Frankfurt or Strasbourg?

Neither city has a sea anywhere nearby, and both swim in old gravel-pit lakes in July and August. Frankfurt's Langener Waldsee has sandy shores in the forest to the south. Strasbourg has several lifeguarded lakes with grassy banks, and the tram goes all the way to the Baggersee, so a swim needs less planning there.

Strasbourg is the better place to eat. Alsatian cooking takes in choucroute, baeckeoffe, tarte flambée and foie gras, there is a strong fine-dining tier, and the wine comes from vineyards just to the south. A meal in a wood-panelled winstub is one of the main reasons to go, as long as you avoid the tourist menus around the cathedral.

Frankfurt's local cooking is narrower: Grüne Soße, Handkäs and tart Apfelwein at the long tables of Sachsenhausen. It does better on variety, though, with Turkish, Italian and Asian kitchens and cheap food from around the world in the Bahnhofsviertel, where Strasbourg offers little beyond its own cuisine.

Strasbourg's old town is the real thing. The pink sandstone cathedral, the timber-framed houses of Petite France and the imperial Neustadt survived largely intact, and walking through them is the main sight. Frankfurt's Römer and old-town lanes were rebuilt after 1944, and they are pleasant without having the same depth.

Frankfurt's strength is its museums. The Museumsufer packs more than a dozen of them along the Main, and the Städel carries more international weight than anything in the Palais Rohan. Add the tower skyline and the Paulskirche, and it suits a museum lover more than someone who has come for streets and buildings.

Frankfurt is the better city for a late night. Together with Offenbach it has a real place in techno and house history, and its clubs still carry that on at weekends. The Bahnhofsviertel cocktail bars and late kiosks give it a rougher edge that Strasbourg doesn't have.

Strasbourg's evenings are about bars rather than clubs: student cellars in the Krutenau, drinks around Place Saint-Étienne and riverside terraces in summer. It is pleasant, but most of the city is quiet by midnight.

Both are flat cities with hills about an hour away. The difference is in how high those hills go and how easy they are to reach. Frankfurt's Taunus, the Großer Feldberg and the large Stadtwald are all reachable by S-Bahn and bus, and the walking is gentle.

From Strasbourg there are two ranges: the Vosges above the vineyards and the higher Black Forest across the Rhine, which together give more serious hiking, though a car helps. Closer in, storks and beavers live in the Rhine-plain forests, and the cycling routes cross into Germany.

Both are excellent bases, but Frankfurt has more range because it sits on Germany's high-speed network. Heidelberg and the castles of the Rhine Gorge are about an hour away, Cologne cathedral is the same, and Würzburg, Mainz and the Rheingau are easy by train, all without a car.

Strasbourg's best trips are closer and more alike: Colmar half an hour south, and the half-timbered wine-route villages such as Riquewihr and Eguisheim, which are much easier with a car or bike. Baden-Baden and Freiburg across the border add variety.

Frankfurt's best things for children are in the city itself. There are the dinosaur skeletons in the Senckenberg, a zoo you can walk to from the centre, and boat trips past the towers. The Taunus adds the wildlife park at Kronberg and a small fairy-tale park for easy outings.

Strasbourg's flat, mostly car-free island is gentler with a pushchair, and children like the storks nesting in the Orangerie and the hands-on Le Vaisseau science centre. Its trump card is Europa-Park, about an hour away across the border, which is a bigger day out than anything near Frankfurt.

Frankfurt runs on a full rail system. U-Bahn, S-Bahn, trams and buses share one network that reaches the Taunus, Wiesbaden and Mainz, and trains take about a quarter of an hour to reach one of Europe's best-connected airports. The lines and zones take some learning.

Strasbourg is smaller and simpler. You can cross its old town island on foot in twenty minutes, trams run out to the edges and over the Rhine to Kehl, and the separated cycle lanes often make a bike the quickest way about.

The two are about even, but you would shop in them for different things. Frankfurt has the department stores and malls of the Zeil and the luxury fashion and jewellery houses around Goethestraße. Strasbourg has almost no luxury, but it does better on regional things to take home: Alsace wine, Soufflenheim pottery, printed linens and kougelhopf moulds, with the Christmas market making December its busiest season.

Strasbourg is the somewhat cheaper stay, though neither is a budget city. In both, hotels are the main cost, and timing matters most. In Frankfurt, rooms are priced for business travellers and soar during trade fairs, so weekends and summer are the better choice.

In Strasbourg, avoid December and the weeks when the European Parliament sits. Beyond that, winstub meals, wine by the pichet and free sights like the cathedral and old town go a long way.

Frankfurt has more to offer in the evenings. Its opera company is one of Germany's most respected, the Alte Oper brings in the radio symphony orchestra and touring ensembles, and cellar clubs still keep up the city's post-war jazz. Like Strasbourg, it goes quiet in summer.

Strasbourg is strong for its size. The Opéra national du Rhin and the Théâtre National de Strasbourg are serious stages, and the Musica festival makes autumn the best time for contemporary music.

Both cities send you out of town to relax, Frankfurt to Wiesbaden's Art Nouveau Kaiser-Friedrich-Therme or the spa park at Bad Homburg, and Strasbourg across the Rhine to the Friedrichsbad in Baden-Baden. Strasbourg has the edge in town, with its tiled Bains municipaux and an easier pace of canal walks and long winstub lunches. Frankfurt's calm is limited to the Palmengarten and the quieter riverbanks.