Nuremberg or Zurich?

Neither city has a coast, but Zurich is much better for swimming. Its clean lake and the river baths on the Limmat are right in town, with lidos and wooden bathing houses at Utoquai, Mythenquai and Tiefenbrunnen, so you can fit a swim in between sights from June to early September.

In Nuremberg, swimming means the city pools or a trip of about an hour to the Brombachsee and the other Franconian lakes. Those lakes have small sandy strips, which Zurich lacks, but they make a separate outing rather than a quick dip.

Both cities eat well without being food destinations, and the difference is one of character. Nuremberg is beer country: finger-sized bratwurst off the beechwood grill, Schäufele, Lebkuchen and smoky Kellerbier in taverns and beer gardens along the Pegnitz, all filling and cheap by comparison.

Zurich is more polished. Expect veal in cream sauce with rösti, fondue in guild-house dining rooms, a respectable fine-dining tier and international places around Langstrasse. Chocolate is where it stands out, but eating out is expensive at every level.

Nuremberg gives a sightseer more. Its walled medieval old town, the Kaiserburg, St Sebaldus and St Lorenz and Dürer's house make a fuller historic townscape. The Germanisches Nationalmuseum alone can take a day, and the Rally Grounds and Courtroom 600 add a sobering twentieth-century chapter.

Zurich's Altstadt is well kept but smaller, with the twin towers of the Grossmünster and Chagall's windows in the Fraumünster. Its strengths are the paintings in the Kunsthaus and the art from Asia, Africa and the Americas at the Museum Rietberg, but two or three days covers the essentials.

Zurich goes out much harder. Electronic music runs deep, the clubs in Kreis 4 and 5 and Zurich West stay open until morning at weekends, and Langstrasse stays busy late. The cost of a round still cuts many nights short.

Nuremberg is a city of bars rather than clubs: taverns and wine bars in the old town, students on the riverbanks in summer and the small alternative bars of Gostenhof. It makes a relaxed evening, but not one to plan a trip around.

Zurich is the clear choice for the outdoors. It has the lake with the Glarus Alps at its far end, the Uetliberg ridge walk, and real Alpine hiking on Rigi and Pilatus within about an hour. Add winter skiing at Flumserberg, and it offers a range Nuremberg cannot match.

Nuremberg's countryside is gentler. The Reichswald pine forest begins at the edge of town and the Pegnitz valley is good for riverside cycling. The limestone towers and caves of Franconian Switzerland offer good hiking and some of Germany's best-known climbing.

Both are excellent bases, and the difference is in what lies around them. From Nuremberg the trips are mostly to historic German towns: Bamberg, Regensburg and Würzburg are each about an hour away, the walled towns of the Romantic Road a little further, and Munich is about an hour by fast train.

Zurich's list mixes towns with landscape: Lucerne and its lakefront under an hour away, Bern and Basel about an hour each, the Rhine Falls and Stein am Rhein to the north, and boats up the lake to Rapperswil. You need no car in either city.

Zurich is the easier city with children. Its zoo, with the Madagascar rainforest hall and the elephant park, shallow lake lidos and boat trips cover most days. The Technorama in Winterthur and the Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne make easy outings.

Nuremberg plays on its toy-making past, with the Toy Museum, the railway museum and the first German train, a zoo in wooded old quarries, and a children's Christmas market in Advent. It works well, but the steep cobbled climb to the castle makes it a little harder going with a buggy.

Both cities are easy without a car, but Zurich is close to effortless. Its trams reach every neighbourhood, and one ticket covers buses, S-Bahn, funiculars, the Uetliberg railway and even the lake boats. The airport is a short train ride away.

Nuremberg's old town is about 1.5km across and you can walk it from the station. The U-Bahn, trams and S-Bahn reach the zoo, the Rally Grounds and Fürth, though the network is less dense than Zurich's.

Zurich is the better shopping city, as long as you shop at the top end. Bahnhofstrasse is one of the world's great luxury streets and watches are the speciality. Altstadt boutiques and design shops under the Zurich West viaduct add variety, though everything is expensive.

Nuremberg's Königstraße is mostly chain stores and department stores. Its typical buys are Lebkuchen tins, wooden toys and crafts from the Handwerkerhof. In Advent, the Christkindlesmarkt on the Hauptmarkt, one of Germany's oldest Christmas markets, becomes a reason to come in itself.

This is the widest gap between them. Nuremberg is mid-priced for Western Europe, with cheap beer, filling meals and low transport costs. The main thing to avoid is trade-fair weeks and the Advent season, when hotels fill up and room rates climb.

Zurich is among the most expensive cities in the world to visit. Simple rooms, casual lunches and drinks all cost far more. Supermarket picnics by the lake, the free lidos and the visitor card only soften the cost a little.

Zurich has the stronger stage. The Opernhaus is one of Europe's most respected opera houses, the Tonhalle Orchestra plays in a restored nineteenth-century hall, and the Schauspielhaus is among the leading German-language theatres. The old Rote Fabrik factory covers jazz, indie and electronic acts.

Nuremberg's Staatstheater, in its Art Nouveau opera house, offers sound opera, ballet and drama. Summer brings free folk and world music at the Bardentreffen and a large open-air concert in the Luitpoldhain, but the programme is regional rather than one to travel for.

Zurich is the better city for unwinding, mainly because its bathing is right in the middle of town. In Nuremberg the proper saunas are a trip away, either in leisure pools on the outskirts, where nude mixed saunas are the norm, or at the thermal spa in neighbouring Fürth. Within the walls, relaxing mostly means a slow afternoon in a beer garden.

In Zurich you can reach thermal pools and a rooftop pool, set in a converted brewery, from the centre in minutes. In winter, the wooden bathing houses on the lake and the Limmat become saunas, with a plunge into cold water between rounds. Both cities have an old spa town nearby, but Baden's hot springs are only twenty minutes away, while Bad Windsheim is about an hour from Nuremberg.