Bergen or Flåm?

Neither place is for a beach vacation, and the difference between them is small. Bergen gives you more ways into the water. There are the bathing piers and the heated seawater pool at Nordnes, smooth rocks along the fjord and freshwater lakes in the hills.

At Flåm the shore is shingle and quayside, and snowmelt keeps the fjord cold. Swimming means a short dip from the rocks, usually straight out of a sauna.

Bergen is a proper place to eat seafood. You can try king crab and the creamy fish soup, a few ambitious kitchens near the old centre cook with fjord fish and mountain lamb, and there are skillingsbolle cinnamon buns with good coffee. The range is narrow outside Norwegian cooking, but there is real choice within it.

In Flåm you eat wherever is open near the station: hotel dining rooms, cafés for day-trippers and a pub that brews its own beer. Look for the goat cheeses from Undredal and the cured meats. Otherwise plan meals around the day outdoors.

Bergen has two solid days of sightseeing. There are the wooden passages of Bryggen, Haakon's Hall and the Rosenkrantz Tower at the fortress, the Hanseatic and Bryggens museums, and the Norwegian painting at KODE. On the southern edge are Troldhaugen and the Fantoft stave church.

In Flåm the sights take about an hour: the railway museum by the station, and a walk up the valley to the church of 1670 with its painted interior. The area's stave churches and old villages need a day out.

Bergen is a university city, and it goes out on Friday and Saturday. Bars fill late around the old centre and near the university, and a few clubs stay open into the small hours. It is informal and expensive, but it does exist.

Flåm has nothing that runs late. You get a beer after dinner, perhaps a drink outside on a bright summer evening, then bed before the next day's boat or hike.

Both are superb for the outdoors, and the difference is in kind rather than degree. Bergen gives you mountains straight from the city. The funicular to Fløyen and the cable car to Ulriken take you up to the trails, the Vidden ridge between them makes a classic full-day walk, and the skerries offshore are good for kayaking. The orchards and waterfalls of the Hardangerfjord are within easy reach, while the Sognefjord arms and the Nærøyfjord take a long day by train and boat. Pack waterproofs whatever the month.

Flåm puts you inside that inner fjord country, so you are not making a long day trip to reach it. The narrow Nærøyfjord is next door, and the Stegastein platform hangs 650m above the Aurlandsfjord. You can walk down the valley from Myrdal, follow Aurlandsdalen past old summer farms or cycle the Rallarvegen. The trade-off is winter, when snow and short days leave far less to do on foot.

From both places the outings are to villages and scenery, not other towns. From Bergen they head east into Hardanger, to the cider farms of Norheimsund and Utne and the barony at Rosendal, or to Voss and on to Flåm itself.

From Flåm the list is equally short but different: goat-cheese Undredal, the Viking village at Gudvangen, and the Borgund stave church and old Lærdalsøyri through the long tunnel. The two places are close to three hours apart. That makes them better as two stops on one route than as day trips from each other.

Bergen is the easier choice with young children. The aquarium at Nordnes has seals and penguins, VilVite is good for hands-on science on a rainy day, and at the top of Fløyen there are playgrounds, canoes and troll figures in the forest. Steep streets and frequent rain are the main nuisances.

Flåm has a few big moments, such as the railway stopping beside a roaring waterfall, the fjord boats and the Viking village. Nothing there is built for children, though, so it suits families whose children can manage a real hike.

Bergen's centre is walkable, though the hills slow you down. The Bybanen light rail and buses cover the rest, and trains and express boats from the harbour make a car optional for fjord trips.

Flåm takes ten minutes to cross, and the railway, boats and buses link it to the region. Services thin out outside summer, though, and reaching Stegastein, Borgund or Lærdal is much easier with a car on narrow tunnel roads.

Bergen is a modest shopping city, but it has real Norwegian things to buy. You will find patterned wool sweaters, outdoor gear, Scandinavian design and the small craft workshops in Bryggen's passages, plus central streets for everyday fashion.

Flåm has souvenir shops by the station selling trolls, knitwear and goat cheese, and that is all.

Both are very expensive, and neither will suit a tight budget. Bergen at least has more ways to save: hostels, self-catering flats, supermarkets and hikes that start in town, though the funicular and museums soon add up.

In Flåm the few rooms are in heavy demand in summer, and the railway and fjord boats you came for are not cheap. Cabins, the campsite and the village supermarket are the main ways to keep costs down.

Bergen has a real musical life. The Bergen Philharmonic plays a full season at Grieghallen, Grieg is performed at Troldhaugen in summer, and there is theatre at Den Nationale Scene, where Ibsen once worked. In late spring the Bergen International Festival opens a run of festivals.

Flåm has no stage at all. The most you might find is a musician in the pub on a summer evening.

Bergen offers the Nordic routine in a city setting: a wood-fired sauna on the harbour, a cold plunge into the fjord and the heated pool at Nordnes. Its slow wooden lanes help, but it is still a city, not a retreat.

Flåm is better for switching off. A floating sauna sits on the fjord, and on a long summer evening, after the day crowds have gone, the village is deeply quiet. Avoid the harbour in the middle of the day.