Freiburg or Innsbruck?

Neither city has a coast, and in both swimming is only a summer extra. Freiburg's version is the warmer and lazier one: bike out to the flooded gravel pits on the Rhine plain with their grassy shores, or drive to the cooler Black Forest lakes of Titisee and Schluchsee. Innsbruck has small, shallow plateau lakes such as the Lanser See above the city and the clear but chilly Achensee further out, all with a mountain backdrop that Freiburg's lowland pits lack.

Freiburg eats noticeably better. Its Baden cooking leans towards France, and the wine comes from the Kaiserstuhl and Markgräflerland hills just outside town. The morning market around the Münster gives the day a focus, and there is fine dining in the surrounding region for a special night.

Innsbruck's Tyrolean food is heartier and plainer: Gröstl, dumplings and Kaiserschmarrn. Its best meals are usually at mountain huts rather than in town. There is no market to wander, the wine comes from elsewhere, and the restaurants by the Golden Roof are geared to tour groups.

Each has a compact old town that takes a couple of days, but the character differs. Freiburg's centres on one great building, the red sandstone Münster, with the Bächle channels and the medieval gates around it and the Augustinermuseum for medieval art. Much of it was carefully rebuilt after the war.

Innsbruck has more imperial weight. There are the Hofburg, the Golden Roof and Maximilian's tomb in the Hofkirche with its ring of bronze figures. Ambras Castle with its cabinet of curiosities stands on the edge of town, and the modern architecture at Bergisel and the Hungerburg adds a contrast that Freiburg does not have.

Both are university towns with livelier evenings than their size suggests, but neither is worth travelling to for the nights out. Freiburg's evenings move outdoors in summer, into beer gardens and wine bars and onto the squares and the banks of the Dreisam, and they go quiet in the semester break. Innsbruck's late drinking is concentrated in the brick arches under the railway viaduct, and in winter much of the partying moves out to après-ski in the resorts.

Freiburg has excellent outdoors on its doorstep. You can take the cable car up to the Schauinsland ridge, hike or ski on the Feldberg, walk the gorges and cycle through the Kaiserstuhl vineyards, and the mountain biking is fine. These are rounded, forested uplands, though, not high Alps.

Innsbruck is on another level. The funicular and cable cars lift you from the old town to about 2,300m in under half an hour, the Karwendel lies behind the ridge, and the Stubai Glacier has snow most of the year. With via ferratas, hut-to-hut routes, paragliding and rafting as well, it wins for anyone building a trip around the mountains.

Both make good bases, but Freiburg's corner where three countries meet gives more variety within a short distance. Basel is under an hour by train, Colmar and the Alsace wine villages about an hour by car, and Strasbourg and Baden-Baden are easy too. Small towns such as Staufen and Breisach are even closer.

Innsbruck's best outings are more spread out. Hall in Tirol and Rattenberg are close, but Munich, Salzburg and Bolzano each take around two hours, and the Bavarian castles need a car. What Freiburg cannot match is the crossing over the Brenner into Italian South Tyrol.

Freiburg is the easier choice with children. Europa-Park, Germany's largest theme park, is about 40 minutes away. Closer to home there are the Bächle to splash in, the free Mundenhof animal park and the cable car up the Schauinsland.

In Innsbruck the attraction for families is the mountains themselves: the Alpenzoo with its ibex and lynx, adventure trails, plateau lakes and ski schools in winter. It has no big attraction built for children, so it suits active older children better than toddlers. Neither city has much to offer on a wet day.

Both are small and walkable, with trams for the outskirts, and you only need a car for the remoter valleys. Freiburg is a cycling city, flat and full of bike lanes, and its regional trains run to Basel and up through the Höllental. Innsbruck's strength is getting uphill: the funicular starts at the edge of the old town and connects with the Nordkette cable cars, and ski buses run out to the slopes in winter.

Shopping fills an afternoon in either city, but the finds differ. Freiburg's Gerberau and Konviktstrasse quarters have more independent boutiques, bookshops and organic stores, and Basel is close for bigger shopping. Innsbruck is the place for loden jackets, dirndls and serious outdoor and ski gear, with crystal and Tyrolean crafts under the old town arcades.

Neither is cheap, but the costs fall in different places. In Freiburg the expense is the hotel room, since rooms are scarce for the demand, while market snacks, student-quarter restaurants and free sights keep the days inexpensive.

Innsbruck adds an Alpine resort premium, highest in ski season and at Christmas market time, and cable car tickets add up on an active trip. Spring and autumn are cheaper, and the city cards that combine lifts and transport help.

The two are evenly matched, and both are strong in early music. Freiburg is home to the Freiburger Barockorchester, a leading period-instrument ensemble, and also has opera at Theater Freiburg and the summer tent concerts of the Zelt-Musik-Festival. Innsbruck has its long-running summer Festival of Early Music in settings such as the Spanish Hall at Ambras Castle, plus the Landestheater and Tyrolean folk evenings with yodelling and brass.

Freiburg is in spa country. There is a thermal bath on the city's eastern edge, the large complex at Bad Krozingen is twenty minutes south, Badenweiler has its Roman ruins, and Baden-Baden is an hour away by train. Riverside paths and nearby wine villages keep the pace unhurried.

Innsbruck has no thermal springs of its own. Relaxing there means mountain air and a hotel sauna, best up in Igls, and the big spa complexes of the Ötztal and Zillertal are about an hour's drive away.