Nuremberg or Vienna?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Vienna lets you swim without leaving town. The Danube Island and the calmer Alte Donau, with its old lidos, are a U-Bahn ride from the centre, so a swim fits easily into a summer sightseeing day.

In Nuremberg, lake swimming means a trip of about an hour to the Franconian Lake District and reservoirs such as the Brombachsee. That is a fine outing with children but a separate trip. In town you only have the outdoor pools.

Vienna has a whole cuisine of its own: schnitzel and Tafelspitz in wood-panelled Beisl taverns, a deep pastry tradition and the long ritual of the grand coffee houses. It also grows wine inside the city limits, poured at Heuriger taverns on the vineyard slopes.

Nuremberg's table is narrower and heavier. Its pleasures are the small beechwood-grilled bratwurst, Schäufele on a Sunday and Lebkuchen. Where it holds its own is beer, as Franconia's many small breweries fill the taverns and beer gardens. Wine and cake lovers will prefer Vienna, while beer drinkers may prefer Nuremberg.

Nuremberg is a fine medieval walled town. The Kaiserburg, the Gothic churches, Dürer's house and the Germanisches Nationalmuseum fill a couple of good days. The Rally Grounds and Courtroom 600 add a sobering twentieth-century layer that few cities can match.

Vienna works on a different scale. The Hofburg, Schönbrunn and the Ringstrasse show off an entire empire, and the Kunsthistorisches Museum, the Belvedere and the Albertina are among Europe's major collections. The Jugendstil and Secession buildings add a second great period. Nuremberg rewards a weekend, while Vienna can fill a week.

Both cities go out in a relaxed, bar-led way, but Vienna has more of it and more variety. You can drink under the Gürtel railway arches, sit in deckchair bars on the Danube Canal or end the night at an electronic club in a former industrial space. The winter ball season is something no other city offers.

Nuremberg's evenings centre on old-town taverns, students on the riverbanks and the small alternative bars of Gostenhof. It makes a pleasant night out, but there are few clubs.

Both cities have green country close at hand, but of different kinds. Nuremberg has the pine forest of the Reichswald at the edge of town. About an hour away is Franconian Switzerland, with its limestone towers, caves and well-known rock climbing.

Vienna has a little more range and more of it inside the city. You can walk up through vineyards in the Vienna Woods to the Kahlenberg or explore the wild floodplain of the Donau-Auen. The Wachau cycle path is a classic day ride, and you can reach real Alpine plateaus on the Rax and Schneeberg in about an hour and a half.

Nuremberg is the better base for day trips, because so many first-class old towns are so close. Bamberg, Regensburg and Würzburg are each about an hour by train or less, and the walled Romantic Road towns of Rothenburg and Dinkelsbühl are only a little further.

Vienna's choice is more varied but thinner. Bratislava is a different capital an hour away, the Wachau and Melk make a lovely river day, and Baden and Eisenstadt are close. The bigger names, Budapest and Salzburg, need an overnight stay.

Vienna gives families more to do and more days of it. There is Schönbrunn Zoo next to a maze and a children's museum, the Prater's Ferris wheel and rides, and the sharks at Haus des Meeres. For rainy days there are the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum and the hands-on Technical Museum.

Nuremberg's appeal is gentler and has a toy theme. It has the Toy Museum, locomotives at the railway museum, a woodland zoo and a play park in nearby Zirndorf. In Advent there is also a children's market with carousels. It is easy to manage, apart from the steep cobbled climb to the castle.

You can walk both centres. Nuremberg's walled core is only about 1.5km across, with the station at its southern gate, so the cobbled climb to the castle is the only real effort.

Vienna's advantage is the city beyond the centre. Its colour-coded U-Bahn lines and dense trams take you to Schönbrunn, the Prater, the Danube Island and the vineyard villages, and the U-Bahn runs all night at weekends. It is a big capital that feels smaller than it is.

Vienna is clearly the better place to shop. The Golden U around the Graben and Kohlmarkt has luxury houses under imperial facades, Mariahilfer Strasse covers everyday fashion and Neubau has independent designers. Augarten porcelain, crystal and Loden make gifts with real local roots.

Nuremberg's shopping streets are mostly chain stores. Outside Advent, it comes down to Lebkuchen tins, wooden toys and the craft workshops of the Handwerkerhof. In December, the Christkindlesmarkt makes it one of Germany's best places to buy Christmas things.

Nuremberg is a little easier on the wallet. Tavern meals, local beer and transport all cost less, and the sights are modestly priced. The catch is the trade-fair and Advent weeks, when hotel rooms become scarce.

Vienna is a step dearer, mainly because the major palaces and museums charge full admission. Set lunches, sausage stands and Heuriger buffets keep meals manageable, and many gardens and churches are free. The opera's standing places make the city's greatest strength surprisingly affordable.

This is where the two cities differ most. Vienna is one of the world's music capitals. The State Opera plays a different work most nights, the Philharmonic plays in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein, and the Konzerthaus, the Volksoper and the Burgtheater fill the rest of the week. Mozart, Beethoven and the Strauss family are played every night.

Nuremberg has a respectable regional programme. The Staatstheater stages opera and ballet, the open-air concert in the Luitpoldhain is a summer highlight, and the free Bardentreffen folk weekend fills the old town. It is enjoyable, but nobody plans a trip around it the way they do for Vienna.

Vienna makes it easier to slow down. Hours in a coffee house and evenings at a vineyard tavern are part of ordinary life. For bathing there is the large Therme Wien, the Art Deco Amalienbad, and the old sulphur springs of Baden half an hour away.

Nuremberg relies on its neighbours. There is a thermal spa with sauna gardens in Fürth, a short U-Bahn ride away, and floating in the saline pools at Bad Windsheim makes a good day out. In the city itself, a slow afternoon in a beer garden by the Pegnitz is the local way to relax.