Bern or Interlaken?

Neither has a sea, but Bern's summer swimming has more character. Locals walk upstream from the Marzili and let the Aare carry them back past the Federal Palace, and the lidos at Marzili, Lorraine and Eichholz add lawns and pools. The current is fast and cold, so it suits confident swimmers.

Interlaken offers quieter lake bathing, at Neuhaus on Lake Thun or Bönigen on the colder, turquoise Lake Brienz. It is a pleasant dip after a hike rather than part of the reason to go, and in both places the season is confined to high summer.

Bern eats better, if not adventurously: Berner Platte in vaulted cellar restaurants and old guildhall dining rooms, Emmental cheese at the Bundesplatz market, good chocolate and the onion tarts of the Zibelemärit in late November. The range is that of a small city, but it is a real local table.

Interlaken's restaurants mostly serve fondue, raclette and Indian or Middle Eastern menus to a passing international crowd. Its best meals happen higher up, on a hut terrace above Grindelwald or with cheese from an Alpine dairy, and many visitors simply live on picnics.

This is where the two differ most. Bern's old town on its loop of the Aare is a World Heritage Site, with arcades, painted fountains, the Zytglogge and the Minster, and its museums, from the Zentrum Paul Klee to the Einstein Museum, easily fill two days.

Interlaken has the grand hotels and Kursaal along the Höheweg and a few old timber houses in Unterseen, and little more. Culture-minded visitors staying there end up taking the train to Bern.

Neither is a party destination, but Bern has more going on: cellar bars under the arcades, a busy weekend strip on Aarbergergasse, summer terraces by the river and the Reitschule for late, rough-edged nights. Interlaken's evenings run to a few backpacker pubs and basement clubs, the casino and a drink on the Höheweg, and the town is quiet early because everyone is up for the first train.

Bern has the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau on its skyline, the Gurten above town and gentle walking and cycling in the Emmental and Jura, with the Jungfrau region an hour away by train. That is a fine outdoor offer for a city.

Interlaken, though, sits inside the scenery. The Lauterbrunnen valley, the Trümmelbach falls, Schynige Platte and the Jungfraujoch above the Aletsch glacier are short rides away, paragliding, canyoning, rafting and lake paddling start in town, and Grindelwald, Wengen and Mürren take over for skiing in winter. Low cloud hiding the peaks is the main risk.

Both are excellent bases thanks to the Swiss trains, but Bern's central position gives more variety. Lucerne, Basel and Zurich are about an hour away, Fribourg, Gruyères, Murten, Solothurn and Neuchâtel are closer still, and Lausanne and the Lavaux terraces are within reach.

Interlaken's outings lean towards its own corner of the country: Thun, the castles at Spiez and Oberhofen by paddle steamer, woodcarving in Brienz and the open-air museum at Ballenberg. Bern is under an hour away, while Lucerne is a longer scenic run over the Brünig Pass.

Both are safe and easy with children, with different kinds of fun. Interlaken edges ahead because getting there is the entertainment: rack railways, gondolas and steamers, then toboggan runs, cliff walks and playgrounds at the summit stations, the St Beatus caves and the farm animals at Ballenberg. Wet days are harder to fill, and the highest summits can trouble very young children.

Bern answers with the bear park, the Dählhölzli zoo, the Natural History Museum's dioramas and the playground on the Gurten, which makes a rainy day simpler. The Aare itself, though, is no place for children to swim.

Bern is the easier place to get about: a compact old town walkable in twenty minutes under the arcades, punctual trams and buses, and the main station right at the top of the centre. Funiculars and a public lift take the edge off the steep climbs from the river.

Interlaken's flat town is simple too, and its web of narrow-gauge railways, cog trains, gondolas and lake boats is superb for reaching the mountains without a car. The catch is crowding on the most popular mountain trains in summer.

Bern has proper streets to browse: the arcaded line of Spitalgasse, Marktgasse and Kramgasse, then antiques, design and books in the cellar shops of Gerechtigkeitsgasse, plus the weekly markets. Interlaken's Höheweg is given over to watch and jewellery stores for tour groups, army knives, cuckoo clocks and outdoor gear, with carved wood from Brienz the one local craft worth buying.

There is little to choose between them: both are very expensive by any European measure, and hotels, meals and drinks cost much the same. The difference lies in what drives the bill.

In Bern many of the best things, the old town, the bear park, the river paths and the Federal Palace tours, cost nothing. In Interlaken the mountain railways, cable cars and adventure sports are the trip itself, and they add heavily to an already high bill.

Bern has a small capital's evening programme: opera, ballet and drama at the Stadttheater, the Bern Symphony Orchestra at the Casino, new dance and music at the Dampfzentrale, plus a spring jazz festival and the Gurtenfestival in July.

Interlaken's highlight is the open-air William Tell, staged by local amateurs in the woods each summer, and otherwise folklore evenings of yodelling and alphorns. Anyone wanting an orchestra or opera goes to Bern.

Bern is the more restful base: quiet Sundays, unhurried arcades, long riverside lunches, a large thermal bath complex on its western edge and a hammam-style spa in the old town. Interlaken offers spas in its grand Höheweg hotels and real calm on early lake mornings and steamer crossings, but the centre is full of coach groups and backpackers, so anyone after rest tends to stay in the lakeside villages or up in Wengen or Mürren.