Dresden or Heidelberg?

Neither city is a beach destination, and both send swimmers to outdoor pools and flooded gravel pits. Dresden has the more appealing riverbank, with sandy stretches and deckchair spots on the Elbe, plus the ponds around Moritzburg just north of town. Heidelberg's Neckar offers lawns rather than sand, and its swimming lakes are out on the Rhine plain, about half an hour away.

Both serve hearty regional cooking, and both have wine country on the doorstep, so the difference is in emphasis. Dresden's strengths are sauerbraten, game and above all baking. Stollen and Eierschecke make the afternoon coffee ritual the most memorable part of eating there, and the Neustadt has the more varied, casual range of cuisines.

Heidelberg leans harder on wine. Riesling and Pinot from the Bergstrasse and the Palatinate are on every list, and the village wine taverns are often where the best meals are. Spring brings white asparagus, while Maultaschen and Flammkuchen reflect its south-western position.

Dresden is in a different league here. The Old Masters in the Zwinger, the Green Vault in the Residenzschloss and the Albertinum's nineteenth-century painting are collections people travel specifically to see. Add the rebuilt Frauenkirche, the Semperoper and Pillnitz, and you have a programme of several days. Much of the old town is reconstruction, which gives it a patchier feel.

Heidelberg's appeal is the setting rather than the collections. The castle ruin above a genuinely old Altstadt, the Old Bridge and the university with its graffiti-covered Student Prison make a lovely picture, but one you can see in a day or two.

Dresden gives you more to do after dark. The Äußere Neustadt is a whole district of small bars, beer kiosks and courtyard pubs, with crowds drinking on the pavements in summer and a few clubs in old industrial buildings, and it stays busy late at weekends.

Heidelberg's scene squeezes into the Untere Strasse and its historic student taverns. It is lively in term time and quiet out of it, and for a proper club night locals take the train to Mannheim or Frankfurt.

Dresden has the more dramatic landscape within reach. Saxon Switzerland's sandstone towers, gorges and table mountains begin upriver in well under an hour, and they offer real multi-day hiking and a historic climbing culture. The Elbe cycle route and the Ore Mountains add more.

Heidelberg's countryside starts right at the old town. Forest trails run from the Königstuhl and the Heiligenberg, the Bergstrasse has its almond blossom, and the Neckar valley is good for cycling. It is easy and green, but much gentler.

Both are excellent bases, with different kinds of outing. From Dresden, the trips follow the Elbe and Saxony: porcelain in Meissen, the lake palace at Moritzburg, the Königstein fortress, Görlitz and Leipzig, with Prague as a long day out.

Heidelberg looks to the Upper Rhine's cathedrals and monasteries: Speyer, Worms, Lorsch and Maulbronn. It adds the Schwetzingen gardens, the castle villages up the Neckar and the Palatinate wine villages, with Strasbourg at the far edge.

For families the difference is where the good days happen. In Dresden most of them are in town: the Großer Garten has a zoo at its edge and a miniature railway largely run by children, the Transport Museum is full of trams and trains, and the Hygiene Museum has a hands-on section about the senses. A paddle steamer up the Elbe or a day at Moritzburg adds time outdoors, but there is no theme park or large aquarium.

Heidelberg's best family outings are mostly a short trip away. Nearby, the funicular leads up to a small fairy-tale park on the Königstuhl, and the compact zoo sits by the Neckar. Further afield, the Technik Museum in Speyer lets children climb into aircraft and a submarine, and a large theme park is under an hour away. The sloping, cobbled Altstadt is hard going with a pushchair.

Both are easy without a car. Dresden's old town and Neustadt are walkable from one to the other across the Augustus Bridge, a dense tram network covers the wider city, and suburban trains and paddle steamers run along the Elbe.

Heidelberg is a long, narrow strip that you walk along the Hauptstrasse. The station is a tram ride away, a funicular saves you the steep climb to the castle, and one regional fare system makes rail trips across the Rhine-Neckar area simple.

Neither city is a shopping destination, and both leave everyday needs to familiar chains, so the real difference is what is worth taking home. Dresden sells its own craft heritage: Meissen porcelain in the old town showrooms, carved Ore Mountain toys and Christmas figures, and in Advent the Striezelmarkt, one of Germany's oldest Christmas markets, with craft stalls and Stollen across the Altmarkt. For browsing, the Neustadt's second-hand shops, small design studios and decorated Kunsthofpassage courtyards have more character than anything in Heidelberg.

Heidelberg offers one long high street rather than a craft tradition. The Hauptstrasse runs from department stores to cuckoo clocks, beer steins and Studentenkuss chocolates near the market square, which is mostly the stock of a tourist town, and a bottle of Bergstrasse Riesling makes a more genuinely local souvenir. Its independent bookshops and boutiques are tucked into the side lanes, and serious fashion and luxury are thin in both cities.

Dresden is the cheaper of the two. Hotels are reasonable for most of the year, and the Neustadt's cafés and bars keep eating out good value. The main extra cost is separate entry for each major museum.

Heidelberg pays the price of its popularity. Rooms are scarce and expensive during congresses, graduations and summer weekends, so many visitors stay in Mannheim and come in by train, though student cafés and taverns keep meals affordable.

Music is a real reason to visit Dresden. The Semperoper, with the centuries-old Staatskapelle and its Wagner and Strauss premieres, the Dresden Philharmonic in the Kulturpalast and the Kreuzchor in the Kreuzkirche make up a programme of international standing. The music festival and a long-running Dixieland festival add to the calendar.

Heidelberg has a full programme for a small town, with opera and concerts at the municipal theatre, the Heidelberger Frühling chamber festival and open-air performances in the castle courtyard. For a larger house, people go to Mannheim.

Neither has thermal springs, and in both, relaxation comes more from the pace than from spas. Dresden has public sauna culture in its municipal baths, a thermal pool at Bad Schandau and lazy afternoons of coffee and cake on the Elbe meadows.

Heidelberg is better placed for proper bathing, with the thermal complexes of the Kraichgau about half an hour away and Baden-Baden about an hour. At home it offers evenings on the Neuenheim riverbank and quiet forest paths above the Philosophers' Walk.