Hallstatt or Leipzig?

Neither is a place for a beach vacation, and they are about level for a summer swim. The water is quite different, though. Hallstatt has a deep, dark-green Alpine lake fed by mountain water, with a lawn and jetty in the village and a lido at Obertraun. It is good for a bracing swim after a hike, but the steep shores leave little space to lie out.

Leipzig's lakes are flooded lignite mines with sandy shores and beach bars. They are a little warmer, and you can reach them by tram or bike, so there is room to spend a whole hot afternoon by the water.

Leipzig gives you much more to eat your way through. Alongside Saxon roasts and dumplings, there is sour, salted Gose beer, a coffee-house history going back three centuries, and casual international cooking along the Karli and the Plagwitz canals.

In Hallstatt, the meal worth having is char or whitefish from the lake, eaten with a view over the water. Beyond that it is Austrian standards in guesthouse dining rooms, and kitchens close early once the day visitors leave.

Hallstatt's history goes back a very long way. People have mined salt here for millennia, an entire Iron Age culture is named after the village, and the Beinhaus with its painted skulls is like nowhere else. But the sights fit into a single rich day.

Leipzig has enough for two or three days. Bach is buried in the Thomaskirche, the Monday prayers of 1989 began in the Nikolaikirche, and there are the trade-fair arcades, the brooding Battle of the Nations monument and a strong set of museums, from fine art and musical instruments to the GDR story at the Runde Ecke.

This is one of the starkest contrasts between the two. After dark, Hallstatt offers a glass of wine by the water and a walk along the shore, and that is all.

Leipzig is a student city whose club culture grew up in warehouses and old factories, with electronic music, gentle door policies and weekend nights that end after sunrise. For bars, there is the Karli, alternative Connewitz and the canal-side mills of Plagwitz.

Hallstatt sits in proper Alpine country. A cable car from Obertraun climbs to the Five Fingers platform and the giant ice caves, paths follow the Echerntal towards the glacier, and the Dachstein is reflected in the Gosausee. Summer brings via ferratas and hut-to-hut hikes, and winter brings freeride and ski touring.

Leipzig's nature is flat and gentle: the oaks of the Auwald floodplain forest, canoe routes into the centre, and cycling and sailing around the old mine lakes. For real hills you have to take the train to Saxon Switzerland, about two hours away.

Leipzig is the easier base, because everything starts from one large station. Dresden and Weimar are a little over an hour away, Erfurt and Halle are closer, and Wittenberg, Naumburg, Dessau's Bauhaus and Berlin are all within reach without a car.

Hallstatt's outings have their own appeal: the lake towns of the Salzkammergut, the Habsburg Kaiservilla at Bad Ischl, St Wolfgang's altarpiece and Salzburg's old town. Without a car, though, the buses and lakeside railway take careful planning.

Leipzig is the more relaxed choice with children. The centre is flat, the trams take pushchairs easily, and the zoo's covered tropical hall works in any weather, with the lakes and a theme park nearby for summer days.

Hallstatt has some great moments, such as the miners' slides in the salt mine and the cable car to the ice caves for older children. But the single steep lane is crowded at midday and awkward with a pushchair, so families often stay in Obertraun and visit for a few hours.

Inside the village, Hallstatt takes only minutes to cross, but it is steep and stepped. Getting there and onwards is the hard part: the station is on the far shore, so you cross by boat, and the buses thin out outside summer, which is why many visitors bring a car.

Leipzig is simple. You can walk across the ring-road centre in a quarter of an hour, trams and an underground S-Bahn reach the outer districts and the lakes, and the flat streets suit a bike.

Hallstatt's one real purchase is salt from its own mine, sold along a lane of souvenir shops that you can see in half an hour. Leipzig gives you more to browse. There are the old trade-fair arcades for sheltered shopping on wet days, vintage and design shops on Karl-Heine-Strasse, and galleries in the vast Spinnerei cotton mill. Most of the old town, though, is mainstream chains.

Leipzig is the cheaper place to stay, mainly because its rooms cost less than in most big German cities, though rates climb sharply during the large trade fairs. Meals and drinks cost what they do anywhere in Germany.

Hallstatt has few beds and visitors from all over the world, so rooms and meals are priced like an Alpine resort, and the salt mine and cable car tickets add up. Staying in Obertraun or Bad Goisern and visiting by day costs much less.

For music, Leipzig is far ahead. It has the Gewandhaus Orchestra, one of the oldest anywhere, a full opera and ballet house across the same square, and Bach's own Thomanerchor singing on weekends during term. The Bachfest in June and the Wave-Gotik-Treffen at Whitsun add to the year.

In Hallstatt, music means the brass band on feast days and the odd church concert in summer. For an evening at the theatre, the nearest options are Bad Ischl's operetta or Salzburg.

Hallstatt is somewhat better for a restful stay, mainly because of where it is. The brine baths and thermal complex at Bad Ischl, and the spa traditions of Bad Aussee, are close by, and the misty mornings on the lake are very calm. The crowded midday lane is the price you pay.

Leipzig offers modern sauna complexes rather than spa heritage. Its calm comes from walks in the floodplain forest and quiet Sundays in a city that rarely feels crowded.