Hamburg or Munich?

Neither city is a beach destination, and swimming takes a short trip out in both cases. The difference is in what you swim in. From Hamburg it is the Baltic sea at Travemünde or Timmendorfer Strand, about an hour away, with sandy beaches and wicker beach chairs. Its own Elbe sands are for watching ships, not for swimming.

Munich offers freshwater instead: the Starnberger See and the Ammersee by S-Bahn, with lawns, jetties and clear, cool alpine water. The gravel banks of the Isar inside the city are where locals sunbathe.

Munich has the slight edge, mostly because eating there is an event in itself: beer halls, chestnut-shaded beer gardens where you can bring your own picnic, roast pork with crackling and the Viktualienmarkt beside Marienplatz. Its range beyond Bavarian cooking is narrower, though.

Hamburg eats like a harbour. Fish rolls on the Landungsbrücken piers, Labskaus, eel soup and Franzbrötchen for breakfast are the classics, with a long coffee-roasting tradition and a wider spread of Portuguese and Turkish places near the port.

Munich offers far more for museum-goers. The Alte Pinakothek and the rest of the Kunstareal, the Wittelsbach state rooms of the Residenz, Nymphenburg Palace and the vast Deutsches Museum could fill a week on their own.

Hamburg's strength lies elsewhere: the UNESCO-listed Speicherstadt and Chilehaus, the harbour itself and the Elbphilharmonie plaza. The Kunsthalle is excellent, but Hamburg is a city to explore through its districts and waterside walks, with fewer great collections.

Hamburg is much the better city for going out. The Reeperbahn's neon, music clubs and cabaret, bars with no fixed closing time, and nights that end at the harbour at dawn give it a rough, late-running energy. The Schanzenviertel, Ottensen and the Alster each offer a different crowd.

Munich's nights are tidier and earlier. They often start and finish in a beer hall, with cocktail and gay bars around Gärtnerplatz and a few serious techno clubs. The big exception is the Oktoberfest, when the whole city parties for just over two weeks.

Munich is the clear winner, because the Alps are within reach. Zugspitze, the Wetterstein, Tegernsee and the Isar valley offer real hiking in summer and skiing in winter, and the English Garden and its Eisbach surfers bring some of that outdoor life into the centre.

Hamburg's outdoors is flat and watery: paddling on the Alster lakes and canals, the riverside path to the wooded bank at Blankenese, and cycling through the blossoming orchards of the Altes Land. Lüneburg Heath and the Wadden Sea are further afield.

Both cities make good bases, but Munich has the longer and grander list. Salzburg and Innsbruck lie across the border, Nuremberg and Regensburg are easy by train, and Neuschwanstein and Herrenchiemsee are classic royal excursions.

Hamburg's day trips have a single, coherent theme: the brick Gothic Hanseatic towns of the north. Lübeck is under an hour away, and Lüneburg, Bremen, Schwerin and Wismar follow, with the Baltic resorts as a summer extra.

Both are easy, safe cities with children, and the difference lies in the attractions. Hamburg's big draws are Miniatur Wunderland, Hagenbeck's moated enclosures and a harbour day of ferries, museum ships and the old Elbe tunnel.

Munich offers hands-on science at the Deutsches Museum, Hellabrunn zoo along the Isar, beer gardens with playgrounds and summer lake days, with Legoland further out. Hamburg's rain means more indoor planning.

Both work well without a car, and Munich is slightly easier. Its compact, largely pedestrianised old town and its integrated trams, U-Bahn and S-Bahn reach everything from Nymphenburg to the lakes.

Hamburg spreads further along the water, but walking links the centre, Speicherstadt and HafenCity, and its harbour ferries run on the same ticket as the trains. They give you a view of the port almost free.

Munich has a slight lead, partly because it has something to buy that Hamburg lacks: Tracht, the dirndls and lederhosen made by specialist tailors. Add Maximilianstrasse's luxury houses, Dallmayr's delicatessen and December's Christmas market stalls.

Hamburg matches it on luxury along Neuer Wall and in its covered arcades, which are useful on wet days. Its independent vintage and streetwear shops in the Karolinenviertel, and its coffee and tea from the old trading houses, give it a looser, port-city feel.

Neither city is cheap, but Hamburg is a little easier on the wallet than Munich, which is Germany's most expensive city. In both, hotels hurt most during trade fairs, and in Munich especially during the Oktoberfest.

The savings come in different forms. In Hamburg they are the day ticket that covers the ferries, fish rolls and the free Elbphilharmonie plaza. In Munich they are picnics in the beer gardens, free lakes and parks, and museums that charge only a token fee on Sundays.

Both are first-rate for music and stage, with different strengths. Munich leans towards opera: the Bavarian State Opera, three major orchestras, the rococo Cuvilliés Theatre and a long-established summer opera festival.

Hamburg has the Elbphilharmonie's famous acoustics and the Hamburg Ballet, and it is Germany's capital of big musicals. It also has a rock and indie club circuit in St Pauli that dates back to the Beatles, which Munich cannot match.

Munich is clearly better for unwinding. The Art Nouveau Müller'sches Volksbad has a Roman-style steam bath, Erding's enormous thermal complex is about forty minutes away, and the spa towns of Bad Tölz and Bad Reichenhall lie towards the mountains. Slow beer-garden afternoons and quiet Sundays help as well.

Hamburg has the sauna habit but no thermal water. The Holthusenbad and its big sauna landscapes, a boat around the Alster and the Japanese garden in Planten un Blomen are its calm spots.