Freiburg or Strasbourg?

Neither city has a beach, and in both swimming means a gravel-pit lake on the Rhine plain with grassy banks rather than sand. Freiburg has more choice. Besides the warm lakes west of town, Titisee and Schluchsee in the Black Forest make a much more scenic swim, though the water stays cool.

Strasbourg's lakes are handier but plainer. The Baggersee is on the tram line and the others are lifeguarded in high summer, but there is no mountain lake to go to, and the Rhine itself is off limits for swimming.

Both cities cook in the borderland style and serve it in wood-panelled taverns with local Pinot Gris, but Strasbourg's table is deeper. The winstub tradition brings choucroute, baeckeoffe and tarte flambée, foie gras is a speciality, there is a covered market for Munster cheese and charcuterie, and the city brews its own beer. Just avoid the tourist menus around the cathedral.

Freiburg's Baden cooking is lighter and pleasant: Schäufele, Black Forest trout, spring asparagus and a sausage from the Münster market stalls, with Kaiserstuhl wines to go with it. Away from the market and the taverns, though, the choice starts repeating sooner.

Strasbourg has much more to see. Its Grande Ile, Petite France and the German-built Neustadt form a UNESCO-listed whole. The Palais Rohan holds three museums, and the cathedral sculpture museum, the Alsatian Museum, a large modern art museum and the European institutions add to them. That fills two or three unhurried days.

Freiburg's highlights are the Münster, whose tower you can climb for views over the Black Forest, the medieval gates, the Bächle channels and the Augustinermuseum's medieval art. Its centre was largely rebuilt after the war, and a day or two covers it.

Two university towns with an evening to match: friendly, mostly bars, and rarely very late in either. The difference is in the setting. Freiburg's nights move outdoors in summer, onto the squares and the Dreisam banks, with wine bars and beer gardens around the Martinstor and a few techno and indie clubs. It goes noticeably quiet when the students are away.

Strasbourg's evenings centre on the Krutenau and Place Saint-Étienne, where you will find beer cellars and a few cocktail bars as well as student haunts. The summer crowd sits on terraces along the quays, but much of the city has gone to bed by midnight on weeknights.

Freiburg is in a different league here. You can walk up the Schlossberg straight from the old town, and a cable car climbs to the Schauinsland at about 1,280m. The Feldberg offers hiking in summer and skiing in winter, and between the Ravenna gorge and the Kaiserstuhl vineyards there is excellent walking and mountain biking.

Strasbourg's own green space is flat: the Orangerie, riverside forests with storks and beavers, and long level cycle routes along the Rhine. For hills you go to the Vosges or the Black Forest, each about an hour away and much easier with a car.

The two are about equally good as bases, and each makes a classic day out from the other. Freiburg's strength is the corner where three countries meet. Basel's art museums and Rhine-side old town are about 45 minutes away by train, and Staufen, Breisach's hilltop minster, the abbey of St. Peter and the Kaiserstuhl wine villages are all close by. Colmar and Alsace villages such as Riquewihr take about an hour by car.

Strasbourg sits closer to the heart of French Alsace. Colmar is half an hour away by train, and the wine route runs south through Obernai and Kaysersberg, with the castle of Haut-Koenigsbourg on the ridge above. It also reaches further in other directions: north to Heidelberg's castle ruin, west to Nancy's Place Stanislas, and south by train to the car and railway museums of Mulhouse.

Freiburg is the easier family base. Europa-Park is about 40 minutes away rather than an hour, and the free Mundenhof animal park, the cable car ride, the Steinwasen suspension bridge and the swimming lakes keep children busy outdoors. The weak spot is a wet day, when there is little indoors.

Strasbourg covers rainy days better, with the hands-on Le Vaisseau science centre and the moving figures of the astronomical clock. It also has boat trips through Petite France and rowing boats in the Orangerie, where the storks nest. Beyond that, most of its museums are made for adults.

There is little to choose between them. In both you can cross the car-free centre on foot in about twenty minutes, and trams and excellent cycle lanes take you further. The extras differ. In Freiburg, many hotels give guests a card for regional buses and trains, which climb the Höllental into the Black Forest. In Strasbourg, bike hire is easy and a tram runs across the Rhine to Kehl in Germany. In both, a car only earns its place for the Alsace wine villages.

Strasbourg is the better place to shop. The streets around Place Kléber and the Rue des Grandes Arcades have a department store and the main chains, and the lanes by the cathedral hold delicatessens and bookshops. Soufflenheim pottery, printed linens and kougelhopf moulds make distinctive things to take home, and December brings one of Europe's oldest Christmas markets.

Freiburg is more modest. It has chains on Kaiser-Joseph-Strasse, independent and organic shops in the Gerberau and Konviktstrasse, and cuckoo clocks and wood carvings everywhere. For serious retail, locals head to Basel.

Costs are much the same, and in both the hotel room is what hurts. When it bites differs. Freiburg's rooms are scarce on summer weekends and during trade fairs, and staying in a Black Forest village is the usual way round it. Strasbourg's are dearest during the Christmas market and the weeks when the European Parliament sits.

Day to day, both are kind. Freiburg has market sausages and student-quarter restaurants, Strasbourg has winstub plates and wine by the pichet, and the great cathedral in each city is free to visit. Just remember that a day trip from Freiburg into Switzerland costs noticeably more.

Strasbourg has the fuller calendar. The Opéra national du Rhin and the Philharmonic both play full seasons, the Théâtre National de Strasbourg is one of France's leading stages, and the autumn Musica festival makes the city a centre for contemporary music. It also has a respected jazz festival and regular dance.

Freiburg's stage is smaller but has its own speciality. The Freiburger Barockorchester is a leading period-instrument ensemble, the municipal theatre runs opera and drama in repertory, and in summer the Zelt-Musik-Festival fills a tent village with concerts.

Freiburg sits in the middle of spa country, which makes it the better choice. It has a thermal bath on the city's edge, the large warm outdoor pools of Bad Krozingen about twenty minutes south, and Badenweiler with its Roman bath ruins, all before you reach Baden-Baden.

Strasbourg's own bathing house is the tiled Bains municipaux, with its hammam and saunas, and for anything grander you cross the Rhine to Baden-Baden. Its slow canal walks and long winstub lunches are restful, except in December, when the market crowds take over the centre.