Bavaria or Swiss Alps?

Neither has a sea, and both offer lake swimming for a short summer season rather than a beach vacation. In Bavaria the shallow lakes such as the Staffelsee warm up best, the larger lakes south of Munich have meadows and grassy bathing spots, and in Munich itself people swim from the Isar's gravel banks.

The Swiss lakes are clearer and cooler, with lidos and diving boards on Lake Thun and Lake Brienz and a far more dramatic backdrop. For water as warm as Bavaria's best you have to go south to Lake Lugano or Lake Maggiore in Ticino.

Bavaria eats and drinks better, mainly because of what it pours: Munich's beer gardens and beer halls, Bamberg's smoked beer and the village breweries of Upper Franconia, and Silvaner in Würzburg's wine taverns. Munich also has fine dining and the Viktualienmarkt, and nothing in the Alps matches them.

The Swiss Alps offer fondue and Valais raclette on terraces at the top of the lifts, along with Valais wines that are rarely sold abroad. Outside Zermatt, St Moritz and Gstaad, though, the choice is usually a few hotel dining rooms, and there is no market culture to browse.

Munich alone has more great art and science than the whole Alpine region, with Old Masters at the Alte Pinakothek, the Blue Rider painters at the Lenbachhaus and the Deutsches Museum. Beyond the city are Nuremberg's imperial castle, the UNESCO-listed old towns of Bamberg and Regensburg, Tiepolo's ceiling in Würzburg and Ludwig II's castles in the south. To see the best of it, plan on moving between several bases.

In the Swiss Alps the heritage is part of the landscape: sgraffito houses in the Engadine, the Albula and Bernina railway lines, Bellinzona's castles and the Carolingian frescoes at Müstair. They make pleasant stops between hikes, but none of them is worth the journey for culture alone.

Bavaria's evenings are more reliable because they do not depend on the season. Munich has cocktail bars in Glockenbachviertel, a fair club scene and noisy beer halls all year, the university towns have their pub streets, and Oktoberfest fills the tents in late September.

In the Swiss Alps a night out means après-ski in winter at Verbier or Zermatt, or glossy hotel bars in St Moritz. In summer most villages are asleep by eleven.

Bavaria's high mountains run along its southern edge: the Zugspitze above Garmisch, the Königssee at Berchtesgaden and hut-to-hut trails in the Allgäu. Further north are wild forest, limestone crags and river cycle paths. It is fine walking country.

The Swiss Alps are on another scale. The Eiger, the Matterhorn and the Aletsch glacier rise above trails that begin at cable-car stations, and ibex are easy to spot in the Swiss National Park. The ski areas around Zermatt and Verbier are among the best anywhere, while Bavaria's skiing is merely solid.

Bavaria has more good outings to choose from. Augsburg, Regensburg, Salzburg and the lakes are all close to Munich, and Franconia works as a second base for Bamberg, the wine villages on the Main and the Romantic Road towns of Rothenburg and Dinkelsbühl.

From the Bernese Oberland, the Swiss Alps reach Bern, Thun and Lucerne, with Gruyères and the Lavaux terraces further west. The trains make every trip simple, but the places are less celebrated and the journeys longer.

Bavaria gives children bigger and more varied days out. There is Legoland at Günzburg, there are zoos in Munich and Nuremberg and a hands-on children's section at the Deutsches Museum, and beer gardens have playgrounds where parents can sit. Grassy lake shores in summer and Christmas markets in winter cover the rest of the year.

In the Swiss Alps much of the fun is in getting about, on cogwheel trains, lake steamers and summer toboggan runs. In car-free Zermatt and Wengen children can wander freely. There is no large theme park or zoo, though, and very young children need some care at altitude.

The Swiss network is the smoother of the two. Trains, postbuses, lake steamers and lifts run to connected timetables, almost every village can be reached, and several resorts ban cars. Its weak point is the distance between regions, and crossing from one to another can take a whole day.

Bavaria works well by rail from Munich to Nuremberg, Garmisch and Berchtesgaden, and one regional day ticket covers much of the state. Away from the lines, buses are infrequent and trains are often late, so a car is often easier, though summer weekends bring long jams towards the Alps.

Bavaria is far ahead, and Munich is the reason. It has the luxury houses of Maximilianstrasse, the department stores between Marienplatz and Karlsplatz and independent shops in Glockenbach. Woodcarving from Oberammergau, Nuremberg gingerbread and the December markets add regional crafts.

The Swiss Alps have short luxury streets in St Moritz and Gstaad and watch and mountain-gear shops in Zermatt and Interlaken. Beyond those, the best things to take home are cheese from the dairy and Valais wine.

Neither is cheap, but Bavaria is much easier on the budget. Munich is expensive, especially during Oktoberfest and the big trade fairs. Franconian towns, the Bavarian Forest and Alpine guesthouses are moderate, though, and beer gardens let you bring your own food.

The Swiss Alps are among the most expensive places in the world for a vacation. Resort hotels, mountain meals and above all the lifts and mountain railways add up fast. Self-catering and travel passes help, and Goms or the Ticino side cost a little less, but there is no cheap way to do it.

Bavaria has a full season that the Alps cannot offer. The Bavarian State Opera plays most nights, Munich has two orchestras of international rank and the rococo Cuvilliés Theatre, and Bayreuth stages Wagner every summer.

Music in the Swiss Alps comes in summer festivals, notably Verbier in July and the Menuhin Festival in the churches around Gstaad, both excellent if your dates fit. The rest of the year there is no resident opera or theatre, only brass bands and alphorn evenings.

Both have old spa traditions, and the difference is the setting. Bavaria's cure is taken in its Bad towns, from the colonnades of Bad Kissingen and the brine of Bad Reichenhall to the thermal resort of Bad Füssing and Kneipp's water cure, with the huge sauna complex at Erding close to Munich.

The Swiss Alps put their baths among the mountains, with Leukerbad's open-air pools beneath sheer cliffs and the stone bath at Vals. Car-free villages and wide views make the quiet even deeper.