Frankfurt or Heidelberg?

Neither city is a beach destination. Both are far inland, and their rivers are for strolling and boats rather than swimming. Summer swimming means outdoor pools or gravel-pit lakes. Frankfurt has the sandy-shored Langener Waldsee in the forest just south of the city, while Heidelberg's lakes are spread across the Rhine plain about half an hour out.

Frankfurt gives you more to eat. Its apple-wine taverns serve Grüne Soße and Handkäs at shared tables, the Kleinmarkthalle is a good single stop for regional produce, and a large international population brings strong Turkish, Italian and Asian cooking alongside business-dinner restaurants.

Heidelberg's kitchen is Baden and Kurpfalz comfort food, with Maultaschen, Schäufele and spring asparagus. Its real advantage is wine from the Bergstrasse and the Palatinate on its doorstep. The catch is the tourist strip on the Hauptstrasse, so the better meals are in side streets, in Neuenheim or out in the village wine taverns.

These two are about equal for sightseeing, but they offer very different things. Frankfurt is a museum city. The Museumsufer lines both banks of the Main, with the Städel as its international highlight, and the rebuilt Römer and old-town lanes stand beneath Germany's only real skyline of towers.

Heidelberg's appeal is the setting itself. The castle ruin hangs over an old town that largely survived, and the oldest university in Germany adds the Old University and the graffiti-covered Student Prison. Go to Frankfurt for great collections and to Heidelberg for a historic townscape.

Frankfurt has a real night scene. Clubs carry on the techno and house tradition it shares with Offenbach, the Bahnhofsviertel has cocktail bars and character, and Berger Straße and the summer riverbanks offer gentler evenings. Even so, it comes alive mainly at weekends.

In Heidelberg, going out mostly means the small pubs of the Untere Strasse and old student taverns with carved tables. That is lively in term time and quiet otherwise. For a big club night, locals take the train to Frankfurt.

The countryside around both is similar: gentle wooded hills, river cycle paths and vineyards, with nothing dramatic. The difference is distance. In Heidelberg the forest starts at the edge of the Altstadt, where the Philosophers' Walk, the funicular up the Königstuhl and the Celtic ramparts on the Heiligenberg are all a short walk from town.

From Frankfurt you can reach the higher Taunus and the Großer Feldberg in under an hour, and the city has the large Stadtwald and long flat paths along the Main. You have to set out on purpose, though, rather than just stepping out of town.

Both make good bases, but Frankfurt reaches further. Its place on the high-speed network brings Cologne cathedral and the Würzburg Residenz within easy reach, along with the Rhine Gorge castles, Mainz, Wiesbaden and Marburg, which is enough for a week.

Heidelberg is better placed for the Upper Rhine and Neckar. Speyer and Schwetzingen are close, Maulbronn and Lorsch are easy, the Palatinate Wine Route is about an hour off, and Strasbourg is possible for a long day. Heidelberg is also itself one of Frankfurt's best outings.

Both cities work equally well for a few days with children, with different strengths. Frankfurt has the dinosaur hall at the Senckenberg, a central zoo, the Palmengarten and flat river paths, and its smooth streets and trams make life easy with a pushchair.

In Heidelberg the funicular up to the small fairy-tale park on the Königstuhl is an adventure in itself, and the Technik Museum Speyer, with its space shuttle and submarine, is close. However, the cobbled, sloping Altstadt is harder going with a buggy.

Frankfurt is slightly easier to get around. Its compact centre puts the Römer, the Zeil and the Museumsufer minutes apart, and one integrated network runs out to the Taunus and Mainz. The airport is about a quarter of an hour away by train.

Heidelberg is a long, narrow strip you walk along the Hauptstrasse, but the station sits some way west, so you start with a tram ride. The castle approach is steep and cobbled unless you take the funicular.

Frankfurt is the better place to shop. You have department stores and malls on the Zeil, luxury fashion and jewellery around Goethestraße, independent boutiques on Berger Straße and Schweizer Straße, and a Saturday flea market on the Main.

Heidelberg's long Hauptstrasse turns from chains at one end to cuckoo clocks, beer steins and Studentenkuss chocolates at the other. Bergstrasse wine is the best thing to bring home.

The two cost much the same, and in both hotels make up most of the bill. Frankfurt's rooms are priced for business travellers and soar during trade fairs, so it pays to go at weekends or in summer. Heidelberg's problem is a small stock of rooms, which congresses, graduations and summer weekends fill up, and many visitors stay in Mannheim instead. In both places, taverns, cafés and the regional transport tickets keep the rest of the trip reasonable.

Frankfurt is the stronger stage. Its opera company is among Germany's most respected, the rebuilt Alte Oper hosts the radio symphony orchestra, and serious drama, contemporary dance and cellar jazz clubs fill out the season from autumn to early summer.

Heidelberg does a lot for its size, with opera, drama and dance at the municipal theatre and chamber music at the Heidelberger Frühling in spring. Unusually, its high point comes in summer, when the castle courtyard becomes an open-air stage just as Frankfurt's calendar goes quiet.

Neither town has its own thermal baths, so relaxing means a short trip out. Frankfurt has more on offer nearby: the spa park and thermal complex at Bad Homburg, Wiesbaden's Art Nouveau Kaiser-Friedrich-Therme, and the old spa towns of Bad Nauheim and Bad Soden.

From Heidelberg you can reach the Kraichgau spa towns within half an hour, and Baden-Baden is about an hour away. Heidelberg itself is calmer, though, with evenings on the Neuenheim meadows and forest paths above the Philosophers' Walk.