Freiburg or Leipzig?

Neither city is near the sea, but Leipzig has the better swimming. South of the centre, the Cospudener See and Markkleeberger See are flooded lignite mines with sandy shores and beach bars, and you can get there by tram. On a hot afternoon that comes close to a real beach day.

In Freiburg you swim in grassy gravel-pit lakes on the Rhine plain or in crowded open-air pools. The cooler Black Forest lakes of Titisee and Schluchsee are about an hour away. They are lovely for a dip after a hike, but there is no sand to lie on.

Freiburg eats better. Its Baden cooking leans towards France, the Münster market is worth visiting every morning, and the Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris come from the Kaiserstuhl just outside town. There is serious fine dining across the surrounding region too.

Leipzig's Saxon food is heavier and plainer: roasts with dumplings, salty Gose beer and a coffee-house tradition that goes back three centuries. It does beat Freiburg on variety, though. The casual international kitchens along the Karli and in Plagwitz offer a range of food that Freiburg doesn't have.

The two are close here, and they differ in the kind of sights rather than how many there are. Freiburg centres on one handsome Gothic scene: the red sandstone Münster with its climbable tower, the market square and the Bächle channels running through carefully rebuilt medieval streets. The Augustinermuseum adds medieval art.

Leipzig's sights tell a story instead. It runs from Bach's grave in the Thomaskirche to the Nikolaikirche prayers of 1989 and the Stasi headquarters at the Runde Ecke. It also has more museums, such as the Grassi collections and the Museum der bildenden Künste, so it holds up a little longer on a rainy day.

Leipzig is the better night out by some distance. Its club scene grew up in old factories and warehouses, electronic music plays well past dawn at weekends, and the Karli, Connewitz and the canal-side bars of Plagwitz each go out in a different way.

Freiburg's evenings are friendly but smaller: student pubs and wine bars around the Martinstor, and summer crowds sitting by the Dreisam until late. Both cities go noticeably quiet during the semester break.

Freiburg is in a different class here. The Black Forest rises right behind the old town. You can walk the ridge from the Schauinsland at about 1,280m, hike or ski on the Feldberg, walk gorges like the Ravenna valley or go mountain biking, and the Kaiserstuhl vineyards offer gentler cycling.

Leipzig's green side is real but flat. It has the Auwald floodplain forest, canoe routes along the canals from Plagwitz and sailing or paddling on the old mining lakes. For proper hills you need a train of about two hours to Saxon Switzerland or the Harz.

Both are excellent bases, and the difference is where the trips take you. From Freiburg you cross borders: Basel by train, Colmar and the half-timbered villages of Alsace, and Strasbourg. Baden-Baden is also in reach, so one week can take in three countries and plenty of wine.

Leipzig's trips are about German history, and they all leave by rail from one station: Dresden, Weimar, Erfurt, Wittenberg, Naumburg and the Bauhaus at Dessau, with Berlin as well. You never need a car, while some of Freiburg's Alsace villages are easier to reach by road.

Freiburg is the easier family base. Children can play in the Bächle in the centre, the Mundenhof animal park and the Schauinsland cable car are close by, and Europa-Park, Germany's largest theme park, is about 40 minutes away. Lakes and gentle forest walks fill the rest of the week.

Leipzig has the better plan for a rainy day: its zoo and the covered Gondwanaland tropical hall work in any weather, and Freiburg has nothing to match them. Once you have done the zoo, the summer lakes and Belantis, though, Leipzig runs out of things for children sooner.

There is little to choose between them, and in both you will do most of your sightseeing on foot. Freiburg's edge is that its transport leads into the hills. The compact old town is mostly closed to cars, trams run out to the Schauinsland cable car, and regional trains climb the Höllental into the Black Forest. Many hotels also give guests a card that covers local buses and trains.

Leipzig's network leads out to the neighbourhoods and the water instead. The old town inside the ring road is quick to cross, trams serve Plagwitz and Connewitz for the evening, and the S-Bahn tunnel under the centre takes you south to the swimming lakes. The whole city is flat, so cycling is as easy as in Freiburg, but the rides end at lakes and forest rather than mountains.

Leipzig has more interesting shopping, though neither city is worth visiting for it. Covered arcades such as the Mädlerpassage make browsing pleasant in any weather, and the west of the city adds vintage clothes, record shops and the galleries at the Spinnerei.

Freiburg has a main street of chain stores, independent boutiques in Gerberau and Konviktstrasse, and good local buys at the Münster market, from schnapps to cuckoo clocks. For bigger shopping, people go over to Basel.

Leipzig is the cheaper place to stay, almost entirely because rooms cost less. Hotels near the old town are cheaper than in most large German cities and there are plenty of them, though rates jump during the big trade-fair weeks.

In Freiburg, hotels are the expensive part, because rooms are scarce for the demand, especially on summer weekends. Some visitors stay in Black Forest villages instead. Day-to-day spending is similar in both cities, and Freiburg's market snacks and low-cost sights help, but any trip into Switzerland costs noticeably more.

Music is Leipzig's great strength, and Freiburg can't match it. The Gewandhaus Orchestra and the opera house face each other across Augustusplatz, and the Thomanerchor sings Bach in his own church. The Bachfest fills the churches each June, and every Whitsun the Wave-Gotik-Treffen brings goth music fans from around the world.

Freiburg has a respectable programme for a smaller city. The Theater Freiburg stages opera and drama, the Freiburger Barockorchester plays at the Konzerthaus, and the Zelt-Musik-Festival comes round each summer. It makes a good evening out, but it isn't a reason to travel.

Freiburg is in spa country and Leipzig is not. There is a thermal bath on Freiburg's eastern edge, and the warm pools of Bad Krozingen and Badenweiler, with its Roman bath ruins, are a short trip south. The bathhouses of Baden-Baden are an hour away by train.

In Leipzig, wellness means German sauna culture in modern pool complexes and hotel spas. Its spa towns have to be a separate outing. The rest comes from long walks in the floodplain forest and quiet Sundays.