Freiburg or Munich?

Neither city has a coast, but Munich makes a better job of summer swimming. The Starnberger See and the Ammersee are under an hour away by S-Bahn, with lawns, jetties and clear water, and closer in, locals sunbathe on the Isar's gravel banks at the Flaucher.

Freiburg's swims are more improvised: flooded gravel pits on the Rhine plain reached by bike, warmer but grassy rather than sandy, or the cooler Black Forest lakes of Titisee and Schluchsee about an hour off. In both cases a swim is a break in the trip rather than a reason to go.

The two eat about equally well, but they eat very differently. Freiburg is wine country with a French accent: Flammkuchen, mountain trout, spring asparagus and Black Forest ham, with Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir from the Kaiserstuhl, and a morning market around the Münster.

Munich is built around beer. Its brewery halls and chestnut-shaded beer gardens serve roast pork with crackling, white sausage and pretzels, and the Viktualienmarkt is the snacking stop. Munich also has a slightly wider spread of Italian, Turkish and Balkan cooking when the hearty Bavarian food starts to feel heavy.

Here Munich is in another league. The Kunstareal alone, with the Alte Pinakothek's old masters, the Glyptothek and the Blue Rider painters in the Lenbachhaus, could fill several days, before the Residenz, Nymphenburg Palace and the vast Deutsches Museum on its Isar island.

Freiburg's sights fit comfortably into a day or two: the red sandstone Münster with its climbable lace tower, the oxblood Historisches Kaufhaus, the medieval gates and the Bächle running through the lanes, plus medieval art in the Augustinermuseum. Both old towns were largely rebuilt after wartime bombing.

Munich offers more choice after dark. Evenings often begin in a beer hall, then move to the cocktail and gay bars of the Glockenbachviertel and Gärtnerplatz, and a few serious techno and house clubs run until morning at weekends. The Oktoberfest, from late September, turns the whole city over to the tents for just over two weeks.

Freiburg's nights are shaped by its students: pubs and wine bars around the Martinstor, summer crowds on the squares and along the Dreisam, and a few clubs. It is friendly and relaxed, and noticeably quieter in the semester break.

Both are superb bases for the outdoors, and the difference is one of distance and scale. In Freiburg the forest begins at the edge of town: you can walk up the Schlossberg from the old town, ride the cable car to the Schauinsland ridge, or cycle among the Kaiserstuhl's volcanic vineyard terraces.

Munich's mountains are higher but further off, with the Zugspitze, the Wetterstein and Tegernsee about an hour or more away by train for alpine hiking and skiing. In town it has the English Garden, with surfers on the Eisbach wave, and the Five Lakes country for sailing and gentle cycling.

Munich's list of excursions is longer and runs almost entirely on trains: Augsburg in half an hour, Nuremberg and Regensburg, baroque Salzburg across the Austrian border, and the royal castles of Neuschwanstein and Herrenchiemsee. Innsbruck and the painted villages of Oberammergau add still more.

Freiburg's appeal is the three-country corner. Basel is a short train ride, Strasbourg and Colmar lie across the Rhine, and Breisach and Staufen are close by, but the half-timbered Alsace wine villages such as Riquewihr are much easier with a car.

Both are safe, green and easy with children, and they differ in what fills the days. Freiburg's big card is Europa-Park, Germany's largest theme park, about 40 minutes away, along with toy boats in the Bächle, the free Mundenhof animal park and the cable car, though there is little to do indoors when it rains.

Munich is better on wet days, with the children's area of the Deutsches Museum, the transport museum and a Sea Life aquarium. The Hellabrunn zoo and beer gardens with playgrounds round it out, and Legoland is a longer drive than Europa-Park.

Munich has the edge thanks to its integrated U-Bahn, S-Bahn, tram and bus network, which reaches Nymphenburg, the Olympic Park, the airport and the lakes without fuss, though delays on the central S-Bahn line are a familiar nuisance.

Freiburg works on a smaller scale. Nearly everything is within a twenty-minute walk of the car-free old town, trams and bikes cover the rest, and many regional hotels give guests a card for local buses and trains. Only the Alsace villages really call for a car.

Munich is far ahead for shopping. Maximilianstrasse and the Theatinerstrasse arcades hold the luxury houses, Neuhauser Strasse carries the department stores, and its distinctive buy is tailored Tracht. Its long-established delicatessens and December Christmas markets add to that.

Freiburg is pleasant but modest: chains on Kaiser-Joseph-Strasse, independent boutiques and organic shops in the Gerberau, and local wine, schnapps and carvings at the Münster market. For anything more ambitious, people go to Basel.

Freiburg is the cheaper of the two, though not cheap. Rooms are scarce for the demand, and some visitors stay in nearby Black Forest villages instead, but market snacks, student-quarter taverns and largely free sights keep daily spending modest.

Munich is Germany's most expensive city, with hotel prices that climb further during the Oktoberfest and trade fairs, and restaurant bills to match. A picnic in a beer garden, the free parks and lakes, and token Sunday museum entry are the ways to soften it.

For live music and stage, Munich is one of Europe's great cities. The Bavarian State Opera in the National Theatre ranks among the world's leading companies, three orchestras of real standing play the Herkulessaal and the Prinzregententheater, and the rococo Cuvilliés Theatre stages chamber opera.

Freiburg offers a solid evening rather than a reason to travel: opera, drama and dance at Theater Freiburg, the internationally respected Freiburger Barockorchester at the Konzerthaus, and the summer Zelt-Musik-Festival in its tent village.

The two are evenly matched for slowing down, but they go about it differently. Freiburg is surrounded by spa towns: Bad Krozingen's warm outdoor pools twenty minutes south, Badenweiler beside its Roman bath ruins, and Baden-Baden's grand bathhouses an hour away.

Munich's highlight is in the city itself, the Art Nouveau Müller'sches Volksbad with its Roman-style steam bath, and the huge Erding thermal complex is about forty minutes out. Long afternoons on the English Garden lawns give it a calm that Freiburg finds along the Dreisam.