Heidelberg or Munich?

Neither city is a place for a beach vacation, but Munich does summer swimming much better. People sunbathe on the gravel banks of the Isar at the Flaucher, and the clear Starnberger See and Ammersee, with their jetties and lawns, are under an hour away by S-Bahn.

Heidelberg has only outdoor pools and the gravel-pit lakes on the Rhine plain, about half an hour away. They are fine for a hot afternoon, but nobody would plan a day around them.

Heidelberg's food is the cooking of Baden and the Kurpfalz, with Schäufele, Maultaschen, Flammkuchen and white asparagus in spring. Its real strength is wine from the Bergstrasse and the Palatinate. The catch is the Hauptstrasse, where the places aimed at day-trippers are hit and miss, so the better meals are in the side streets, in Neuenheim or in the village wine taverns.

Munich offers more and better food. Its beer halls and chestnut-shaded beer gardens are an experience in their own right, the Viktualienmarkt is good for grazing, coffee and cake is taken seriously and there is a respectable tier of fine dining. In short, one city is for wine lovers and the other for beer and a bigger choice of tables.

Heidelberg's appeal is one compact, very photogenic picture: the red sandstone castle ruin, an Altstadt that escaped wartime bombing, and the oldest university in Germany with its graffiti-covered Student Prison. It is lovely, but most visitors have seen it in a day or two.

Munich is a different order of city for sights. The Kunstareal alone holds the Alte Pinakothek, the Pinakothek der Moderne, the Glyptothek and the Blue Rider painters of the Lenbachhaus. Add the Residenz, Nymphenburg and the Deutsches Museum and you have days of museum-going, though its old town was largely rebuilt after the war.

Going out in Heidelberg depends on the university term. The Untere Strasse fills with students in small pubs and old fraternity taverns, but on weeknights and out of term the town goes quiet early, and anyone after a proper club night takes the train to Mannheim or Frankfurt.

Munich gives a fuller night out without leaving town. Evenings often start in a beer hall, and the Glockenbachviertel and Gärtnerplatz have cocktail and gay bars, with a few techno clubs going until morning at weekends. It stays more polished than wild, except during the Oktoberfest on the Theresienwiese.

Munich has the Alps. Garmisch, the Zugspitze, Tegernsee and the Five Lakes are about an hour away by train, which means proper alpine hiking in summer and skiing in winter. In the city, the English Garden, with surfers on the Eisbach, and the Isar cycle paths are big green spaces.

Heidelberg's countryside is gentler but closer. The Odenwald woods begin right at the edge of the old town, with the Philosophers' Walk, the Königstuhl and the Celtic ramparts on the Heiligenberg, and cycling along the Neckar valley. It is walking country rather than mountains.

Both are excellent bases, but Munich's list has the bigger names. Salzburg and Innsbruck are across the border, the old towns of Nuremberg, Regensburg and Augsburg are easy by train, and Neuschwanstein and Herrenchiemsee draw visitors from all over the world.

Heidelberg's outings are shorter and quieter. The cathedrals of Speyer and Worms, the palace gardens at Schwetzingen, Maulbronn monastery and the castle villages up the Neckar are all close, and the wine villages of the Palatinate make a mellow day out.

Munich is the easier city with children. Transport takes pushchairs, there are playgrounds in every park and often in the beer gardens too, and there is plenty to see: the large Hellabrunn zoo along the Isar, the hands-on sections of the Deutsches Museum, the transport museum and the lake beaches in summer.

Heidelberg is small and safe. The funicular to the Königstuhl, with its fairy-tale park, the compact zoo and the Technik Museum Speyer, where children can climb into a submarine, make good outings. However, the cobbled, sloping Altstadt is hard work with a pushchair, and the town runs out of things for children sooner.

In Heidelberg you mostly walk. The sights line the pedestrianised Hauptstrasse between the river and the castle hill, although the station is a tram ride away, the cobbles are uneven and the castle approach is steep unless you take the funicular. One fare system across the Rhine-Neckar area makes regional trips simple.

Munich is easier to get around, even though it is far bigger. The flat old town is compact, and the integrated U-Bahn, S-Bahn and tram network reaches Nymphenburg, the Olympic Park, the airport and the lakes. Delays on the central S-Bahn line are the main drawback.

Heidelberg's shopping comes down to one long street, while Munich has several distinct shopping districts. The Hauptstrasse runs from chain stores at its western end to cuckoo clocks, beer steins and Studentenkuss chocolates near the market square. The best thing to take home is a bottle of Bergstrasse wine, and serious shoppers take the train to Mannheim or Frankfurt.

In Munich the luxury houses line Maximilianstrasse and the Theatinerstrasse arcades, department stores fill the Kaufingerstrasse axis, and Glockenbach and Schwabing have independent boutiques. The signature buy is Tracht from specialist tailors, and in December the Christmas markets add craft stalls.

Heidelberg is the cheaper stay, but only up to a point. Hotel rooms are few for the number of visitors and fill up for congresses, graduations and summer weekends, so many people stay in Mannheim and come in by train. Student cafés and simple taverns keep meals reasonable.

Munich is the most expensive city in Germany, with dear rooms all year and very dear ones during the Oktoberfest and the trade fairs. A picnic in a beer garden, the free parks and lakes and the token Sunday museum fees help, but the overall bill is higher.

Munich is one of Europe's great music cities. The Bavarian State Opera in the National Theatre is a world-class company, the city has three major orchestras, and there is chamber opera in the gilded rococo Cuvilliés Theatre and operetta at the Gärtnerplatztheater. A visitor can find something worth booking on almost any night of the season.

Heidelberg does well for its size. There is opera and drama at the municipal theatre, the Heidelberger Frühling chamber music festival in spring and summer performances in the castle courtyard, where the ruins make the backdrop. For a bigger house, Mannheim is twenty minutes away.

With no thermal baths of its own, Heidelberg sends spa-goers out of town, either to the saline pools of the Kraichgau about half an hour away or to Baden-Baden about an hour south. What the town offers instead is calm: evenings on the Neckar meadows in Neuenheim and quiet forest paths above the Philosophers' Walk.

Bathing in Munich starts in the centre. The Art Nouveau Müller'sches Volksbad on the Isar has vaulted pools and a Roman-style steam bath, the public saunas keep up the German infusion rituals, and the vast thermal complex at Erding is about forty minutes away. Long afternoons in a beer garden or on the lawns of the English Garden slow the pace as well.