Munich or Strasbourg?

Neither city has a coast, but Munich makes better use of summer water. The gravel banks of the Isar at the Flaucher give it a river beach in town, and the Starnberger See and Ammersee, under an hour away by S-Bahn, are proper alpine lakes with jetties and lawns.

Strasbourg's swimming is in old gravel pits such as the Baggersee, which you can reach by tram and which has lifeguards in July and August. These are fine for a hot afternoon, but the Rhine is unsafe for swimming and there is no lake country to match Bavaria's.

Both cities serve rich, filling food in large portions, and what you drink sets the tone. Munich eats around beer: brewery halls, beer gardens under chestnut trees, roast pork, white sausage before noon, and the Viktualienmarkt for snacks.

Strasbourg sits between French and German cooking, and its natural setting is the winstub, where choucroute, baeckeoffe or tarte flambée come with a pichet of local white wine. Foie gras and a strong fine-dining tier give it a more French finish, though the tourist menus around the cathedral are best avoided. Neither city goes far beyond its own regional cooking.

Munich has the deeper collections. The Alte Pinakothek and the rest of the Kunstareal, the Residenz, Nymphenburg and the Deutsches Museum could fill a week, though much of the old town was rebuilt after wartime bombing.

Strasbourg's strength is its setting. The cathedral with its astronomical clock, the timber-framed Grande Ile and Petite France make up one UNESCO-listed ensemble, and the Palais Rohan museums complete it. Still, the main sights fit into two or three unhurried days.

Munich gives you a fuller evening out. Many people spend the whole night in a beer hall, the area around Gärtnerplatz has cocktail and gay bars, and a few serious techno clubs stay open until morning at weekends. From late September, Oktoberfest takes over the city.

Strasbourg is a student bar town, centred on Krutenau and Place Saint-Étienne, with summer terraces along the quays. It has few clubs, and evenings are pleasant rather than late.

Munich has the Alps on its skyline, and trains take you to them in about an hour: Garmisch, the Zugspitze and Tegernsee, with alpine hiking in summer and skiing in winter. In the city, the English Garden and the surfers on the Eisbach give you a lot of green without leaving town.

Strasbourg's outdoors is gentler. There is level cycling along the Rhine, there are storks in the riverside forests, and the Vosges and the Black Forest are within an hour for forest walks and castle ruins. A car makes those hills much easier to reach.

Both cities make excellent bases, and Munich's range is wider and runs almost entirely by train. Salzburg and Innsbruck lie across the border, Augsburg, Nuremberg and Regensburg are close, and the royal castles of Neuschwanstein and Herrenchiemsee are the classic excursions.

From Strasbourg the days out are about wine and small towns: Colmar half an hour away, then wine-route villages such as Riquewihr and Eguisheim, and Baden-Baden, Freiburg and Basel across the borders. A car or a bike makes the vineyard days easier.

Munich has more for children within the city. There is the Tierpark Hellabrunn along the Isar, the hands-on Deutsches Museum, the transport museum, and beer gardens with playgrounds attached, while the lake beaches make easy summer days.

Strasbourg is just as easy with a pushchair, with boat trips around Petite France, storks and rowing boats in the Orangerie, and the Le Vaisseau science centre. Its biggest family draw, Europa-Park, is an hour away across the border.

Both cities have compact, largely pedestrianised centres. Munich's integrated U-Bahn, S-Bahn, tram and bus network reaches further, out to Nymphenburg, the Olympic Park, the airport and the lakes, and delays on the central S-Bahn are the only real annoyance.

Strasbourg gets by on trams and bikes. You can walk across the old town island in twenty minutes, and its separated cycle lanes are among the best in France. It falls behind once you head for the wine villages, where a car becomes useful.

Munich is the stronger shopping city. Luxury houses line Maximilianstrasse, department stores fill Kaufingerstrasse, and Glockenbach and Schwabing have independent boutiques. Its signature buy is Tracht, the dirndls and lederhosen made by specialist tailors.

Strasbourg is better for regional things to take home: Alsace wine, Soufflenheim pottery, printed linens and kougelhopf moulds. There is little fashion or luxury, and the Christmas market stalls are partly mass-produced.

Strasbourg is easier on the wallet. Prices are what you would expect in a French regional city, winstub meals and wine by the pichet are fair, and the cathedral and old town cost nothing to enjoy.

Munich is Germany's most expensive city, and its hotels are dear all year. Picnics in beer gardens, free parks and lakes and token Sunday museum entry help to offset that. Both cities' hotels get much dearer at peak times: Oktoberfest and trade fairs in Munich, the Christmas market and parliament sessions in Strasbourg.

In performing arts, Munich is in a different league. It has the Bavarian State Opera in the National Theatre, three orchestras of real standing, chamber opera in the rococo Cuvilliés Theatre and a long-running summer opera festival, as well as jazz clubs and big touring acts at the Olympic Park.

Strasbourg does well for its size, with the Opéra national du Rhin, the Philharmonic and the Théâtre National de Strasbourg, and it stands out for contemporary music during the autumn Musica festival. It simply has much less on any given night.

Each city has a historic public bathhouse: Munich's Art Nouveau Müller'sches Volksbad and Strasbourg's tiled Bains municipaux. Munich adds the huge thermal complex at Erding, about forty minutes away, and the spa towns of Bad Tölz and Bad Reichenhall, and its beer gardens and the lawns of the English Garden are made for idling.

Strasbourg's best spa trip is across the Rhine to the Friedrichsbad and Caracalla baths in Baden-Baden, under an hour away. Its canal-side walks are calm for most of the year, but the December crowds make the centre anything but restful.