Bern or Innsbruck?

Neither city has a beach, but Bern's river gives it the better swimming. Locals walk upstream from the Marzili and float down the Aare past the Federal Palace, and the riverside lidos have lawns, pools and showers. The current is cold and fast, though, and Lake Thun's calmer shores are twenty minutes away.

Innsbruck relies on small plateau lakes such as the Lanser See and the Natterer See, which are fine for a warm afternoon. The beautiful Achensee stays cool. In Innsbruck, swimming is a side trip in high summer rather than part of everyday city life.

Both cities cook heavily and traditionally, and neither offers much range. In Bern that means the Berner Platte, fondue and rösti in guildhall dining rooms and arcade cellars. It also has proper weekly markets selling Emmental cheese, and very good chocolate.

Innsbruck's best meals tend to be up the mountain: Gröstl or Kaspressknödel at a hut after a walk, then coffee and strudel in an old-town coffee house. Bern has the market life Innsbruck lacks. Innsbruck has the hut terrace, which no table in Bern can match.

Both have compact arcaded old towns, but Bern's is the fuller sight. It is a UNESCO-listed loop of sandstone houses, painted fountains, the Zytglogge and the Minster. Behind it stand the Zentrum Paul Klee, the Kunstmuseum and the Einstein Museum.

Innsbruck's Habsburg heritage is concentrated in a few strong pieces: Maximilian's tomb with its bronze figures in the Hofkirche, the Golden Roof, the Hofburg, and the cabinet of curiosities at Ambras Castle. Those are memorable, but Bern rewards a day of wandering more and has the better art museums.

Neither city is made for big nights out, so the difference is in character. Bern drinks in vaulted cellar bars under the arcades and, in summer, on the Aare terraces. The Reitschule is there for late, rough-edged parties, but the city goes quiet early during the week.

Innsbruck's university makes its scene a little younger. It centres on the bars and small clubs in the brick arches under the railway viaduct, and in winter much of the partying moves out to après-ski in the resorts.

Both cities are within sight of the Alps, but Innsbruck sits inside them. A funicular from the edge of the old town connects with cable cars that reach about 2,300m in under half an hour. The Karwendel, the Stubai Glacier and several ski areas on one pass surround the city.

From Bern, the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau line the horizon, about an hour away by train. The Gurten, the Aare paths, Lake Thun and the gentler Emmental and Jura are closer. That is excellent walking and cycling country, but in Bern the high mountains are a day out, while in Innsbruck they are part of every day.

Bern is the stronger base. It sits at the hub of the Swiss rail network: Lucerne, Basel and Zurich are about an hour away and Fribourg twenty minutes. Murten, Thun, Solothurn and Neuchâtel are nearer still, so you rarely have to plan around connections.

Innsbruck offers variety across three countries rather than many places close together. Hall in Tirol and Rattenberg are quick to reach. Munich, Salzburg, and Bolzano and Merano over the Brenner each take nearly two hours, and the Bavarian castles are easiest by car.

Bern keeps its children's attractions in town, while Innsbruck takes families uphill. In Bern that means the bear park below the old town, the Dählhölzli zoo along the Aare, the animal dioramas at the Natural History Museum and the playground on the Gurten. The Marzili has shallow pools, but the river itself is for strong swimmers only.

Innsbruck's funicular leads to ibex and lynx at the Alpenzoo, and beyond it come hut playgrounds, adventure trails, gentle ski slopes and the plateau lakes for a calm swim. Its town sights are aimed more at adults, so a wet day takes more planning there than in Bern.

Bern is the smoother of the two. The station sits at the top of a centre you can cross on foot under the arcades. Trams and buses share one fare, and funiculars and a public lift handle the climb from the river, though some streets are steep.

Innsbruck's centre is compact and flat, and its funicular to the Nordkette makes the mountains unusually easy to reach. Beyond the trams, regional trains and ski buses, though, a car helps for the remoter valleys and lakes, which Bern never needs.

Bern's covered arcades make for the longer and more varied browse. Spitalgasse, Marktgasse and Kramgasse run in one dry line with watch and chocolate shops and a long-established department store. Further down, on Gerechtigkeitsgasse, cellar shops reached by steep steps sell antiques, design and books.

Innsbruck's Maria-Theresien-Strasse is mostly chains, so the reasons to buy there are Tyrolean: loden jackets and dirndls, woodcarvings, Speck and schnapps, and excellent outdoor and ski shops. It fills an afternoon rather than a day.

Bern is by far the more expensive of the two, and the money goes on the basics. Rooms and evening meals are costly even at the modest end, and a dinner with wine is an occasion rather than a routine. Sightseeing costs very little, though. The bear park, the Aare paths, the arcades and guided tours of the Federal Palace are free, and hotels usually give guests a pass for the trams and buses.

Innsbruck turns this round. Rooms and filling meals in the traditional inns cost Western European prices but stay well below Bern's, and local transport is fairly priced. The bill grows with what you do: cable car tickets add up quickly on an active trip, and stays in ski season or over the Christmas markets carry a resort premium.

Bern leans contemporary and popular, Innsbruck towards older music. In Bern that means dance and new music at the Dampfzentrale, a spring jazz festival, the Gurtenfestival's rock and pop in July, and opera and drama at the Stadttheater.

Innsbruck's highlight is its summer Festival of Early Music, held in settings such as the Spanish Hall at Ambras Castle, alongside the Landestheater and folk evenings of yodelling and brass. In both, the programme is worth checking around your dates rather than planning a trip around.

Spa time in Bern is urban, in Innsbruck it is Alpine. Bern has a large thermal bath complex on the western edge and a hammam-style spa in the old town, with quiet Sundays and long riverside lunches doing the rest.

Innsbruck relies on hotel spas with mountain views in Igls and the plateau villages, and on evenings in mountain huts. The large thermal complexes of the Ötztal and Zillertal are about an hour away.