Rothenburg ob der Tauber or Utrecht?

Swimming is an afterthought in both. Rothenburg is hundreds of kilometres from any coast, so on a hot day the choice is the town's outdoor pool or an hour's drive to the Altmühlsee and the other Franconian lakes.

Utrecht has a little more within reach. There are recreation lakes such as the Maarsseveense Plassen on the edge of the city, the Loosdrecht lakes a little further out, and the North Sea at Zandvoort or Scheveningen about an hour away by train, although the water stays cool even in high summer.

Rothenburg's food is hearty but the choice is narrow: Schäufele, bratwurst and dumplings, Silvaner in its round-bellied Bocksbeutel, and the sugary Schneeball pastry. Many kitchens near the Marktplatz cook for coach parties, so the better meals are in family guesthouses and wine taverns away from the square.

Utrecht has more variety, even without a cuisine of its own. Indonesian and Surinamese kitchens, bistros in Lombok and on the Twijnstraat, and terraces in the old wharf cellars of the Oudegracht give you more choice over several evenings. Neither city is a place for fine dining.

Both have superb medieval centres, but they feel very different. Rothenburg is an intact walled town that you take in by walking its ramparts and lanes. Riemenschneider's Holy Blood Altar and the Medieval Crime Museum are the highlights, and the whole visit is short.

Utrecht is a working city built around the free-standing Dom Tower and the two-level Oudegracht. It adds modern design to the medieval core, with the De Stijl collection at the Centraal Museum and the Rietveld Schröder House, so it fills two or three days rather than one.

A night out in Rothenburg means a wine tavern, an inn dining room or the night watchman's tour, and the lanes are quiet well before midnight. For anything livelier you have to drive to Würzburg or Nuremberg.

In Utrecht the students keep the bars and canal terraces around the Neude and the Janskerkhof busy even on weeknights, and there are a few clubs as well. It is a scene of bars and terraces rather than clubs, and Amsterdam is close by train for a bigger night.

Both sit in gentle countryside rather than wild country. Around Rothenburg that means the Tauber valley below the walls, with mills and orchards and a well-known family cycle path through vineyards, and the rolling Frankenhöhe beyond.

Utrecht offers more variety. Bike routes follow the Vecht past country estates and windmills, the wooded ridges and heath of the Utrechtse Heuvelrug suit walking and mountain biking, and you can sail on the Loosdrecht lakes. Flat land and a dense cycle network make it easy to get out into the countryside.

Rothenburg has excellent places nearby. Dinkelsbühl, Nördlingen inside its meteorite crater, Würzburg's Residenz and Nuremberg are all within about an hour. The catch is transport: trains run on a branch line and buses are sparse, so you really need a car.

Utrecht is easier and offers more choice. As the hub of the Dutch rail network, it has Amsterdam under half an hour away and Rotterdam, The Hague, Delft and Gouda a short train ride off, so you can see much of the country without changing hotels.

Rothenburg charms children for a day or two. They can walk the ramparts, climb the Rathaus tower and follow the lantern-carrying night watchman, and older ones love the torture devices in the Crime Museum. But the cobbles and steep paths are hard on pushchairs, and little is made specifically for children.

Utrecht holds their interest for longer. The Railway Museum and the Miffy museum are aimed squarely at children, the barrel organs at the Speelklok please every age, and Dutch life takes children everywhere. The steady flow of bikes is the one thing to watch.

Both centres are walkable. You can cross Rothenburg's walled town in a quarter of an hour on cobbles, with a steep climb back up from the valley. Leaving town is the hard part: trains mean a change at Steinach, so a car is more practical.

Utrecht is easier both in town and beyond. The country's busiest station sits on the edge of the old town, the flat streets suit walking and cycling, trams and buses use the same tap-in card as the trains, and you never need a car.

Rothenburg's shops are mostly about Christmas, with baubles, nutcrackers, smoking men and carvings along the Herrngasse and Schmiedgasse, plus teddy bears and cuckoo clocks. It is a fine place to shop for that and little else.

Utrecht is a real place for browsing. Independent fashion, design and book shops line the Twijnstraat and the Elisabethstraat, the chains are in Hoog Catharijne, and there are flower and textile markets. Only the luxury brands are missing.

Rothenburg is the cheaper of the two, though not cheap. Guesthouses inside the walls charge a tourist premium, highest in December and on summer weekends, but local wine and beer are reasonably priced and a room in a nearby village saves a good deal.

In Utrecht the main cost is the bed. Central hotels are few and priced like those in a major Western European city, and restaurant meals add up quickly. Walking everywhere, cheap student cafés and modest museum fees keep the rest of the day manageable.

In Rothenburg, performance is mostly about the town's history: the costumed Meistertrunk play, an open-air theatre in summer and organ concerts in St Jakob's. On most evenings there is nothing on.

Utrecht has a real music life. TivoliVredenburg stacks several halls with programmes running from the Radio Philharmonic to pop and jazz, the Festival Oude Muziek draws early-music lovers from across Europe, and the Stadsschouwburg puts on theatre and dance, mostly in Dutch.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, and both are calmest once the day visitors leave. Rothenburg's escape is the quiet of early morning on the walls or in the Tauber valley, and for spa time there is the salt-water Franken-Therme at Bad Windsheim or the spa town of Bad Mergentheim, both about an hour away.

Relaxing in Utrecht is more sociable: slow evenings on the canal wharves, the Pandhof cloister garden beside the Dom, and large Dutch sauna complexes a short ride out in the green belt.