Nuremberg or Strasbourg?

Neither city is a swimming destination. Each makes do with freshwater lakes, but in different ways. Nuremberg's Franconian Lake District, centred on the Brombachsee, is about an hour away and makes a full day out with sandy strips and sailing. Strasbourg's gravel-pit lakes, such as the Baggersee, are on the edge of town and reachable by tram, with lifeguards in July and August, so a quick afternoon swim is easier there.

Strasbourg eats better. Alsatian cooking takes from both France and Germany: choucroute, baeckeoffe and tarte flambée in wood-panelled winstubs, with wine from the vineyards just to the south. The city also has a proper fine-dining tier and good markets for Munster and charcuterie.

Nuremberg's table is narrower and heavier. It is built around the little beechwood-grilled bratwurst, Schäufele and Lebkuchen. Its real strength is beer: Franconia's dense web of small breweries and the smoky Kellerbier in its beer gardens beat anything Strasbourg pours.

These two are evenly matched, but the history they show is different. Nuremberg is a walled imperial city with the Kaiserburg, Dürer's house and the vast Germanisches Nationalmuseum. Its sobering twentieth-century sites, the Rally Grounds and Courtroom 600, have no equal in Strasbourg.

Strasbourg is centred on its pink sandstone cathedral and astronomical clock, with Petite France's locks and the German-built Neustadt around it. It spreads its art across several museums, the Palais Rohan's three among them, and the European institutions give it a present-day political role.

Evenings out are much alike. Both cities offer bars rather than clubs, filled by students. In Nuremberg, the place to go is Gostenhof just outside the walls, with alternative venues in old working-class streets, and the Erlangen crowd keeps weekends busier. Strasbourg's equivalent is Krutenau and Place Saint-Étienne, where riverside terraces are pleasant in summer, but the city goes quiet earlier on weeknights.

Strasbourg has the stronger outdoors, mostly because it sits between two ranges. The Vosges, with castle ruins and the Mont Sainte-Odile ridge, lie to the west, and the higher Black Forest lies to the east. Level cycle routes run along the Rhine, through forests where storks and beavers live, though a car helps for the hills.

Nuremberg's countryside is gentler. The Reichswald pine forest starts at the edge of town. Franconian Switzerland, about an hour away, has limestone towers, caves and well-known climbing, and the southern lakes are good for paddling.

Both are first-rate bases, with a different kind of trip from each. Nuremberg's are historic towns by train: Bamberg, Regensburg, Würzburg, the walled Romantic Road towns and Munich, all manageable without a car.

Strasbourg offers a cross-border mix. Colmar and the Alsace wine route villages lie south, and Baden-Baden, Freiburg and Basel lie over the Rhine. The vineyard villages are far easier with a car or a bike.

Children do well in both. Nuremberg plays on its toy-making past with the Toy Museum, the railway museum's full-size locomotives and a large zoo in wooded old quarries, though the cobbled castle climb is hard work with a pushchair.

Strasbourg's flat, mostly car-free centre is easier to manage. Boat trips, the stork-filled Orangerie park and the Le Vaisseau science centre are in the city, and Europa-Park is about an hour away for a big day out.

Getting around is equally easy in both, and neither needs a car in town. Nuremberg's walled centre is about 1.5km across, and one ticket covers the U-Bahn, trams and S-Bahn out to the Rally Grounds and on to Fürth. Regional trains handle most day trips as well. Strasbourg relies on trams and, above all, bikes, with separated lanes everywhere and a tram line over the Rhine to Kehl. The car becomes useful only for the wine villages.

Strasbourg is the better place to shop. The lanes near the cathedral hold independent shops, delicatessens and bookshops, and the regional goods to take home are more varied: Alsace wine, Soufflenheim pottery, printed linens and foie gras.

Nuremberg's main streets are mostly chain stores. What is worth buying is specific: Lebkuchen in tins, wooden toys and tin figures, and crafts from the Handwerkerhof. Both cities have a famous Christmas market that turns December into the main shopping season.

Nuremberg is the cheaper of the two. Tavern meals and local beer cost little, as does transport, and the city is easier on the wallet than Munich. Strasbourg is fair rather than cheap. A pichet of wine and a tarte flambée are good value, and the cathedral and old streets cost nothing.

In both, hotels are the problem, and the dates to avoid differ. In Nuremberg it is the big trade fairs, the toy fair above all, and Advent. In Strasbourg it is the Christmas market and the weeks when the European Parliament sits.

The two are close, but Strasbourg's season carries more weight. The Opéra national du Rhin, the Théâtre National de Strasbourg and the autumn Musica festival of contemporary music draw serious audiences, though you need to plan around the calendar.

Nuremberg's Staatstheater, in its Art Nouveau opera house, is solid but more regional. The city is stronger in summer outdoors, with a free folk weekend at the Bardentreffen, the orchestras' open-air concert in the Luitpoldhain and a large rock festival at the Zeppelinfeld.

Strasbourg is the better choice for slowing down. It has its own historic bathhouse, the tiled Bains municipaux with a hammam, and Baden-Baden's grand thermal baths are under an hour away. Nuremberg has no historic baths of its own. It sends you to a modern thermal spa in Fürth, mixed nude saunas on the city's edges or the saline pools of Bad Windsheim, and a slow afternoon in a beer garden does much of the rest.