Heidelberg or Rotterdam?

Heidelberg is far inland. A swim there means one of the town's outdoor pools or a gravel-pit lake on the Rhine plain about half an hour away, and the sea is hours off.

Neither city is a beach destination, but Rotterdam at least has a real one. Hoek van Holland is a broad, sandy North Sea strand with dunes behind it and big ships passing offshore, and the metro goes all the way there. It is good for a windy walk and a paddle on a warm day.

Heidelberg serves the hearty cooking of Baden and the Kurpfalz, such as Maultaschen, Schäufele and white asparagus in spring. Its real strength is wine from the Bergstrasse and Palatinate vineyards close to town. The better meals are away from the Hauptstrasse, in the side streets, in Neuenheim and in the village wine taverns.

Rotterdam has more range and more surprises. Its port-city mix of Surinamese roti, Turkish bakeries and Cape Verdean and Indonesian kitchens, along with the Markthal and the Binnenrotte market, gives a visitor much more to explore than a small university town can. Its own Dutch cooking, though, does not go much beyond herring and bitterballen.

The two are equally rewarding for sightseeing, but in opposite ways. Heidelberg is the old-world picture: a red sandstone castle ruin, a baroque Altstadt along the Neckar and Germany's oldest university with its graffiti-covered Student Prison. You can see it all in a day or two.

Rotterdam lost its old centre in 1940 and offers modern architecture instead: the Erasmus Bridge, the Cube Houses, the Markthal and the mirrored Depot Boijmans. Its history survives in Delfshaven and the Old Harbour. The choice comes down to the Romantic past or bold postwar building.

Evenings in Heidelberg are built around its students. Small pubs crowd the Untere Strasse and old taverns have carved tables, and the town is lively in term time but goes quiet early otherwise.

Rotterdam goes further, mostly after midnight. Gabber was born here, and warehouse and harbour venues still hold techno and house nights that bring in people from across the Netherlands. Earlier in the evening, the Witte de Withstraat and the Oude Haven have the terraces and bars.

Heidelberg is clearly ahead. The Odenwald forest begins at the edge of town, with the Philosophers' Walk, the Königstuhl at 568m reached by funicular, and Celtic ramparts on the Heiligenberg. The Neckar cycle path and the sandstone crags of the Palatinate Forest are both within an hour.

Rotterdam's outdoors is flat and watery: the lake in the Kralingse Bos, bike rides along dykes into the polders, the tidal creeks of the Biesbosch for canoeing and birdwatching, and the dunes at Hoek van Holland. It is good for a day on a bike, but there is no proper walking country nearby.

Heidelberg is a very good base for smaller towns and great monuments. Speyer's cathedral, Schwetzingen's palace, Worms, Lorsch and Maulbronn are all easy outings, as are the castles up the Neckar and the Palatinate wine villages, and Frankfurt and Strasbourg add bigger cities.

Rotterdam has the edge because it sits at the centre of the Dutch rail network. Delft is a quarter of an hour away, and The Hague, Amsterdam, Utrecht and Leiden are each within about an hour. The windmills at Kinderdijk are a water-bus ride away, and Antwerp and even Bruges are within reach, so you can fill a week without changing hotels.

Both cities are safe and easy with children, and the difference lies in the outings. Heidelberg's are rides and machines: the funicular, the fairy-tale park on the Königstuhl, boat trips past castles and the space shuttle at the Technik Museum Speyer. Its cobbles and slopes are hard work with a pushchair.

Rotterdam is flat and easy with a pushchair. It has Diergaarde Blijdorp with its ocean section, the hands-on harbour at the Maritime Museum, water taxis, and Madurodam a short train ride away. Outside summer, the weather is the main drawback.

Heidelberg is a walking town. The sights line one long pedestrian street, a funicular climbs to the castle, and a single fare system covers the trams and the S-Bahn. The station is well west of the old town, though, and the walk up to the castle is steep.

Rotterdam is slightly easier overall. Centraal is a short walk from the shops, and one tap-in system covers metro, trams and buses all the way to the beach, with water buses crossing the Maas. The centre is spread out and windy, so you will ride more and walk less, and a bike is the best way to get about.

Heidelberg's Hauptstrasse is long but predictable, with chains at one end and cuckoo clocks, beer steins and Studentenkuss chocolates at the other. A few bookshops and boutiques sit in the side lanes, and Bergstrasse wine is the best thing to take home.

Rotterdam gives a shopper more to do. The Lijnbaan and the Bijenkorf have the big names close together, while the Meent, the Nieuwe Binnenweg and the Witte de Withstraat add vintage, records and independent design. The large market on the Binnenrotte runs twice a week.

Both cost roughly what western Europe usually costs, but the money goes in different places. In Heidelberg the hotel is the strain, because rooms are scarce and congresses and summer weekends push prices up. Student cafés, bakeries and taverns keep meals reasonable.

Rotterdam is the other way round. Rooms are plentiful, and many are in business districts that empty at weekends, but restaurant meals, beer and coffee cost the high Dutch going rate. Market stalls and Surinamese snack shops are the way to keep lunch cheap.

Heidelberg does well for its size. Its municipal theatre stages opera and drama, the Heidelberger Frühling brings chamber music in spring, and in summer there are performances in the castle courtyard.

Rotterdam has the bigger music scene. The Rotterdam Philharmonic plays a full season at De Doelen, the conservatory keeps the small jazz and pop venues supplied, and the North Sea Jazz Festival each July is one of the world's major jazz events. It has no resident opera, however, and much of its theatre is in Dutch.

Neither city has thermal baths of its own, so proper bathing means a short trip out. From Heidelberg that means the saline pools of the Kraichgau spa towns or Baden-Baden an hour south. Around Rotterdam it means the large Dutch sauna complexes, which are usually textile-free in the sauna areas.

Day to day, Heidelberg is the easier place to slow down, with evenings on the Neckar meadows in Neuenheim and quiet forest paths above the Philosophers' Walk. Rotterdam keeps a brisk port pace, and calm there means the Kralingse Bos or a terrace by the water.