Geneva or Heidelberg?

Geneva has the better swimming by a distance, even without a sea. Its clean lake is the city's summer pool, with people diving off the jetty at the Bains des Pâquis and lounging on the lawns at Genève-Plage, though it feels more like a lido than a beach.

Heidelberg has nowhere to swim in town, as the Neckar is for boats. On hot days it means outdoor pools or a gravel-pit lake on the Rhine plain about half an hour away.

Geneva eats better and more widely. Lake perch, fondue in wood-panelled brasseries, a serious fine-dining scene in Carouge and the Old Town and a broad international spread all outclass what a small German town can offer. Every meal is expensive, though, and casual cheap food is hard to find.

Heidelberg's cooking is hearty Baden fare, Maultaschen, Schäufele and spring white asparagus, with Bergstrasse Riesling as its strongest point. The tourist strip below the castle is uneven, so the better meals are in Neuenheim and the village wine taverns, and student kebab and pizza shops keep things cheap.

The two are evenly matched, but the stories they tell are quite different. Geneva's sights are about ideas and world affairs: Calvin's St Pierre Cathedral with its excavations, the Reformation Wall, the Palais des Nations, the Red Cross Museum and CERN.

Heidelberg is more a single picture than a list of institutions. The red sandstone castle ruin, the baroque Altstadt and Old Bridge, and the university with its graffiti-covered Student Prison make a compact, romantic set that fits into a day or two.

Neither is a place for big nights out, but the crowd differs. Geneva's evenings are adult and expensive, with late bars in the slightly rough Pâquis, wine terraces in Carouge and club nights in the squat-born centres of Plainpalais and Jonction.

Heidelberg runs on students, so the Untere Strasse pubs and old fraternity taverns are packed in term time and quiet outside it. For proper clubbing, people take the train to Mannheim or Frankfurt.

Geneva is the far stronger base for the outdoors. Mountains ring the basin, the Salève has cliffs, paragliding and a cable car just over the border, the Jura has forest hikes and cross-country skiing, and Chamonix and the ski resorts are a day away. The lake adds sailing and rowing.

Heidelberg's countryside is gentler and greener. Woodland starts at the edge of town on the Königstuhl and Heiligenberg, the Neckar cycle path passes castles, and the Palatinate Forest's sandstone crags are about an hour away, but there are no mountains to speak of.

Both are excellent bases, and the choice comes down to scenery or heritage. From Geneva, lake steamers and trains reach Lausanne, the Lavaux vineyard terraces and the Château de Chillon, while Annecy and Yvoire add France, and Gruyères and Bern fill longer days.

Heidelberg's outings lean towards history: the Romanesque cathedral at Speyer, Jewish Worms, Lorsch and Maulbronn, plus Schwetzingen's palace and the half-timbered Palatinate wine villages, with Strasbourg possible on a long day.

Heidelberg has a slight edge with children because more is built for them nearby: a zoo by the Neckar, a funicular to a small fairy-tale park, the Technik Museum Speyer with its space shuttle and a theme park within the hour. Its cobbles and slopes are hard work with a pushchair.

Geneva is the flatter, easier city to push a buggy through, with the Natural History Museum's dioramas, lakeside playgrounds and harbour boat rides. With no zoo or theme park, though, families tend to run out of ideas sooner.

Geneva is the smoother city to move around. The airport is a few minutes by train, the centre is walkable from the station to Carouge, and trams, buses and the yellow harbour boats share one punctual network.

Heidelberg's Altstadt is a pleasant walk along the pedestrianised Hauptstrasse, but the station sits well west of it, so you need a tram on arrival, and the cobbles and the steep castle approach take effort. Its regional fare system is a real strength for day trips without a car.

Geneva is in a different league for shopping, at least at the top end. The Rue du Rhône is lined with flagship watch and jewellery houses, and Carouge's craft workshops and the Plainpalais flea market add character, though the everyday high street is ordinary.

Heidelberg's long Hauptstrasse runs from chain stores to cuckoo clocks and beer steins, with a few independent bookshops in the side lanes. A bottle of Bergstrasse wine or a box of Studentenkuss chocolates is the best thing to take home.

Heidelberg is far easier on the wallet. Rooms are the main expense and get tight during congresses and graduations, but meals in student cafés and taverns stay reasonable and entry fees are modest.

Geneva is among the world's most expensive cities, with costly rooms and even a simple meal or a glass of wine priced well above most of Europe. Free museums, free transport for hotel guests and cheap lidos help, and many visitors sleep or eat across the French border.

Geneva has the bigger stage. The Grand Théâtre runs a full opera and ballet season, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande plays in the acoustically prized Victoria Hall, and the Bâtiment des Forces Motrices in the middle of the Rhône hosts concerts and dance.

Heidelberg does well for its size, with opera and drama at the municipal theatre and the Heidelberger Frühling chamber music festival. Its most distinctive offer is the summer castle festival in the ruined courtyard, and Mannheim's larger house is close by.

Geneva offers more for unwinding inside the city itself. The Bains des Pâquis turns into a winter sauna and hammam with cold lake plunges, the lakefront hotels have serious spas, and Évian and Divonne are close.

Heidelberg's warm baths are out of town, in the Kraichgau spa complexes or at Baden-Baden an hour south. In town, relaxing means evenings on the Neuenheim meadows and quiet forest paths, as long as you avoid the midday crowds on the Hauptstrasse.