Geneva or Rothenburg ob der Tauber?

Neither has a coast, but Geneva has a real summer swimming life on its lake. People dive off the Bains des Pâquis jetty with the Jet d'Eau in view, and Genève-Plage and the Eaux-Vives shore have lawns and pools. It is more lido than beach, and the water is cold until June.

Rothenburg offers only its outdoor pool or a drive of about an hour to the artificial lakes of the Franconian lake district. If a swim matters to you at all, Geneva is the only one of the two that delivers it.

Geneva eats better and more widely: lake perch, fondue in panelled brasseries, the canton's own Chasselas, and the range of international cooking and fine dining you would expect in a diplomatic city. The catch is cost, and there is little cheap, casual food.

Rothenburg's cooking is narrower and heavier, mostly Franconian roast pork, Schäufele and bratwurst with Silvaner or regional beer. Many places around the Marktplatz cater to coach parties, so the better meals are in family-run guesthouses and wine taverns off the square.

Both reward a visit, but in different ways. In Geneva the sights are spread across the city, and the story is bigger than the town: Calvin's St Pierre Cathedral with the excavations beneath it, the Reformation Wall in the Parc des Bastions, and across the river the Palais des Nations, the Red Cross museum and CERN. You come away understanding the city's role in the world, and seeing it properly takes two or three days.

In Rothenburg the whole town is the sight: walls you can walk along, the Plönlein between its gate towers, and Riemenschneider's carved Holy Blood Altar in St Jakob's, all inside one small medieval ring. You take it in as a single piece rather than one place at a time, so a day or two is enough.

Geneva is no party city, but it does have nights out: late bars in the slightly rough Pâquis, wine terraces in Carouge, and club nights in the alternative centres around Plainpalais and Jonction. Rothenburg has nothing of the sort. Its evenings are inn dinners and the night watchman's tour, the lanes are silent by eleven, and a real night out means going to Würzburg or Nuremberg.

Geneva has some of the best access to the outdoors of any European city. The Salève's cliffs and paragliding are just over the border, the Jura offers forest hikes and cross-country skiing, the lake is good for sailing and paddleboarding, and the high Alps around Chamonix are about an hour away.

Rothenburg's countryside is soft and pastoral. Paths drop from the walls into the Tauber valley past mills and the Topplerschlösschen, and the valley cycle path is a gentle family ride, lovely in blossom or autumn colour. There are no mountains or large lakes to aim for.

Both are good bases, but Geneva's outings are more varied and easier to make. Lake steamers and trains reach Lausanne, Montreux's Château de Chillon and the Lavaux terraces, and Annecy and Yvoire in France are close too, all without a car.

Rothenburg's strength is a chain of similar towns: walled Dinkelsbühl, crater-ringed Nördlingen, Würzburg's Residenz and Nuremberg's castle. They are excellent if you love the medieval, but the themes repeat and the sparse rail links mean you will want a car.

Geneva gives children more to do. The Natural History Museum's dioramas can fill hours, there are small animal enclosures at the Bois de la Bâtie, lakeside playgrounds, rides on the yellow harbour boats, and mountain days when the city runs out. Flat streets and pushchair-friendly trams help.

Rothenburg captivates children for a day or so, with the ramparts, the Rathaus tower and the lantern-carrying night watchman. After that there is little made for them, and the cobbles and steep valley paths are hard work with a pushchair or small legs.

Inside the centre both are walkable, Geneva across its bridges and Rothenburg in a fifteen-minute crossing of the walls. The real difference is beyond. Geneva's trams, buses and harbour boats run on one punctual network, the airport is minutes by train, and rail reaches the rest of Switzerland easily.

Rothenburg sits at the end of a branch line that usually means a change at Steinach, and regional buses are thin, especially at weekends. Without a car you will be mostly confined to the town.

Geneva is a world centre for watches and jewellery, with the flagship boutiques of the Swiss watch houses along the Rue du Rhône, as well as Old Town chocolatiers, Carouge's craft workshops and the Plainpalais flea market. Rothenburg's shops focus on Christmas ornaments, nutcrackers, cuckoo clocks and Schneeballen, all aimed at visitors. They are charming if that is what you are after, but there is almost nothing in fashion or everyday shopping.

This is Rothenburg's clearest advantage. It has small-town German prices with a tourist premium, reasonably priced beer and wine in the inns, and real savings if you sleep just outside the walls or in a nearby village.

Geneva is among the most expensive cities anywhere for a visitor, from hotel rooms to a single glass of wine. Free museums, free local transport for hotel guests and cheap lidos help a little. Many budget travellers stay or eat across the border in France.

Geneva has a proper formal stage: opera and ballet at the Grand Théâtre, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in the gilded Victoria Hall, French-language theatre at the Comédie, and concerts in the old pumping station in the Rhône.

Rothenburg's performances are tied to its history. There is the costumed Meistertrunk play, a small open-air summer theatre and organ concerts in St Jakob's. On most evenings there is no show to see at all.

Geneva has the more established bathing culture. In winter the Bains des Pâquis become a sauna and hammam where regulars plunge into the cold lake, the lakefront hotels have serious spas, and Évian and Divonne are close by.

Rothenburg's calm comes from its emptiness at dawn and after the coaches leave, when a walk on the walls feels deeply quiet. For thermal bathing you need to drive about an hour to Bad Windsheim's salt-water pool or to Bad Mergentheim.