Karlovy Vary or Salzburg?

Neither is a swimming destination, but Salzburg has the better water. Fuschlsee, Wolfgangsee and Mondsee are clear Alpine lakes under an hour away, where you swim from lawns and wooden jetties on a warm summer day.

From Karlovy Vary the main option is Lake Medard, a flooded former mine near Sokolov, or the warm spring-fed outdoor pool above the town. It is enough for a swim, not a reason to choose the town.

Both serve hearty, meaty cooking, but Salzburg has more range and better coffee houses. Karlovy Vary offers Czech roast pork, dumplings and svíčková with Pilsner-style beer, plus two local treats, warm spa wafers and Becherovka, and little beyond that.

Salzburg adds the Salzburger Nockerl and Kasnocken, a stronger coffee-house tradition and the Augustiner monastery brewery in Mülln, where beer comes from wooden barrels. Its best cooking is in the inns of the outer districts and on the hills, not in the touristy old town.

Both towns hold UNESCO listings, but for different things. Karlovy Vary's sight is its spa architecture: pastel Belle Époque hotels stacked up the Teplá valley, colonnades of columns and carved timber, and the Vřídlo geyser shooting hot water into the air. Its museums are small and specialist, and a day or two is enough.

Salzburg has more depth. The Baroque cathedral, the Residenz state rooms, the Hohensalzburg fortress, St Peter's catacombs, the Mirabell gardens and the two Mozart houses fill two or three days, and the Museum der Moderne on the Mönchsberg adds a modern note that Karlovy Vary lacks.

Both are quiet in the evening, though Salzburg has slightly more going on. Its beer halls, with long tables and litre mugs, fill with locals, and student pubs around Rudolfskai stay open later at weekends during term.

Karlovy Vary is asleep by about eleven. Evenings mean hotel bars, wine bars and casinos, except during the film festival week in early summer. For a real night out from Salzburg, people take the train to Munich.

Salzburg is much the stronger choice for the outdoors. The Untersberg cable car takes you to limestone ridges at about 1,800m, paragliders launch from the Gaisberg, and both the Salzkammergut lakes and the Königssee fjord in Berchtesgaden National Park are close by.

Karlovy Vary's countryside is gentler: beech and spruce forest, old graded spa paths up to the Diana tower, the moors of the Slavkov Forest and easy canoeing on the Ohře. Skiing at Klínovec in the Ore Mountains is the nearest it gets to mountain sport.

Both make good bases, but Salzburg's outings are grander and more varied. Hallstatt, the salt mines at Hallein and Berchtesgaden, the clifftop fortress at Werfen and the imperial spa at Bad Ischl are all within reach, and Munich is about an hour and a half by train.

Karlovy Vary's best trips are closer and smaller in scale. The castle town of Loket is twenty minutes away, Mariánské Lázně and Františkovy Lázně complete the West Bohemian spa trio, and the St Maurus reliquary at Bečov is a real treasure. Prague takes a long day by coach.

Salzburg suits children far better. The trick fountains at Hellbrunn, the zoo next door, the hands-on Haus der Natur, the marionette theatre and the miners' slides in the nearby salt mines could fill several days.

Karlovy Vary is calm and safe, but it is built for adults taking cures. The geyser, the spouted cups of spring water, the funicular to the small animal enclosure and the castle at Loket keep children busy for an afternoon or two. In both towns, steep slopes make pushchairs hard work.

Both centres are best on foot, with Salzburg slightly easier. Its old town, fortress and Mirabell are all within about fifteen minutes' walk on largely car-free streets, trolleybuses cover the rest, and flat riverside paths suit cycling.

Karlovy Vary stretches along one long, narrow valley, so you rely on buses and the funicular to climb its steep sides. Its rail links are slow regional lines, while Salzburg has direct trains to Munich and Vienna. Either way, a hire car helps with the countryside.

There is little between them in range, but the specialities differ. Karlovy Vary sells glass and gems: Moser crystal from the town's own showroom, local porcelain and Bohemian garnets, alongside furs and jewellery for wealthy spa guests.

Salzburg's speciality is Tracht, dirndls and loden jackets, often made to measure. It also has the farmers' market by the Andräkirche and the old Advent market on Domplatz, and Karlovy Vary has no market to match either.

Karlovy Vary is clearly the cheaper stay. Hotels and restaurants on the colonnades charge for the setting, but pubs and canteens a street away charge local Czech prices, and only the film festival week pushes room rates up sharply.

Salzburg is expensive all year, and much more so during the summer festival and the Advent markets. To keep costs down, stay across the river or in the suburbs, eat in the outer beer halls and buy the city card.

Salzburg is one of Europe's great music cities, and Karlovy Vary cannot compete. Its summer festival fills the Grosses Festspielhaus and the Felsenreitschule, a riding school cut into the cliff, and Jedermann is played outdoors in front of the cathedral. Mozart Week and the Easter Festival add two more seasons, and the Mozarteum and the Landestheater keep a programme going all year.

Karlovy Vary's symphony orchestra comes from the old spa orchestras and plays mostly light classical programmes, some outdoors on the colonnades. The Fellner and Helmer theatre and an autumn Dvořák festival make for a pleasant evening out, not a reason to choose the town.

Karlovy Vary is the specialist here. It has thirteen springs piped into the colonnades, a drinking cure prescribed for centuries, and dozens of sanatoria offering carbonated baths, peat wraps and medical consultations. The full experience comes with booking a spa stay, since public bathhouses are fewer than you might expect.

Salzburg has no springs of its own. It offers the Paracelsus Bad's saunas and quiet walks in the Mirabell gardens and on the Mönchsberg. For real spa bathing you go out of town, to the brine baths of Bad Reichenhall or the radon springs of the Gastein valley.