Dresden or Dusseldorf?

Neither city is a beach destination, and both rivers, the Elbe and the Rhine, have sandy banks that look tempting but carry shipping and strong currents. The sea is a long journey from either, the Baltic from Dresden and the cool Dutch North Sea from Düsseldorf.

The difference is in where you cool off. Dresden has gravel-pit lakes and the ponds around Moritzburg, and Düsseldorf has Unterbacher See, a proper bathing lake with lawns on the city's edge.

Both cities serve hearty German food, sauerbraten included, but Düsseldorf gives a visitor more to look forward to at the table. Its Altstadt brewhouses pour Altbier until you cover the glass, and the Japanese quarter around Immermannstrasse adds ramen, izakaya and bakeries of a quality rare in Germany, with Carlsplatz market and a layer of fine dining on top.

Dresden's strengths are narrower: Saxon cooking, Stollen and Eierschecke at afternoon coffee, and dry wines from the Elbe valley vineyards around Radebeul and Meissen. The Neustadt has the most varied eating, while the area around the Frauenkirche tends towards tourist menus.

Dresden is the stronger sightseeing city by some distance. The Zwinger's Old Masters, the Green Vault in the Residenzschloss, the Albertinum's Romantic painting and the stone-by-stone rebuilt Frauenkirche make up a baroque ensemble along the Elbe that fills three or four days.

Düsseldorf was also heavily bombed, but rebuilt with less ceremony, and its draw is modern art rather than grand historic fabric. K20's Klee collection, the net under K21's dome and the Kunstpalast are the highlights, with Benrath Palace and the Gehry buildings of the Medienhafen as the main things to look at outdoors.

Düsseldorf is the livelier city after dark. Its Altstadt is a few hundred pubs and brewhouses packed into a handful of streets, where weekend crowds drink standing outside well past midnight, and Carnival turns the whole city out in costume for days.

Dresden's going-out life is concentrated in the Äußere Neustadt, a student quarter of small bars, beer kiosks and courtyard pubs that is friendly and informal. It is pleasant for a few evenings, but the old town goes quiet after dinner and there is less to choose from.

Here Dresden has a real advantage. Saxon Switzerland, with its sandstone towers, gorges and table mountains, is a national park reachable by suburban train, offering the Bastei viewpoint, the multi-day Malerweg and some of the oldest traditional rock climbing in Europe, with the Ore Mountains beyond.

Düsseldorf's outdoors is flat and gentle: cycle paths along the Rhine meadows to Kaiserswerth, the Grafenberg forest and the Neandertal valley. The Bergisches Land and Siebengebirge are good for a day's walking, but nothing compares with Dresden's rock landscape.

Both make excellent bases, but the kind of trip differs. From Dresden the outings are to smaller historic places: porcelain-making Meissen, Moritzburg's lake palace, the Königstein fortress, Görlitz and Bautzen, with Leipzig an hour away and Prague possible at a stretch.

Düsseldorf sits in a dense urban region, so its day trips lean towards big cities and varied heritage: Cologne cathedral in under half an hour, Bonn, the Brühl palaces, the Ruhr's industrial sites, Aachen and Dutch Maastricht.

The two are about equally easy with children, but what fills the days differs. Dresden offers the Transport Museum, the Großer Garten with its zoo and child-run miniature railway, and paddle steamer trips up the Elbe, though it has no aquarium or theme park.

Düsseldorf fills those gaps with the Aquazoo Löbbecke and with Phantasialand and Movie Park Germany within about an hour, and its free game park in Grafenberg brings boar and deer up close.

Both are compact enough to see largely on foot, with trams for the rest and no need for a car. Dresden's suburban trains and paddle steamers along the Elbe double as the way to reach Meissen, Pillnitz and Saxon Switzerland.

Düsseldorf adds an underground light rail, a quick rail link from the airport and a regional network that runs on to Cologne and the Ruhr, at the cost of fare zones that confuse newcomers.

Düsseldorf is much the better place to shop. The Königsallee, with luxury flagships and upscale arcades along its canal, is backed by big department stores, while Flingern's boutiques and the Japanese quarter's stationery and homeware shops add character.

Dresden's mainstream shopping on Prager Straße is mostly chains, so its interest lies in local crafts: Meissen porcelain, Ore Mountain wooden toys, the courtyards of the Kunsthofpassage and, in Advent, the Striezelmarkt.

Dresden is the easier city on a budget, with reasonable hotels for most of the year and good-value eating in the Neustadt, though separate museum entries add up and rooms climb at Christmas market time.

Düsseldorf's hotels are pricey for its size, and during big trade fairs they become very expensive and scarce, so check the fair calendar before booking. Brewhouse meals and Japanese noodle bars keep daily spending manageable.

Classical music is where Dresden pulls ahead. The Semperoper, home to the centuries-old Staatskapelle and the scene of Wagner and Strauss premieres, is among Europe's great opera houses, and the Kreuzchor, the Philharmonic in the Kulturpalast and Bach at the Frauenkirche add depth.

Düsseldorf has a solid programme of its own, with the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, the Tonhalle and the Schauspielhaus, plus political cabaret. Its distinctive note is modern, as the birthplace of Kraftwerk and early German electronic music.

Neither city has its own thermal springs, and both rely on public baths with sauna areas. Düsseldorf has more spa choice within an hour, including large thermal complexes and Aachen's hot springs, while Dresden's nearest thermal pool is at Bad Schandau.

Otherwise the calm is found outdoors. In Dresden that means the Elbe meadows and quiet evenings in the old town. In Düsseldorf it means the Hofgarten and Nordpark's Japanese garden, as long as you avoid the Altstadt on weekend nights.