Karlovy Vary or Rothenburg ob der Tauber?

Neither town is a place for swimming, and the choice between them comes down to what lies nearby. From Karlovy Vary you can reach Lake Medard, a flooded mine near Sokolov, in about half an hour, and the town's warm outdoor pools fed by the springs are a pleasure in any season.

Rothenburg offers its own outdoor pool, or a drive of about an hour to the grassy shores of the Franconian lakes such as the Altmühlsee.

Both towns serve hearty, meat-heavy cooking within a narrow range, so the difference lies in what you drink and what you snack on. Karlovy Vary has roast pork, dumplings and svíčková with Pilsner-style beer, warm spa wafers from the colonnade stalls, Becherovka distilled in town, and riverside cafés made for cake.

Rothenburg pours dry Franconian Silvaner from the round Bocksbeutel and Tauber valley wines in its taverns, and sells the sugary Schneeball everywhere. In both towns the better meals are found away from the main promenade or square.

Rothenburg has the stronger pull for sightseers. It is an almost wholly medieval walled town: you can walk much of the covered wall above the rooftops, see the Plönlein between its two gate towers, and look at Riemenschneider's carved Holy Blood Altar in St Jakob's. The Medieval Crime Museum gives it one museum with real depth.

Karlovy Vary's appeal is later and softer. Belle Époque hotels and bathhouses rise in pastel tiers up the valley, and colonnades of Corinthian columns and carved timber stand alongside the Vřídlo geyser, all part of a UNESCO-listed spa town. Its museums are small and specialised, and each town takes a day or two.

Both towns are asleep by about eleven, but Karlovy Vary has slightly more to do after dinner: cocktail and wine bars, Czech pubs and casinos. During the film festival week in early summer, parties and outdoor bars fill the valley.

Rothenburg's evening is a wine tavern and the night watchman's walking tour. For anything livelier you would have to go to Würzburg or Nuremberg.

Karlovy Vary has much more to offer outdoors. Beech and spruce forest starts right at the edge of town, with graded spa paths up to the Diana tower and the stag-leap rock. Further out are the moors of the Slavkov Forest, skiing around Klínovec in the Ore Mountains, and canoeing on the Ohře.

Rothenburg's countryside is gentle farmland and river meadow. Paths drop from the walls to mills and meadows in the Tauber valley, and the well-known Tauber valley cycle path runs downstream through vineyards, but there are no hills of any size or wild country.

Rothenburg has the richer choice of outings, as long as you have a car. Dinkelsbühl and Nördlingen, the latter ringed by walls inside a meteorite crater, continue the medieval theme along the Romantic Road. Würzburg's Residenz and Nuremberg's castle are each about an hour away.

Karlovy Vary's outings are closer and easier without a car. The castle town of Loket is twenty minutes away, Mariánské Lázně and Františkovy Lázně complete the spa trio, and Bečov keeps the reliquary of St Maurus. Prague is possible in a long day by coach.

Rothenburg holds children's attention for longer, because the whole walled town feels like a game of knights. Kids can walk the ramparts, climb the tower and follow the night watchman, and older children love the shame masks in the Crime Museum. The centre is also largely free of through traffic.

Karlovy Vary has a few hits: the geyser, the funicular to the small animal enclosure, the thermal pool and the spa wafers. Beyond those, it is built around adults taking cures, and its steep valley sides are tiring with a pushchair.

Both are easy on foot and awkward beyond, but in different ways. Karlovy Vary is a long, narrow strip along the Teplá, with buses and a funicular to help on the steep valley sides. Slow regional trains go to Loket and Mariánské Lázně, and coaches run to Prague, so you can manage without a car.

You can cross Rothenburg's compact walled centre in fifteen minutes, on cobbles. Its branch line usually means changing trains at Steinach, though, and the village buses are sparse, so a car matters much more there.

Karlovy Vary has the better shopping, with genuine local crafts. Moser crystal is sold from its own showroom, alongside Karlovy Vary porcelain, Bohemian garnets, and boutiques for spa guests along Stará louka.

Rothenburg sells mostly Christmas goods all year round, such as glass baubles, nutcrackers and Erzgebirge carvings, plus teddy bears and cuckoo clocks. Its December market on the Marktplatz is the big draw, but fashion and everyday shopping are almost absent.

Karlovy Vary is the cheaper stay. The grand hotels and colonnade restaurants charge for the setting, but one street back, Czech pubs and canteens serve food and beer at local prices, and the colonnades, buses and funicular cost little or nothing. Avoid festival week if money matters.

Rothenburg adds a tourist premium to German small-town prices, especially for rooms inside the walls in December and on summer weekends. Staying outside the gates or in a nearby village brings the cost down considerably.

Karlovy Vary offers a real programme of evening performances. Its symphony orchestra descends from the old spa orchestras and plays light classical concerts, some outdoors on the colonnades in summer. The Fellner and Helmer theatre hosts operetta and touring drama, and a Dvořák festival takes place in autumn.

In Rothenburg, performance is tied to history: the costumed Meistertrunk play, summer open-air theatre and organ concerts in St Jakob's. Outside those dates there is little to go and see.

Here the two towns are furthest apart. Karlovy Vary is built around its springs. You sip from porcelain cups along the colonnades, sanatoria offer doctors' consultations, carbonated baths and peat wraps, and hotels have pools of warm spring water.

Rothenburg's calm comes from its empty lanes at dawn and after the coach parties leave, and from quiet walks in the valley. For thermal bathing you have to drive about an hour to Bad Windsheim or Bad Mergentheim.