Karlovy Vary or Lubeck?

Neither is a beach destination, but only Lübeck has a sea. Karlovy Vary is deep inland, so swimming in summer means Lake Medard, a flooded mine near Sokolov, or the warm spring-fed pools.

Lübeck has Travemünde, with a long sandy beach lined with wicker beach chairs, and more resorts follow along the bay within half an hour. The Baltic is calm and shallow but cool, so plan on a few summer beach afternoons rather than a swimming vacation.

Lübeck eats a little more interestingly. Marzipan, North German fish from pickled herring to sandwiches at harbour kiosks, and Rotspon aged in the city's cellars give it a clear coastal character, and a meal at the sea captains' guild house comes with five centuries of history.

Karlovy Vary sticks to hearty Czech cooking such as roast pork, dumplings and svíčková, along with warm spa wafers and Becherovka distilled in town. Its strength is coffee and cake in the cafés along the Teplá. Beyond those, it is mostly hotel menus and traditional pubs.

Both are on the UNESCO list and both towns are sights in themselves, but Lübeck has more to see. Its island old town of brick Gothic churches, stepped gables and hidden courtyards comes with genuinely good museums: the Hansemuseum, plus houses devoted to Thomas Mann, Günter Grass and Willy Brandt.

Karlovy Vary is about Belle Époque spa architecture: pastel hotels stacked up the valley sides, the colonnades and the Vřídlo geyser. It makes a beautiful set piece, but its museums are small and specialised, covering glass, Becherovka and local history, and you finish sooner.

Neither is a place for a big night out, though Lübeck stays up a little later. It has pubs and wine bars in the old town, student bars along the Obertrave and a livelier promenade at Travemünde in summer, and clubbers simply take the train to Hamburg.

Karlovy Vary is largely asleep by eleven, except during the film festival week in early summer. For the rest of the year, an evening out means a hotel bar, a Czech pub or a casino.

Karlovy Vary has the better outdoors. Beech and spruce forest rises straight out of the spa quarter, with graded paths up to lookouts such as the Diana tower. The upland moors of the Slavkov Forest are close by, and the Ore Mountains, about forty minutes away, offer hiking in summer and skiing around Klínovec in winter.

Lübeck's countryside is flatter and more watery: canoeing through the reeds on the Wakenitz, the clay cliff walk above the sea at Brodten and the lakes of Holstein Switzerland. It is excellent for easy cycling and summer sailing, but there are no hills to climb or ski.

There are about as many good outings from each; what differs is their scale. From Karlovy Vary the trips are small and close: Loket's castle in its river loop, the sister spa towns of Mariánské Lázně and Františkovy Lázně, the St Maurus reliquary at Bečov and the old mining town of Jáchymov. Prague is a long day away by coach.

Lübeck has a major city on its doorstep in Hamburg, about 45 minutes by train. Within reach there are also a second Hanseatic town in Wismar, Schwerin's island castle and the lake town of Ratzeburg.

Lübeck is much the easier choice with children, at least in summer. The old town is small and flat, and the coast does the rest: a shallow, tideless beach at Travemünde, promenades and playgrounds, an aquarium and Hansa-Park.

Karlovy Vary can keep children amused for a day or two with the geyser, the spouted spring cups, the funicular and the animal enclosure at the Diana lookout. But it is built for adults taking cures, and the steep valley is hard work with a pushchair.

Both are easy to see on foot, and Lübeck is a touch simpler. Its old town is a compact, flat island with the main station just across the river and regional trains to the beach and to Hamburg.

Karlovy Vary's spa quarter is a long, narrow strip along the river. It is easy walking along the valley floor but steep up the sides, so buses and the funicular help with hillside hotels, and the regional rail lines out of town are slow.

Shopping is modest and much the same in both, but what you buy differs. Karlovy Vary caters to well-off spa guests with jewellers and boutiques, and its real specialities are made locally: Moser crystal, porcelain and Bohemian garnets.

Lübeck has a main street of German chains and a department store, with small independent shops and galleries tucked into the side passages, and marzipan is the souvenir everyone takes home. For fashion in any depth, people go to Hamburg.

Karlovy Vary is the cheaper of the two, mainly because one street back from the colonnades the pubs and canteens charge Czech local prices. The grand spa hotels and the restaurants on the promenades are what cost more, as does the festival week.

Lübeck is mid-range for Western Europe, with plenty of reasonably priced hotels and inexpensive taverns and fish kiosks. Its costs peak at the seaside in July and August, when rooms in Travemünde get dearer and book up early.

Lübeck has more on stage. Theater Lübeck stages opera, drama and concerts through the season, and the Philharmonic plays by the river. The music academy adds student recitals, the Marienkirche continues the organ tradition of Buxtehude, and in summer the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival comes to the city.

Karlovy Vary's symphony orchestra, which grew out of the old spa bands, plays mostly light classical programmes, some of them outdoors on the colonnades. The Fellner and Helmer theatre hosts touring productions. These make pleasant evenings, but they are not a reason to come.

This is Karlovy Vary's reason to exist, and where the two cities are furthest apart. Visitors sip the spring water from spouted porcelain cups on slow walks between the colonnades. Dozens of spa hotels and sanatoria offer medical stays with baths, peat wraps and doctors' consultations, and booking one of those stays is the way to get the full experience.

Lübeck offers calm rather than a cure: quiet courtyards and cafés in the old town, plus wellness hotels, saunas and a seawater pool complex along the bay. These carry on Travemünde's long tradition as a seaside spa resort.