Bled or Innsbruck?

Neither has a sea, but Bled is much the better place to swim. Lake Bled warms to around 24°C in high summer and is the heart of the place. You can bathe below the castle cliff, paddle in the shallow water near Velika Zaka or swim out to the island, and Bohinj adds wilder pebble shores nearby.

In Innsbruck, swimming is a side trip. The small Lanser See and Natterer See on the plateaus above town are warm enough on a hot afternoon, but the beautiful Achensee stays cool for most swimmers.

Both serve hearty mountain cooking, but Innsbruck gives you more to choose from. On top of Gröstl, Kaspressknödel and Kaiserschmarrn, it has old-town inns, Viennese-style coffee houses, cheaper student places and huts reached by cable car. That is enough for a week of meals, even if none of it is ambitious.

Bled runs out sooner. Beyond a kremšnita on a lakeside terrace and some trout or žlikrofi, the choice is mostly hotel dining rooms and pizzerias. The better cooking is in the farm inns out in the valleys or down in Ljubljana.

Bled's sights make one very pretty day: the castle on its cliff with the view down to the island, then a pletna boat out to the baroque church and its wishing bell.

Innsbruck has the heritage of a Habsburg seat packed into a small old town. The Golden Roof, the Hofburg and the Hofkirche, with Maximilian I's tomb and its ring of bronze figures, are a few minutes' walk apart. Ambras Castle on the edge of town adds a cabinet of curiosities and an armour collection, enough for two or three full days.

Bled has no night out to speak of, while Innsbruck has a small one. In Bled the evening ends with a drink on a terrace and a walk along the lit shore, and the village is asleep well before midnight.

Innsbruck's university fills the bars and small clubs in the brick arches under the railway viaduct, which stay open late at weekends. In winter, après-ski in the nearby resorts takes over.

For both, the mountains are the main reason to come. Bled has the gentler, more compact version: the level lake circuit, short steep climbs to Ojstrica and Osojnica, the Vintgar Gorge, and Bohinj and Pokljuka within half an hour in Triglav National Park.

Innsbruck goes bigger and higher. From the old town you can be on the Nordkette ridge, at about 2,300m, in under half an hour, and the Karwendel begins behind it. The Stubai Glacier holds snow for most of the year, and the ski areas, via ferratas and hut-to-hut routes are on a larger scale than anything around Bled.

Both make good bases, but the trips differ in kind. From Bled you explore a small country: Ljubljana in under an hour, medieval Radovljica, the Postojna cave and Predjama Castle, and Piran on the Adriatic, with Austrian Carinthia and Italian Friuli also within reach.

From Innsbruck the trains do more of the work and the range is wider. Hall in Tirol is ten minutes away, Munich and Salzburg are a little under two hours, and Bolzano and Merano lie over the Brenner Pass. Neuschwanstein is a drive away.

Families do about equally well, and in both towns the fun is outdoors rather than at attractions. Bled gives children a rowing boat to the island, the wishing bell to ring, shallow lidos, and the toboggan run and rope park on Straža hill.

Innsbruck has the Alpenzoo with its ibex, bears and lynx, reached by funicular, plus adventure trails by the mountain huts and the play tower at the Swarovski Crystal Worlds. In both, a rainy day with small children takes planning.

Both centres are easy to walk, but Innsbruck is far easier without a car. Trams and buses cover the city and reach Igls and the Stubai valley. The funicular to the mountains starts at the edge of the old town, and the central station has trains along the valley.

Bled is simple around the lake, and buses run to Ljubljana and Bohinj. Its train stations are outside the centre, though, and the trailheads, Pokljuka and the Vršič pass are poorly served, so most visitors who want to see the Julian Alps hire a car.

Shopping is no reason to visit either, but Innsbruck at least fills an afternoon. There are chains on Maria-Theresien-Strasse, loden jackets, dirndls and woodcarvings in the old-town arcades, and excellent outdoor and ski shops if you need gear. Bled has a few stalls by the lake selling honey, lace and painted beehive panels, and little else.

Bled comes out slightly cheaper, mostly because there are cheaper beds close by. The village costs more than the rest of Slovenia, but guesthouses in the nearby villages, the campsite at the western end of the lake or a room in Radovljica or Bohinj bring the bill down. The lake path and viewpoints cost nothing.

Innsbruck has Western European prices with an Alpine premium on top, and cable car tickets add up on an active trip, though the city and guest cards help. It is cheapest in spring and autumn, while Bled is most expensive in July and August.

Innsbruck has a real season and Bled does not. The Tiroler Landestheater stages opera, drama and dance, the Tyrolean Symphony Orchestra plays in the congress hall, and the summer Festival of Early Music uses historic settings such as the Spanish Hall at Ambras Castle.

In Bled there are only occasional summer concerts in the castle or the churches, and folk evenings put on for visitors. Anything more means a trip to Ljubljana.

Bled has the stronger claim here. It began as a nineteenth-century health resort under Arnold Rikli, warm springs feed the eastern end of the lake, and the large lakeside hotels use that water in their pools, which outside guests can sometimes use too. Early walks around still water do the rest.

Innsbruck has no springs or baths of its own. Its version of wellness is a hotel sauna in Igls or the plateau villages after a day on the mountain, with the big thermal spas of the Ötztal and Zillertal about an hour away.