Frankfurt or Karlovy Vary?

Neither city has a beach, and both are a long way from any sea. What swimming there is takes the same form in each: Frankfurt has the sandy shores of the Langener Waldsee in the forest to the south, Karlovy Vary has Lake Medard, a flooded mine near Sokolov. The one thing Karlovy Vary adds is a warm outdoor pool fed by the springs, which works even on a cool day.

Frankfurt eats better and more widely. Its apple-wine taverns in Sachsenhausen, with Grüne Soße and Handkäs at shared tables, give a real local tradition, and the Kleinmarkthalle, Turkish grills and serious restaurants fill in the rest.

Karlovy Vary's eating is narrower: roast pork, dumplings and svíčková with good beer, plus warm spa wafers and Becherovka as the town's own tastes. Café cake along the Teplá is a pleasure, but there is no market and only a few ambitious kitchens.

The two are close in depth but very different in kind. Frankfurt's culture is in its museums: the Städel and the Schirn, the Senckenberg and a dozen more along the Museumsufer, set among a rebuilt Römer and Germany's only real skyline of towers.

In Karlovy Vary the town itself is the exhibit. The UNESCO-listed spa quarter of pastel hotels and colonnades, the Vřídlo geyser and Dientzenhofer's baroque church are things to walk through rather than galleries to enter, and its museums are small and specialised.

Frankfurt has a nightlife and Karlovy Vary barely does. Frankfurt offers weekend techno and house clubs with a long pedigree, cocktail bars in the Bahnhofsviertel, rowdy taverns in Alt-Sachsenhausen and summer drinking on the Main banks, though weeknights are quiet.

Karlovy Vary goes to bed by eleven, leaving hotel bars, a few wine bars and casinos. Only during the film festival week in early summer does the valley fill with parties.

Both offer green, rolling country rather than drama, and the forest starts close to each. In Frankfurt it is the Taunus by S-Bahn, the Stadtwald inside the city and long flat cycling along the Main and through the Rheingau vineyards.

Karlovy Vary's woods climb straight from the promenades on graded old spa paths to the Diana lookout, with the Slavkov Forest moors further out. It also has winter skiing around Klínovec in the Ore Mountains, which Frankfurt cannot match.

Frankfurt is one of the best day-trip bases in Germany. Fast trains reach Heidelberg, Cologne and Würzburg, the Rhine Gorge castles are about an hour off, and Mainz, Wiesbaden and Darmstadt are close enough for half a day.

Karlovy Vary has rewarding outings too, chiefly the castle town of Loket, the sister spa towns of Mariánské Lázně and Františkovy Lázně, and the St Maurus reliquary at Bečov. Slow regional trains and the two-hour coach to Prague make it a smaller radius.

Frankfurt is much easier with children. The Senckenberg dinosaur hall, the central zoo, the Palmengarten and boat trips past the towers fill several days, and flat river paths and trams suit pushchairs.

Karlovy Vary is safe and pretty but built around adults on a cure. The geyser, the funicular, spa cups and wafers will charm children for a day or two, after which there is little for them, and the steep valley sides tire anyone pushing a buggy.

Frankfurt is better connected at every scale. Its compact centre walks easily, an integrated U-Bahn, S-Bahn and tram network reaches the whole region, and the airport is about a quarter of an hour from town by train.

Karlovy Vary's spa quarter is a pleasant linear stroll along the Teplá, but the steep sides need buses or the funicular, rail links are slow, and a car helps for the forests and villages.

Frankfurt has the bigger range: department stores and malls on the Zeil, luxury houses around Goethestraße and independent shops on Berger Straße and Schweizer Straße. What it lacks is a speciality.

Karlovy Vary is the reverse, small but with genuine local goods. Moser crystal from its own showroom, local porcelain and Bohemian garnets are worth seeking out on Stará louka, but beyond them the choice is thin.

Karlovy Vary is the cheaper stay. Even with its resort mark-up, rooms are moderate, and a street back from the colonnades Czech pubs and canteens charge local prices.

Frankfurt's hotels are set for business travellers and become scarce and costly during trade fairs. Eating out there is fair and weekends are cheaper, but overall a trip costs noticeably more.

Frankfurt has a full performing-arts season. Its opera company is among Germany's most respected, the Alte Oper hosts the radio symphony orchestra, and there is serious drama, contemporary dance and cellar jazz.

Karlovy Vary offers a gentler evening: the symphony orchestra descended from the old spa bands, often playing light classics outdoors on the colonnades in summer, and touring operetta in the Fellner and Helmer theatre. Pleasant, but not a reason to travel.

This is Karlovy Vary's reason for being. Thirteen springs feed the colonnades, spa hotels and sanatoria offer medical stays with baths, wraps and doctors' consultations, and the days settle into a slow round of walks and cake.

Frankfurt has no bathing culture of its own beyond pools and hotel spas. Its good wellness options are day trips to Wiesbaden's Kaiser-Friedrich-Therme or the thermal baths of Bad Homburg.