Frankfurt or Nuremberg?

Neither city is a place for a beach trip, but Nuremberg has the better summer swimming as a side trip. The Franconian Lake District is about an hour south, and the Brombachsee and its neighbours have grassy shores, sandy patches and room for sailing.

Frankfurt's option is smaller and closer: gravel-pit lakes such as the Langener Waldsee in the southern forest, with sandy edges and warm water in high summer. Beyond that, both cities rely on their outdoor pools.

Both cities eat about equally well, and both cook heavy regional food. Frankfurt's centres on apple wine served from stoneware jugs at shared tavern tables in Sachsenhausen, with Grüne Soße and Handkäs. Its size and business crowd also bring more international cooking, from Bahnhofsviertel's cheap global food to formal restaurants.

Nuremberg is built around pork and beer: small grilled bratwurst on pewter plates, Schäufele with crackling, and Lebkuchen all year. Franconia's density of small breweries means a beer-lover will find more variety here, in old-town taverns and beer gardens along the Pegnitz.

Nuremberg has the richer set of sights. Its medieval walls are almost complete, the Kaiserburg rises above St Sebaldus, St Lorenz and the Hauptmarkt, and the Germanisches Nationalmuseum can fill a whole day. The Rally Grounds documentation centre and Courtroom 600 give the city a twentieth-century history that is hard to match anywhere in Germany.

Frankfurt's strength is its museums. The Städel leads more than a dozen institutions along the Museumsufer, with the Senckenberg and the Schirn alongside. Its old town around the Römer, the cathedral and the Paulskirche is smaller and more obviously reconstructed, and the tower skyline gives it a modern face that Nuremberg lacks.

Frankfurt offers more after dark. With Offenbach next door it has a real place in techno and house history, and a small club scene still carries that on at weekends. The Bahnhofsviertel's cocktail bars and late kiosks give it an edgy character, while Berger Straße and the summer riverbanks are more relaxed.

Nuremberg is a bar town. Gostenhof's small alternative venues are the most interesting part, students fill the squares and riverbanks in summer, and the club choice is thin. It makes for a pleasant evening but rarely a late one.

The countryside around both is green and gentle, with no mountains, and both suit walkers and cyclists. Frankfurt has the Taunus on its doorstep, with the Großer Feldberg at about 880m and Roman frontier trails, plus the Stadtwald inside the city and the Rheingau vineyard paths further out.

Nuremberg's best outdoor country is Franconian Switzerland, where limestone towers, caves and wooded valleys make it one of Germany's known climbing areas. The Reichswald pine forest at the city edge and paddling on the southern lakes round it out.

Both are excellent bases, with Frankfurt slightly ahead thanks to its place at the heart of the high-speed network. Heidelberg, the castle-lined Rhine Gorge and Cologne's cathedral are each about an hour away, and Mainz, Wiesbaden and Darmstadt are closer still.

Nuremberg's list leans towards beautifully preserved small towns. Bamberg is under an hour away, Regensburg about an hour, and Rothenburg and Dinkelsbühl a little further. Bayreuth and Munich round out a list that is strong on medieval and baroque old towns. Both cities can reach Würzburg's Residenz.

Families will do equally well in either, for a few days. Frankfurt's best moment for children is the Senckenberg's dinosaur hall, with a central zoo, the Palmengarten glasshouses and boat trips past the skyline to fill the rest.

Nuremberg's centuries of toy-making give it a theme children pick up on. There is the Toy Museum, a railway museum with the first German train, and a large zoo set in wooded old quarries. In Advent there is a separate children's Christmas market. The steep cobbled climb to the castle is the one hard stretch with a pushchair.

Both are easy without a car, and both run integrated U-Bahn, S-Bahn, tram and bus networks on one ticket. Frankfurt's advantage is its arrival. The airport is one of Europe's best connected, about a quarter of an hour from the centre by train, and the main station feeds straight into the high-speed lines, though the zones take some learning.

Nuremberg's advantage is scale. Nearly everything sits within its walls and can be walked, with the station just outside the southern gate, and the public transport mainly serves the Rally Grounds, the zoo and Fürth.

Frankfurt is the better shopping city. The Zeil covers department stores and malls, Goethestraße holds the luxury fashion and jewellery houses, and Berger Straße and Schweizer Straße have independent boutiques and delis.

Nuremberg's high streets are mostly chain stores. Its appeal lies in what you take home: Lebkuchen in decorated tins, wooden toys and crafts from the Handwerkerhof. In Advent the Christkindlesmarkt turns the Hauptmarkt into one of Germany's best-known Christmas markets, which Frankfurt cannot match.

Nuremberg is the cheaper stay. Beer and tavern meals cost little, transport and sights are modestly priced, and hotels outside fair weeks and Advent are reasonable.

Frankfurt's hotels are priced for bankers and fair visitors, which makes it one of Germany's more expensive cities to sleep in. Weekends and summer bring rooms down, and its cider taverns and Turkish grills keep eating cheap. Both cities are worth checking against the trade-fair calendar before booking.

Frankfurt is the stronger stage. Its opera company is among Germany's most respected for bold productions, the rebuilt Alte Oper hosts the radio symphony orchestra and touring ensembles, and contemporary dance, an English-language theatre and jazz cellars with roots in the post-war years fill out the season.

Nuremberg's Staatstheater, in an Art Nouveau house outside the walls, offers solid opera, ballet and drama, but on a regional level. Its summer is livelier than Frankfurt's, with the free Bardentreffen folk weekend, a large open-air orchestral concert in the Luitpoldhain and a big rock festival by the Zeppelinfeld.

Neither city has a bathing culture of its own, and in both you find it by heading out of town. Frankfurt's surroundings are richer in historic spas: Wiesbaden's Art Nouveau Kaiser-Friedrich-Therme, Bad Homburg's spa park and the old water-cure towns of Bad Nauheim and Bad Soden.

Nuremberg's choice is more modern. There is a large thermal spa with sauna gardens in Fürth, a short U-Bahn ride away, and leisure baths with mixed nude saunas, plus the saline pools at Bad Windsheim about an hour west. Its slow beer-garden afternoons by the Pegnitz are the gentler way to unwind.