Heidelberg or Salzburg?

Neither city is a place for a beach vacation, but Salzburg gives swimmers more. In summer, Fuschlsee, Wolfgangsee and Mondsee are less than an hour away, with clear green water and jetties and lawns to swim from.

Heidelberg has only its outdoor pools and the gravel-pit lakes on the Rhine plain, and the sea is hours away.

The two are much alike: hearty regional cooking, tourist menus in the old centre, and better meals further out. They differ in what you drink. Heidelberg's strength is wine, with Riesling and Pinot from the Bergstrasse and Palatinate villages, white asparagus in spring, and a cheap student food scene.

Salzburg is a place for coffee and beer: coffee houses serving cake, the monastery brewery in Mülln with its chestnut-shaded garden, and Salzburger Nockerl for dessert. It also has a few serious fine-dining kitchens in the hills.

Salzburg has the richer set of sights. The prince-archbishops' Baroque cathedral, the Residenz and the arcaded squares sit below one of Europe's largest intact medieval fortresses, and St Peter's catacombs, Mirabell and Hellbrunn fill a second and third day.

Heidelberg's appeal is more romantic and on a smaller scale: a red sandstone castle ruin, the Old Bridge, and the traces of Germany's oldest university, including the graffiti-covered Student Prison. Most visitors see it in a day or two.

Heidelberg has more going on after dark, thanks to its students. On the Untere Strasse, the small pubs fill up late in term time, there are old student taverns with carved tables, and a few clubs out towards the station.

Salzburg's evenings usually mean a concert, dinner and a litre mug in a beer hall, and the old town is quiet by midnight. In both cities, a real club night means taking the train, to Frankfurt or to Munich.

Salzburg is in another league here. The Untersberg cable car climbs to about 1,800m for limestone ridge walks, paragliders take off from the Gaisberg, the Salzkammergut lakes offer sailing and paddling, and the Königssee lies about half an hour away.

Heidelberg's countryside is gentle and wooded: the Philosophers' Walk, forest trails on the Königstuhl, Celtic ramparts on the Heiligenberg, and the Neckar cycle path. It suits relaxed walking and cycling rather than mountain days.

Both are excellent bases, with different kinds of outing. From Heidelberg the day trips are mostly about history: the cathedrals of Speyer and Worms, Lorsch and Maulbronn, the Schwetzingen palace, and the castles of the Neckar, all easy by train.

From Salzburg the trips go to lakes and salt mines: Hallstatt, St Wolfgang, the mines at Hallein and Berchtesgaden, and the fortress at Werfen. Munich is also within reach. Some lake villages are much easier to reach with a car.

Both are small, safe towns with cobbles that are hard work with a pushchair. Heidelberg's best outings are the funicular to the fairy-tale park on the Königstuhl and the aircraft and submarine at the Technik Museum Speyer, and there is a theme park within an hour.

Salzburg has the trick fountains at Hellbrunn, the hands-on Haus der Natur, the marionette theatre, and the wooden miners' slides in the nearby salt mines, but no theme park.

In both cities the sights are within walking distance, and both are flat enough by the river for cycling. Heidelberg's Altstadt is a long strip along the Hauptstrasse, a tram ride from the station. Trams and the S-Bahn share one fare system across the Rhine-Neckar area, so day trips work without a car.

Salzburg has no trams, but a dense trolleybus network covers the city. For the lakes, regional buses are slow, and that is where a hire car starts to make sense.

Salzburg has more worth bringing home. Its speciality is Tracht, with dirndls and loden jackets made to measure around Getreidegasse, along with a farmers' market and one of the region's best-known Advent markets.

Heidelberg's long Hauptstrasse mixes chain stores with souvenirs, beer steins and Studentenkuss chocolates. The best buy is Bergstrasse wine, and Mannheim and Frankfurt are close for serious fashion.

Neither is a cheap place to stay, but Heidelberg is the lighter of the two on the wallet, and the gap is widest for a room. In both towns a bed near the old centre is the main cost. In Heidelberg, rooms get expensive mainly around big events and on busy summer weekends. In Salzburg, old-town hotels are expensive all year round, and the summer festival and the Advent season push them higher and make them hard to find.

Eating out follows the same pattern. A meal in Heidelberg costs about what you would expect in western Germany, while central Salzburg charges well above the Austrian norm, so the beer halls and inns further out are where you save. For sightseeing the difference is smaller: entry to Heidelberg's castle and museums is modest anyway, and in Salzburg a city card bundles the fortress, most museums and the buses.

Music is the main reason many people go to Salzburg. The summer festival fills the Grosses Festspielhaus and the Felsenreitschule, which is carved into the cliff, Jedermann is staged in front of the cathedral, and Mozart Week and the Easter Festival add further seasons. Chamber concerts run almost every evening.

Heidelberg has a solid programme for a small town: opera and drama at the municipal theatre, the Heidelberger Frühling in spring, and open-air shows in the castle courtyard in summer. There are also bigger stages in Mannheim, twenty minutes away.

Neither city has its own thermal springs, but Salzburg makes it easier to unwind. The Paracelsus Bad in the city park has saunas and a pool, Bad Reichenhall's brine spa is twenty minutes away, and the coffee houses and Mönchsberg paths suit slow afternoons.

From Heidelberg, the nearest thermal baths are in the Kraichgau spa towns, and Baden-Baden is an hour away. Closer to town, the calm comes from the Neuenheim riverside meadows and the wine taverns.