Leipzig or Rothenburg ob der Tauber?

Neither town is a beach destination, but only Leipzig offers proper swimming. The flooded mines to the south, the Cospudener See and Markkleeberger See, have sandy shores and clear water, and you can get there by tram or by bike through the forest. On a hot day they make a real afternoon out.

In Rothenburg, swimming means the town's outdoor pool, or an hour's drive to the grassy bathing areas of the Franconian lake district.

Leipzig eats better and more widely. Alongside Saxon roasts and the marzipan Leipziger Lerche, there is salted Gose beer and a coffee-house tradition that goes back to the early eighteenth century. The casual international cooking and beer gardens of the Südvorstadt and Plagwitz give you plenty of choice for a few days.

Rothenburg keeps to hearty Franconian food: Schäufele, bratwurst, and Silvaner poured from the squat Bocksbeutel bottle. Many kitchens around the Marktplatz cook for coach parties. The rewarding meals are in family-run guesthouses and wine taverns pouring Tauber valley wine.

Both repay a short stay about equally, but in very different ways. Leipzig's sights tell a long city story: Bach's grave in the Thomaskirche, the Nikolaikirche where the 1989 revolution gathered pace, the former Stasi headquarters, and solid museums such as the Grassi collections.

In Rothenburg the town itself is the exhibit. You walk the covered wall walk, look down the lanes at the Plönlein, and go into St Jakob's to see Riemenschneider's carved Holy Blood Altar. It is a single, complete medieval picture rather than layers of history.

Leipzig is a town for staying out late. Its club culture grew up among students in old factories and warehouses, electronic music leads, the doors are relaxed, and weekend nights run well past dawn. Bars line the Karli, Connewitz further south is the alternative end, and Lindenau has canal-side bars in converted mills, though outside term time and away from weekends the city can feel quiet.

Rothenburg is a place for an early night. An evening out means the night watchman's lantern tour and a glass of wine in an inn, and the lanes are mostly silent by eleven. For anything livelier you have to go to Würzburg or Nuremberg.

Both are gentle green places without hills to climb, but Leipzig has more to do outdoors. The Auwald floodplain forest runs through the middle of the city, you can canoe the canals from Plagwitz towards the centre, and the lake district adds sailing, paddleboarding and a white-water course.

Rothenburg's outdoors starts at the town walls. Paths drop into the Tauber valley past mills and meadows, and the river's well-known family cycle path heads off through vineyards. It is lovely countryside for walking, at its best in blossom time and autumn colour, but it has less variety.

Leipzig is the stronger base, mainly because the trains do the work. Dresden, Weimar, Erfurt, Halle, Wittenberg and Berlin can all be reached directly from one station, with no car needed.

Rothenburg's surroundings are just as rich in their own way: Dinkelsbühl, Nördlingen in its crater, Schwäbisch Hall, and Würzburg's Residenz along the Romantic Road. But the branch line and sparse buses mean you really need a car to reach them.

Leipzig is the easier place for children over several days. The zoo is among Europe's best, its tropical hall works in any weather, and summer adds shallow lake beaches and the Belantis theme park.

Rothenburg is enchanting for a day or two. Children can walk the ramparts, follow the night watchman, and older ones can shudder at the shame masks in the Crime Museum. After that there is little made for them, and the cobbles and steep valley paths are hard going with a pushchair.

Both centres take about a quarter of an hour to cross on foot, and the difference begins beyond that. Leipzig is flat, with trams and an S-Bahn line reaching the outer districts and the lakes, many cycle lanes, and long-distance trains from the same station.

Rothenburg's car-free old town is a pleasure to walk, apart from the cobbles and the steep climb back from the valley. Leaving it means changing trains at Steinach or waiting for infrequent buses, so drivers have a clear advantage.

Leipzig gives you more ordinary and more individual shopping. The covered trade-fair arcades in the old town are mostly chains. The interesting part is in the west: vintage and record shops on Karl-Heine-Strasse, and the galleries of the Spinnerei cotton mill.

Rothenburg sells one thing very well: Christmas. Its shops offer baubles, nutcrackers and Erzgebirge carvings all year, and the Christmas market on the Marktplatz is famous for its atmosphere. Beyond those and the cuckoo clocks and pewter, there is almost no fashion or everyday shopping.

Neither is a budget destination, but Leipzig's rooms go further. There is plenty of mid-range choice within walking distance of the old town, except during the big trade fairs, when rates climb sharply.

Rothenburg adds a tourist premium to normal small-town German prices, especially for guesthouses inside the walls and meals near the Marktplatz in December and on summer weekends. Staying in a village outside the walls brings the cost down noticeably.

Leipzig is in another league here. The Gewandhaus Orchestra and the opera house face each other across Augustusplatz, and the Thomanerchor sings Bach in his own church. The Bachfest each June and the goth crowds of the Wave-Gotik-Treffen at Whitsun add highlights to the year.

Rothenburg's stage is mostly its own history. There is the costumed Meistertrunk play, a small summer open-air theatre, and organ concerts in St Jakob's, while most evenings have no show at all.

Rothenburg is slightly the more restful of the two, and it is better placed for spas. Once the coaches leave, the walls and valley paths fall silent, and Bad Windsheim's salt-water float pool and historic Bad Mergentheim are both within an hour.

In Leipzig, wellness means modern sauna complexes and a few lakeside saunas. Its calm comes from walks under the oaks of the Auwald and an unhurried Sunday pace.