Leipzig or Wroclaw?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Leipzig actually lets you swim. The flooded lignite mines to the south have sandy shores and clear water, and you can reach them by tram or bike, so a hot July afternoon there is a real outing.

Wroclaw's sandy spots along the Oder are for deckchairs and a drink, not for getting in the water. Swimming means a pool or a drive out to a reservoir, and the Baltic is most of a day away.

Both cities serve filling regional cooking rather than food worth the journey on its own. Leipzig has Saxon roasts and dumplings, sour Gose beer and a coffee-house tradition going back three centuries, with its better casual kitchens on the Karli and in Plagwitz.

In Wroclaw the menu is pierogi, żurek in a bread bowl and pork knuckle. Its edge is the old milk bars and the brewpubs in historic cellars, and the lighter modern bistros sit in the streets just off the square rather than on it.

Wroclaw has the stronger old town to wander. Its huge Market Square with the Gothic Town Hall, the gas-lit lanes of Ostrów Tumski, the gilded Aula Leopoldina and the UNESCO-listed Centennial Hall make the city itself the sight, and the bronze dwarfs add a playful layer.

Leipzig's appeal is more about stories than streetscape. Bach's Thomaskirche, the Nikolaikirche where the 1989 revolution began, the Stasi museum at the Runde Ecke and the trade-fair arcades reward visitors who come for history, and two or three days covers them.

Both are student cities that go out well beyond their size, but in different ways. Leipzig is about clubs: electronic nights in old factories and warehouses that run past dawn, with relaxed doors, and bar streets in the Karli and alternative Connewitz.

Wroclaw is about bars. People hop between doors in the courtyard passage off Ruska Street and in the cellars around the square, and in summer the drinking moves to the riverbanks. Both cities go quiet between terms.

Wroclaw has more to offer outdoors, mainly because of what lies near it. Ślęża rises from the plain less than an hour away, and the Karkonosze and the Table Mountains make full hiking days, with skiing in winter. In town, the Oder islands, Szczytnicki Park and its Japanese Garden give plenty of green.

Leipzig is flat and watery instead. You can canoe through the Auwald floodplain forest from Plagwitz towards the centre, and the lake district offers sailing and a white-water course. For hills you need a two-hour train ride.

Leipzig is one of the best bases in Germany for day trips. Dresden, Weimar, Erfurt, Halle, Wittenberg, Naumburg and even Berlin are all an easy train ride away, so you can see a different heritage town each day without a car.

Wroclaw's surroundings are rewarding but more rural. Książ Castle, the wooden Churches of Peace and the palaces of the Jelenia Góra valley are the highlights, and a car makes it much easier to combine several in one day.

Both are easy with children, and both build a day around an outstanding zoo with a weatherproof showpiece: Gondwanaland's tropical hall in Leipzig, the Afrykarium's shark tunnel in Wroclaw. Beyond that they differ. Leipzig adds summer lake shores and the Belantis theme park, while Wroclaw has its dwarf hunt across a car-free centre, a water science centre and evening fountain shows.

Leipzig is simpler to get around. Its old town takes about fifteen minutes to cross, trams reach every district a visitor needs, an S-Bahn line runs to the lakes, and regional trains leave from the same station, so you never need a car.

Wroclaw's centre is just as walkable, with many pedestrian streets, but the trams can be slow at rush hour and the network takes some learning. For the castles and mountain villages a car is often the better option.

Neither city is a shopping destination, and Leipzig is only slightly ahead. Its covered trade-fair arcades are pleasant in any weather, and Plagwitz's vintage and record shops and the gallery weekends at the Spinnerei give it more individual character.

Wroclaw's best buys are things to take home: Bolesławiec stoneware, amber and produce from the riverside market hall, along with the 1930s Renoma building to look at.

Wroclaw is clearly the cheaper trip. Rooms, lunches, beer and museum entry all cost far less than in Western Europe, and only the terraces on the square charge visitor prices.

Leipzig is cheap mainly for the bed. Eating out, drinks and taxis cost what they do elsewhere in Germany, and trade-fair weeks push room rates up sharply.

Leipzig is in a different league for music. The Gewandhaus Orchestra and the opera face each other across Augustusplatz, the Thomanerchor sings Bach in the Thomaskirche, and the Bachfest and the Wave-Gotik-Treffen bring audiences from around the world.

Wroclaw's National Forum of Music and its opera house give it a solid season, and Wratislavia Cantans and Jazz on the Oder are worth timing a trip around. Its strong theatre tradition is mostly in Polish, though.

Neither city is one to choose for spas, and in town the two are much alike, with sauna venues, hotel spas and the real rest found in slow hours outdoors. Leipzig leans on the German sauna habit, including a few saunas by the southern lakes, and its calmest moments are long walks under the oaks of the Auwald. For a proper spa you drive to Bad Düben or Bad Lausick, two modest spa towns not far from the city.

Wroclaw unwinds on its river islands and in waterside cafés, and its big aquapark has saunas for a grey day, though the centre fills up on summer weekends. The real difference lies to the south. Szczawno-Zdrój is about an hour away, with Polanica and Kudowa further on, and these are old resorts built around drinking the mineral water and strolling through landscaped grounds. So a day of taking the cure has a longer history and more places to choose from here than around Leipzig.