Freiburg or Nice?

This is where the two differ most. Nice lives along its 7km pebble shore below the Promenade des Anglais, with clear, warm water for five months of the year. Sandy beaches at Villefranche, Beaulieu and Juan-les-Pins are an easy hop away for anyone who dislikes the stones.

Freiburg is landlocked. A summer swim there means the grassy banks of the gravel lakes on the Rhine plain, a city pool, or the cooler water of Titisee and Schluchsee in the Black Forest. It is a pleasant way to cool off, but it is no beach vacation.

Nice eats a little better and more distinctively. Its food leans towards Liguria, with socca from wood ovens, pissaladière, stuffed vegetables and the rare Bellet wines, and the cheapest options, the market and the family places in Vieux Nice, are often the best. Avoid the promenade terraces.

Freiburg has a lighter, French-tinged Baden kitchen, with Schäufele, Black Forest ham, trout and spring asparagus, and the dry Pinots of the Kaiserstuhl are on its doorstep. The sausage stalls at the Münster market are a pleasure, but the range narrows after a few days.

Nice offers more to see, and art is the reason. The Matisse and Chagall museums in Cimiez and MAMAC give it a 20th-century collection Freiburg cannot match. The Savoyard old town and the Belle Époque villas also fill two or three days.

Freiburg's appeal is a single coherent old town: the red sandstone Münster with its climbable tower, the Historisches Kaufhaus, the city gates, the Bächle and the medieval art of the Augustinermuseum. Most of it was rebuilt after the war, and a day or two covers it.

Neither is a nightlife destination, but Nice keeps a little more going. Its old town lanes fill with cocktail and wine bars, and in summer the beach clubs and the promenade keep people out late, although the glossier nights happen in Monaco and Cannes. Freiburg's evenings are driven by its students: pubs around the Martinstor, beer gardens and summer evenings by the Dreisam, all noticeably quieter during the semester break.

Both cities are excellent bases for the outdoors, in very different landscapes. Freiburg is forest and upland. The Schauinsland cable car, the Feldberg ridge, gorges such as the Ravenna valley and the Kaiserstuhl vineyard cycling routes are all close, and the mountain biking is excellent.

Nice puts mountains and sea side by side. There are coastal paths on Cap Ferrat, road cycling on the corniches, the Mercantour's high lakes about two hours inland, and diving and kayaking off the shore. Both offer winter skiing within reach, but in Nice the midday summer heat makes hiking harder.

Both are well placed, but Nice has the richer run of trips. The coastal railway reaches Monaco, Menton, Antibes and Cannes in under an hour, with Èze, Saint-Paul-de-Vence and even Sanremo in Italy close by, and none of them needs a car.

Freiburg's advantage is crossing borders. Basel is about 45 minutes by train, Colmar and the Alsace wine villages about an hour by car, and Strasbourg and Baden-Baden are within easy reach. That gives three countries' worth of variety, though the Alsace villages are easier to reach by car.

Freiburg is the easier city with children. It is small, safe and flat, the Bächle channels are made for toy boats, Mundenhof is free, the Schauinsland cable car is an adventure, and Europa-Park, Germany's largest theme park, is about 40 minutes away. Rainy days are its weak spot.

Nice manages well enough, with the Paillon park's water jets, Parc Phoenix and Monaco's aquarium. But pebbles are hard on small feet, there is no big theme park, and July heat and crowds wear families down.

Freiburg is easier, mainly because there is so little ground to cover. The sights are packed into a small old town where cars rarely get in the way, and on its level streets a bike is often quicker than any tram. When you do want to go further, trams run out to the suburbs and the Schauinsland cable car, and trains climb straight up the Höllental into the forest. Only the Alsace villages and a few side valleys really call for a car.

Nice spreads along its bay instead of gathering round one square. The old town, the port and the far end of the promenade are farther apart, so a day often means longer walks or a tram ride, and a bus is needed for the hill up to Cimiez. Cycling matters much less here than in Freiburg. The coastal railway gives Nice the busier rail network, but in high summer the trains are crowded and the coast roads are slow, so getting around takes more effort than in Freiburg.

Nice gives more to browse. There is a proper high street on Avenue Jean Médecin, luxury labels around rue Paradis, Provençal olive oil, soaps and fabrics in the old town, and the Monday antiques market on the Cours Saleya.

Freiburg is more modest: chains on Kaiser-Joseph-Strasse, independent shops in Gerberau and Konviktstrasse, and cuckoo clocks, schnapps and ham at the market. For anything serious, people from both cities head elsewhere, to Basel or Monaco.

Neither is cheap, but Freiburg is a little gentler on the wallet. Hotel rooms are tight and on the pricey side, yet meals in the taverns and the student quarter are fair and the sights cost little.

In Nice the summer is the problem: seafront rooms, beach loungers and promenade terraces all add up. Socca, market picnics and cheap coastal trains help, and spring or late autumn eases the bill.

The two are evenly matched, with a regional programme in each, but the highlights differ. Freiburg's standout is the Freiburger Barockorchester, a leading period-instrument ensemble, alongside the repertory Theater Freiburg and the summer Zelt-Musik-Festival in its tent village. Nice has the gilded Opéra de Nice, one of Europe's oldest jazz festivals every July, and the February Carnival with its flower battles.

Freiburg has the clear edge here. Southern Baden is spa country, with a thermal bath on the city's edge, the large warm outdoor pools of Bad Krozingen, Badenweiler beside its Roman bath ruins, and Baden-Baden an hour away by train.

Nice has no bathing culture of its own, only hotel spas and thalassotherapy centres along the coast. Its form of rest is a morning swim and a slow evening walk along the bay, which works best out of season.