Leipzig or Vienna?

Neither city is a beach destination, and both make a decent summer afternoon of fresh water, but the swimming is different. Leipzig's swimming spots are flooded former mines south of town, like the Cospudener and Markkleeberger See, with sandy shores, clear water and beach bars, reached by tram or by bike.

Vienna swims in its river. There are gravel banks along the Danube Island and old-fashioned lidos such as the Gänsehäufel on the calmer Alte Donau, both a short U-Bahn ride from the centre. For sand, Leipzig's lakes are better. For a quick swim after sightseeing, Vienna's are closer at hand.

Vienna has a cuisine of its own, and Leipzig does not really compete. Schnitzel and Tafelspitz in wood-panelled Beisl taverns, the pastry counters of the grand coffee houses and Heuriger wine taverns in the city's own vineyards make eating part of the sightseeing.

Leipzig's cooking is hearty Saxon fare: dumplings, Leipziger Allerlei, the marzipan Lerche and sour Gose beer. Its old coffee houses echo the Viennese habit on a smaller scale. Where it does well is casual international eating along the Karli and the Plagwitz canals, the kind of range Vienna is thinner on.

Vienna is on another level. It is an imperial capital whose Hofburg, Schönbrunn, Ringstrasse and UNESCO-listed old town have survived largely intact. Add the Bruegels in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Klimt at the Belvedere and Schiele at the Leopold, and a week passes easily.

Leipzig's sights tell a more focused story. Bach's Thomaskirche, the Nikolaikirche where the 1989 protests began, the trade-fair arcades, the Stasi museum at the Runde Ecke and the grim Battle of the Nations monument are all worth seeing, but two or three days covers them.

Leipzig is the better night out, especially for clubbing. Its electronic scene grew up in disused factories and squats, weekend nights run past dawn, and the doors are relaxed. The Karli and Connewitz give you bars and late kiosks nearby. It can feel quiet outside term time, though.

Vienna's evenings are gentler: bars under the Gürtel railway arches, deckchairs by the Danube Canal, or wine at a Heuriger. What Leipzig has nothing to match is the winter ball season, when visitors can buy tickets to formal balls in palaces and grand halls.

Vienna has more varied countryside on its doorstep. City hiking trails climb through vineyards to the Kahlenberg, the beech-covered Vienna Woods roll away to the west, and the Donau-Auen national park protects wild floodplain to the east. The Alpine plateaus of the Rax and Schneeberg are about 90 minutes away.

Leipzig is flat but green. The Auwald floodplain forest runs through town, and you can paddle the canals from Plagwitz or try the white-water course at the Markkleeberger See. For real walking, though, you need a two-hour train ride.

Both cities are excellent bases, and Leipzig has a slight edge in how many heritage towns lie close by. Dresden and Weimar are about an hour away, Erfurt and Halle less than that, and Wittenberg, Naumburg, Dessau's Bauhaus buildings and Berlin are all easy by train from one station.

Vienna's trips lean more towards landscape and abbeys. There is the Wachau valley with Melk and Dürnstein, Klosterneuburg and Heiligenkreuz, the spa town of Baden and the wine villages around the Neusiedler See. It also offers a second capital in Bratislava, about an hour away by train or by boat.

Vienna keeps children busy for longer. Schönbrunn Zoo, the Prater's rides and meadows, and the sharks of Haus des Meeres come first. The Natural History Museum's dinosaurs, the hands-on Technical Museum and the ZOOM children's museum then cover rainy days.

Leipzig's zoo is a real highlight, and Gondwanaland's tropical hall works in any weather. In summer the shallow lakes and the Belantis theme park add more. Beyond those, though, the options for children thin out quickly.

Both are easy cities without a car, but Vienna's system is in a different class. Five U-Bahn lines, trams and buses share one ticket, the underground runs all night at weekends, and the vineyard villages and Danube Island are on the network.

Leipzig gets by with a fifteen-minute walk across the old town, trams out to the neighbourhoods and one underground S-Bahn line south to the lakes. Its flat, wide streets make a bike the quickest option, more so than on Vienna's cobbles and tram tracks.

Vienna offers more and better-made things to buy. Luxury houses line the Kohlmarkt and Graben, Neubau has independent designers, and local crafts such as Augarten porcelain, crystal and Loden coats make gifts you will not find elsewhere.

In Leipzig, the covered arcades are pleasant but mostly hold chain stores. The interesting shopping is in the west: vintage clothes and record shops on Karl-Heine-Strasse, and the galleries of the Spinnerei, an old cotton mill.

Leipzig is the cheaper stay, mostly because of the room. A central hotel or apartment costs noticeably less than in Vienna, although meals and drinks are priced at the German national level. Check the trade-fair calendar, as hotel rates climb sharply during the big fairs.

Vienna costs more overall, and hotels rise in the ball and Christmas market seasons. Transport passes, free palace gardens and Heuriger buffets help, and standing places at the State Opera are a famous bargain.

Both are serious music cities, but Vienna is one of the world's great capitals of music. The State Opera stages a different work almost nightly, the Philharmonic plays in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein, and the Burgtheater, Volksoper and Vienna Boys' Choir fill the rest of the week.

Leipzig's offer is remarkable for its size, built around the Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Thomanerchor singing in Bach's own church, and the Bachfest each June. It also has something Vienna lacks: the Wave-Gotik-Treffen at Whitsun, one of the world's largest goth music gatherings.

Leipzig is restful mostly because it is uncrowded. Long walks under the old oaks of the Auwald, slow afternoons in the parks and a quiet German Sunday make it an easy place to unwind, but it has no bathing culture to plan a trip around.

Vienna is the better place to slow down, because rest is built into the way the city lives. The palace gardens, Schönbrunn's among them, invite unhurried walks, and evenings at a Heuriger on the vineyard slopes are slow by habit. Its thermal baths go well beyond anything Leipzig offers, though even here bathing is an outing rather than part of daily life, as it is in the great bath cities.