Basel or Hallstatt?

Neither place has a beach, so swimming means fresh water in both. Basel's version is the better outing: the city floats down the Rhine past the old town on a summer afternoon, with gravelly banks and bathing huts for sunbathing in between. It does mean a strong current, so it suits confident swimmers.

Hallstatt has calm water but a colder, more limited swim. The deep lake warms slowly, and the steep shores leave only a small jetty lawn in the village and a lido at Obertraun. It works as a bracing dip after a hike, but it is not a reason to spend an afternoon by the water.

Basel gives you far more choice. It has Alsatian tarte flambée, Baden wines, a small fine-dining tier, the Markthalle and the Marktplatz market, and wine villages across the border for cheaper meals. It is not a city people visit for the food, but you will eat well and with variety.

In Hallstatt, eating means guesthouse dining rooms with schnitzel and dumplings, plus char or whitefish from the lake. Kitchens close early once the day crowds leave, and for real cake culture you have to go to Bad Ischl.

Basel has the richer culture by a wide margin. Its museums would stand out in a city several times its size, from the Holbein rooms of the Kunstmuseum to the Beyeler and the Tinguely. Around them are the red sandstone Münster, the painted Rathaus, the guild lanes of Spalenberg and modern buildings by Herzog & de Meuron, enough for three or four days.

Hallstatt's culture is deep in time but small in scale. Its draws are the salt mine, worked for seven millennia, the museum that tells the story of the Iron Age culture named after the village, and the painted skulls of the Beinhaus. Together with the postcard village, that makes a day, not a week.

Basel's nightlife is modest but real. People drink on the riverside steps in summer, there are bars around the Kaserne and Rheingasse, and a few clubs in old harbour buildings play electronic music at weekends. Once a year Fasnacht takes over the whole city for three days and nights.

Hallstatt has nothing like this. An evening there is dinner, a glass of wine by the water and a walk along the dark lake, which is lovely if quiet is what you came for.

Hallstatt is the place for real mountains. The lake sits in a glacial trough under the Dachstein, and from the village you can reach the Five Fingers platform, the Giant Ice Cave, the waterfalls of the Echerntal and the reflection of the peak in the Gosausee. There are via ferratas in summer and ski touring in winter.

Basel's outdoors is gentler and you have to travel to it. You get Jura ridges, Black Forest summits within an hour and flat Rhine cycle paths into France and Germany. That suits walkers and cyclists, but nothing there compares with the scenery right outside Hallstatt.

Basel is one of the best day-trip bases in this part of Europe. It touches three countries, so Colmar and the Alsace wine route, Freiburg, Bern, Lucerne and Zurich are all about an hour away by fast train, with Roman Augusta Raurica close by.

Hallstatt's outings stay within the Salzkammergut lake country: Habsburg Bad Ischl, St Wolfgang and Gmunden, with Salzburg as a long day. They are attractive trips, but the buses and lakeside railway take planning, and many people find they need a car.

Basel is the easier city with children. It is compact and safe, the trams take prams, and the Zolli, one of Europe's best zoos, is near the station. The current-powered ferries and Europa-Park within driving distance add to that.

Hallstatt has a few great moments for children, such as the miners' slides in the salt mine and the ice caves for older ones. But the single steep lane is crowded at midday and hard work with a pushchair, so families usually do better staying in Obertraun.

Basel is effortless to get around. Its centre is walkable, green trams cover the rest and even cross into Germany and France, hotel guests travel free, and direct trains leave the main station in every direction.

Hallstatt's village takes minutes to walk, though the steps are steep. Leaving it is harder: the station is across the lake and reached by boat, and buses are sparse outside summer.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Basel has more to browse. Freie Strasse has Swiss watches and chocolatiers, Spalenberg has small design shops, and there is a pretty Christmas market around the Münster. In Hallstatt, shopping is one lane of souvenir shops, where the local mine salt is the only buy you will not find elsewhere.

Both are expensive, but Hallstatt is the gentler bill. Its rooms and meals are priced at Alpine resort level, and you can bring costs down by staying in Obertraun, Bad Goisern or Bad Ischl and visiting for the day.

Basel charges full Swiss prices for everything, and rooms become scarce during the big trade fairs. The free transport card helps, and so does crossing the border for meals or a cheaper bed.

The gap here is wide. Basel has Theater Basel, known well beyond Switzerland for bold opera, ballet and drama, the Stadtcasino's fine concert hall with two orchestras, early-music concerts and small jazz venues, with a season that runs from autumn to early summer.

Hallstatt has a brass band on feast days and the odd church concert. For a real night of music you have to go to Bad Ischl's summer operetta or to Salzburg.

Basel has the edge for a restful stay. Neither has a bathing culture of its own, but Basel has more good spas close by. The saline baths at Rheinfelden are twenty minutes away, the mineral pools and saunas of Bad Bellingen, Badenweiler and Bad Krozingen are just over the German border, and Baden-Baden works for a longer day. In the city the pace stays calm all day, and the Sundays are quiet.

Hallstatt's calm comes at the edges of the day: misty mornings and empty evenings by the lake, with Bad Ischl's brine baths half an hour away. In the middle of the day the tour groups fill the lane, so a slow stay there means spending those hours out on the water or up in the hills.