in what you eat. Cologne's table is the Brauhaus: a Köbes keeps the narrow glasses of Kölsch coming alongside Himmel un Ääd or a Halve Hahn, and the best Turkish food is on Venloer Strasse in Ehrenfeld.

Hamburg eats from the harbour. Expect herring and shrimp rolls on the Landungsbruecken piers, Labskaus and the early Sunday fish market in Altona, then a Franzbroetchen and good coffee in Ottensen the next morning. Eating out costs a little more in Hamburg.

Both lost most of their old centres in the Second World War, so neither has an intact historic core, and what survives is quite different. Cologne's strength is its great single monuments. The cathedral with the Shrine of the Three Kings, the twelve Romanesque churches and the Roman remains span two thousand years, and Museum Ludwig's Pop Art and Kolumba reward a museum day.

Hamburg's heritage is a whole working landscape: the canal-side warehouses of the Speicherstadt, the Chilehaus in the Kontorhaus district, and the Elbphilharmonie plaza looking over the port. The Kunsthalle, with its Caspar David Friedrich paintings, is its counterpart to Cologne's galleries.

Hamburg is the stronger city for going out, and it goes on later. The Reeperbahn draws crowds every weekend, closing times are not fixed, and you can choose by district, from the alternative pavement bars of the Schanzenviertel to the smarter places around the Alster or clubs in old bunkers.

Cologne is friendlier than it is wild. A night moves from the Altstadt brewhouses to the Belgian Quarter or the student crowds on Zülpicher Strasse, and its gay scene around Rudolfplatz is one of Germany's largest. Carnival is its great exception, when the whole city parties for days.

Both cities are flat and green, and the difference is what lies beyond the parks. From Cologne you reach real hills within the hour: the volcanic Siebengebirge and the Drachenfels, the Bergisches Land and the Eifel national park with its crater lakes.

Hamburg's outdoors means water. You can sail or paddle on the Alster, canoe the northern canals, walk the Elbe path to steep Blankenese, or cycle through the Altes Land orchards, with the purple heather of Lueneburg Heath an hour south.

Cologne is clearly the better base for day trips. Brühl's palaces, Bonn, Düsseldorf and Aachen's Carolingian chapel are each under forty minutes by train, and the castle towns of the Rhine Gorge take about an hour and a half. Maastricht, Liège and Brussels add a second country, or a third, to the same week.

Hamburg's list is good but shorter and more spread out. Luebeck and Lueneburg are excellent brick Gothic towns, while Bremen, Schwerin and Wismar each take about an hour or more, so outings take up more of the day.

Both work well with children, and each has one big draw. In Cologne it is Phantasialand at Brühl, a short trip south, along with the Chocolate Museum's fountain and the cable car over the Rhine. The only real caution is the drunken streets at Carnival.

Hamburg's equivalent is Miniatur Wunderland in the Speicherstadt, followed by Hagenbeck's bar-free enclosures and a harbour day of ferries, museum ships and the old Elbe tunnel. Its rainier weather means planning an indoor option for every day.

Hamburg is the easier city to get around. Its U-Bahn and S-Bahn are straightforward, the airport is on the S-Bahn, and the harbour ferries run on the same ticket, so a commute doubles as a port tour.

Cologne makes a fine first impression, with the main station right beside the cathedral and a flat, walkable centre around it. Beyond that, the Stadtbahn map is harder to read, and the trams can be crowded and irregular.

Hamburg is the better shopping city, mainly for its upper end. Neuer Wall and the Jungfernstieg have the luxury labels, linked by covered arcades that help on wet days, and the Alsterhaus sits on the water. The Karolinenviertel adds vintage and streetwear.

Cologne is stronger on the high street than in luxury. Schildergasse and Hohe Strasse are among Germany's busiest shopping streets, and Ehrenstrasse is good for independents. Its two signatures are the Eau de Cologne houses on Glockengasse and the Advent Christmas markets.

Cologne is the cheaper stay. In ordinary weeks its hotels are moderately priced, brewhouse meals cost less than in most big cities, and the cathedral is free. The catch is the trade fairs at the Messe and Carnival, when rooms become scarce and expensive.

Hamburg costs more for both sleeping and eating, especially in HafenCity and on summer weekends. Its day ticket, which includes the ferries, and cheap fish rolls in Altona take some of the sting out.

Cologne's stage life is solid. The Philharmonie beside the cathedral is home to the Gürzenich and WDR orchestras, the city has a long tradition of electronic music, and its Carnival sessions with dialect bands are a stage tradition you won't find in Hamburg.

Still, Hamburg is one of Germany's great stage cities, and here Cologne cannot keep up. The Elbphilharmonie and the Laeiszhalle carry two classical seasons, alongside the State Opera, the internationally known Hamburg Ballet, the Thalia and the Schauspielhaus. Add the long-running musicals, some reached by boat, and the St Pauli club circuit where the Beatles started out.

Cologne has the edge because of its spring water. A thermal bath in the Rheinpark, fed by local mineral springs, looks across the river to the cathedral, and Aachen's hot springs are under forty minutes away.

Hamburg has no springs and relies on the German sauna habit, best seen at the art nouveau Holthusenbad in Eppendorf. The quieter side of a stay there means the Japanese garden in Planten un Blomen or a slow boat round the Alster.