Lubeck or Nuremberg?

Lübeck has a real seaside within its own city limits. Travemünde has a long sandy beach lined with hooded wicker chairs, and more resorts follow the Bay of Lübeck north. The water stays cool, but it is calm, shallow and has no tides.

Nuremberg has nothing comparable. Swimming there means the city's pools, or about an hour's trip to the Brombachsee and the other Franconian reservoirs. In a hot summer the lakes are actually warmer than the Baltic, but they make a side trip rather than a beach stay.

Each city has a sweet emblem made for centuries: marzipan in Lübeck and Lebkuchen in Nuremberg. Their savoury sides differ. Lübeck's is the food of the coast: herring, plaice and fish sandwiches from the harbour kiosks, Rotspon from the cellars, and a meal under the ship models at the Schiffergesellschaft.

Nuremberg gives someone who travels for food more to work with. It has the small bratwurst served on pewter plates and Schäufele with crackling. Above all it has Franconian brewery culture, with local lagers and Kellerbier in beer gardens along the Pegnitz, and that is a stronger reason to linger over a meal.

These are two of Germany's finest old towns and broadly level; the difference is in character. Lübeck is a Hanseatic merchant city of brick Gothic, with the Holstentor and seven spires on an island that is almost entirely UNESCO-listed. The Hansemuseum and the Buddenbrookhaus anchor a compact set of sights that two days covers well.

Nuremberg is imperial and half-timbered, with the Kaiserburg rising above walled streets that were carefully rebuilt after the war. The Germanisches Nationalmuseum alone can fill a day. The Rally Grounds and Courtroom 600 add a sobering twentieth-century layer that Lübeck has no equivalent for.

Neither is a party city, but Nuremberg gives you more of an evening. Gostenhof, west of the walls, has small bars and alternative venues, and students from Erlangen keep the squares and riverbanks busy at weekends.

Lübeck winds down early. You get a pub or wine bar on the Obertrave, a summer stroll along Travemünde's promenade, and for clubbing, the train to Hamburg.

Lübeck's outdoors is about water and flat land. You can canoe the Wakenitz through reeds, walk above the sea on the Brodtener clay cliff, cycle long level routes along the coast and the old border strip, and sail on the bay in summer.

Nuremberg has more range. Pine forest begins at the edge of the city, and Franconian Switzerland adds wooded valleys, caves, limestone towers and some of Germany's best-known rock climbing. In summer the Franconian lakes are good for paddling. Neither city has mountains.

Lübeck has one outstanding day out in Hamburg. Wismar and Schwerin's island castle are about an hour away, and the lake towns of Ratzeburg and Eutin are closer, but after those the list runs short.

Nuremberg is the better base for a longer stay. Bamberg, Regensburg and Würzburg are each around an hour by train, and Rothenburg and Dinkelsbühl on the Romantic Road are slightly further. Add Munich and Bayreuth, and you could fill a week without repeating yourself.

Nuremberg has more made for children, and it works all year. There is the Toy Museum, the railway museum with its full-size locomotives, the zoo in old quarries with its dolphin house, and a toy brand's play park in Zirndorf. Only the steep, cobbled climb to the castle is hard on small legs.

Lübeck is more of a summer family destination. Travemünde's calm, shallow water suits toddlers, and Hansa-Park and the bay resorts are about half an hour away. Out of season, it relies mostly on its museums.

Both centres are walkable, both main stations sit right by the old town, and you won't need a car in either. Nuremberg goes further. Its U-Bahn, trams and S-Bahn all run on one ticket and reach the zoo, the Rally Grounds and Fürth, which Lübeck's buses can't match.

Lübeck's island is flat apart from the cobbles, and the regional train to Travemünde is easy. The lakes and small coastal villages beyond are easier to reach by car.

Neither city is a shopping destination, and their main streets carry the same German chains. What differs is what you take home. In Lübeck it is marzipan, plus whatever you find in the galleries and craft shops tucked into the courtyard passages around Hüxstrasse.

Nuremberg has more to buy. There are Lebkuchen in decorated tins, wooden toys and tin figures, and crafts from the workshops of the Handwerkerhof. In Advent it also has the Christkindlesmarkt, one of Germany's oldest Christmas markets.

Day to day, the two cost much the same: mid-range for Western Europe, with filling tavern meals, cheap local transport and old towns that cost nothing to walk. What differs is when they become expensive. In Lübeck it is the beach in July and August, when Travemünde and the bay resorts charge more and book up early.

In Nuremberg it is the trade fair weeks and the Advent market season, when rooms become scarce. The cheaper times to visit are roughly the reverse of each other.

Lübeck's musical identity lives in its churches. Buxtehude was organist at the Marienkirche, and hearing that organ tradition under the brick vaults is the evening worth planning around. Theater Lübeck and the Philharmonic by the river provide a steady season of opera, plays and symphonic music, and the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival adds bigger names in summer. For a band or a jazz set, though, most people end up on the train to Hamburg.

Nuremberg gives you more to choose from across a week. The Staatstheater adds ballet to its opera and drama, and with two orchestras sharing the calendar there is more classical music on offer. Summer is when it moves outdoors: an orchestral evening in the Luitpoldhain park, the Bardentreffen's free weekend of folk and world music across the old town squares, and a major rock festival by the Zeppelinfeld on the former rally grounds.

Neither city has a bathing tradition of its own, and they are close to level, but the way you unwind differs. In Lübeck it is the seaside spa: Travemünde has been a resort since the early nineteenth century, and the bay has wellness hotels and the seawater pool complex at Scharbeutz.

In Nuremberg it is the German sauna habit. There is a large thermal spa with sauna gardens in Fürth, leisure pools where the saunas are nude and mixed, and Bad Windsheim's saline pools about an hour west.