Bern or Piran?

Neither town has a sandy beach of its own, but Piran gives you the sea. You climb down ladders and concrete ledges into clear, warm Adriatic water below the walls, with the pebble cove at Fiesa nearby and sunbeds on the small sandy beach at Portoroz.

Bern's swimming is a local ritual rather than a beach day: walking upstream from the Marzili and drifting back on the cold, fast Aare, which is thrilling for strong swimmers but no use for lounging. Lake Thun offers calmer water, but the season is shorter and the water cooler than on the coast.

Both eat well without being destinations for food, but the meals could hardly be more different. Bern serves alpine comfort food in guildhall dining rooms and vaulted cellars: the Berner Platte, rösti, fondue, Emmental cheese from the markets and excellent chocolate. It also has the wider spread of foreign kitchens.

Piran keeps things simple and coastal, with grilled fish, squid and scampi buzara by the harbour, Istrian olive oil, Malvazija and Refosk wines and salt from the pans next door. Its menus repeat one another more, so serious cooking means a drive into the hinterland.

Bern gives a culture trip far more to work with. Its UNESCO-listed old town of sandstone arcades, painted fountains, the Zytglogge and the Minster tower would be worth the visit alone, and it has serious collections too: the Zentrum Paul Klee, Switzerland's oldest art museum and an Einstein Museum, with the physicist's old flat in the arcades close by. Allow two days.

Piran's appeal is the town itself, a Venetian Gothic peninsula of lanes climbing from Tartini Square to the campanile of St George's and the walls on the ridge. The maritime museum and the Minorite cloister are pleasant extras rather than reasons to come, and one unhurried day sees it all.

For an evening out, Bern has more going on, though it stays low-key. Weekends fill the vaulted cellar bars under the arcades and the strip along Aarbergergasse, the Reitschule runs late, rough-edged parties, and in summer people gather at the bars along the Aare.

Piran winds down after a glass of wine at sunset on the Punta or Tartini Square. Anything livelier means heading to Portoroz for its casino and a few summer clubs.

Bern has the bigger outdoors by far. The Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau are visible from the old town and about an hour away by train for high hiking, cable cars and skiing, with Lake Thun, the Emmental and the Jura closer still.

Piran's nature is coastal and gentle: the flysch cliffs and path at Strunjan, birdlife among the Secovlje salt pans, kayaking along the shore and cycling the Parenzana through olive groves. The Karst and the Skocjan caves are the high point inland.

Bern's place at the hub of the Swiss railways makes day trips effortless. Fribourg is about twenty minutes away, Murten, Thun, Solothurn and Neuchâtel are close, and Lucerne, Basel and Zurich take about an hour. Gruyères and its cheese dairies mean changing trains at Fribourg, and Lausanne with the Lavaux terraces is a little further, but none of it needs a car.

Piran's trips cross borders instead: Trieste is under an hour away, the Croatian towns of Rovinj, Porec, Motovun and Groznjan lie to the south, Predjama Castle and Ljubljana are inland, and summer boats cross to Venice. Most of these are much easier with a hire car.

Bern gives children more to do: the bear park, the Dählhölzli zoo along the river, the dioramas of the Natural History Museum and the playground and meadows at the top of the Gurten funicular. Parents need to keep children away from the fast river.

Piran's advantage is the warm, calm sea and car-free lanes, with the little aquarium and Portoroz's shallow sandy beach nearby. Beyond that there is little built for children, so it suits a short seaside stay better than a long one.

On foot, both are easy: Bern's centre takes about twenty minutes to walk end to end, under arcades, and Piran's car-free peninsula takes even less. The difference is leaving town. Bern's trams, buses, funiculars and the station at the top of the old town connect smoothly, while Piran has no railway, slow regional buses and a car park on the edge of town, so most visitors hire a car to get around.

Bern is the better place to shop, although it is not a fashion city. Kilometres of arcades on Spitalgasse, Marktgasse and Kramgasse sell watches, chocolate and Swiss chains, and the cellar shops down steps on Gerechtigkeitsgasse sell antiques, design and books. Piran offers a few galleries and harbour souvenir stalls, and its real buys are edible: salt flower from the pans, olive oil and coastal wine.

This is the widest gap between the two. Bern is among the most expensive cities in Europe, where a dinner with wine is a real expense, and budget travellers rely on supermarket counters, the free tram pass from their hotel and free pleasures like the bear park and Federal Palace tours.

Piran is mid-priced. Old-town rooms and harbourside tables get expensive in high summer, but staying in Portoroz, eating in simpler konobas or coming in spring or autumn brings it down to a fair level.

Bern has a full calendar as a small capital. There is opera, ballet and drama at the Stadttheater, the symphony orchestra at the Casino, new dance at the Dampfzentrale, a spring jazz festival and the Gurtenfestival in July.

Piran's music is mostly a summer affair: Tartini concerts in churches, the monastery cloister and on the square named after him. The rest of the year there is little more than the occasional recital.

Piran is the better place to rest. The thalasso spa among the Secovlje pans lets you lie in brine and salt mud beside the lagoons, Portoroz has seawater pools and mud treatments, Strunjan has a seawater health resort, and the car-free seafront sets an easy pace. Bern is calm too, with long riverside lunches and quiet Sundays, but its spa time comes down to a thermal complex on the edge of the city and hotel spas, with serious retreats up in the Oberland.