Bled or Lucerne?

Neither city has sand or sea, so this is lake swimming in both. Bled has the edge. Its lake is warmer, with shallow lidos below the castle and at Velika Zaka, and some people swim out to the island.

Lucerne's bathing is more of an urban habit, from the Lido, the wooden lake baths and the lawns at Ufschötti. The water is a few degrees cooler, so it suits a quick dip on a hot afternoon better than a day spent swimming.

Neither city is a food destination, but Lucerne gives more to choose from. Its guild houses and panelled taverns serve fondue, rösti, lake perch and the local Chügelipastete. The Saturday market and a few Neustadt bistros add some variety.

Bled's menus are mostly pizzerias, hotel dining rooms and inns serving trout and žlikrofi. Its kremšnita cream slice is the one dish people remember. The better Slovenian cooking is in the farm inns out in the valleys.

Lucerne has much more to see. Its medieval Old Town has frescoed squares, the Chapel Bridge and the Musegg towers. Add the Lion Monument, the Bourbaki Panorama and a strong Picasso and Klee collection, and two full days are easily filled.

Bled has two famous sights, the cliff-top castle and the baroque island church with its wishing bell, reached by pletna boat. Both are lovely, but one day covers them, and for museums people travel elsewhere.

Lucerne at least offers a modest night out. There are wine bars along the Reuss, a few cocktail bars and a small club scene in the Neustadt that students keep going at weekends, and at Fasnacht the whole Old Town stays out in costume until dawn.

Bled has nothing like that. An evening there means a drink on a hotel terrace and a walk along the lit shore, and the village is asleep well before midnight.

Both are superb bases for the Alps, and Lucerne edges ahead mainly because its mountains are so easy to reach. Cogwheel railways and cable cars climb Pilatus, Rigi and the Stanserhorn, and Titlis keeps snow all year. Paddle steamers make it easy to combine a boat ride and a hike in one day.

Bled's outdoors is wilder and more hands-on. There are the Vintgar Gorge walkways and the steep climbs to Ojstrica and Osojnica, and Lake Bohinj and the Pokljuka plateau lie inside Triglav National Park. Rafting on the Sava and the drive over the Vršič pass to the Soča valley add to it.

Lucerne is slightly the better base. Zurich, Bern and Basel are each under an hour by train, and the lake steamers run down to the Rütli meadow and the William Tell country around Altdorf.

Bled's day trips cover a whole small country and some of its neighbours. Ljubljana and Radovljica are close, the Postojna cave and Piran on the Adriatic each make a full day, and Austrian Carinthia is just through the Karawanks tunnel. More of these trips need a car, though.

Both suit families who like the outdoors, and Lucerne is a little ahead because of the Swiss Museum of Transport. It can fill a whole day, rain or shine. Paddle steamers and cogwheel trains are rides in themselves, though they cost a lot for a family.

Bled's pleasures are simpler and cheaper: rowing a boat to the island, ringing the bell, the toboggan run on Straža and the shallow lidos. With no big indoor attraction, a wet day there is harder to fill.

Lucerne is far easier. The station, the steamer piers and the Old Town sit together on the lakefront. Integrated tickets cover the trains, cogwheel railways and cable cars into the mountains, so a car is never needed.

Bled's centre and lake path are easy on foot, and buses run to Ljubljana and Bohinj. Pokljuka, Vršič and the Soča valley are poorly served, though, so most visitors exploring the Julian Alps hire a car and struggle to park by the lake in summer.

Lucerne has the only real shopping of the two, and it is mostly Swiss watches, jewellery, army knives and chocolate around Schwanenplatz, with a few independent boutiques in the Old Town lanes. Bled has a handful of lakeside stalls selling honey, lace and painted beehive panels, and little else.

Bled is the cheaper of the two by a wide margin, even though it is Slovenia's priciest resort. Guesthouses in nearby villages and the lakeside campsite keep costs down, and the lake path and trails are free.

In Lucerne even a simple meal is expensive, and the mountain railways that make the trip worthwhile add a lot to the budget. A Swiss travel pass and picnics help, but only so far.

This is where Lucerne pulls furthest ahead. The Lucerne Festival brings leading orchestras to Jean Nouvel's lakefront hall, which is known for its acoustics. A resident symphony orchestra and the city theatre keep music, opera and dance going through the year.

Bled has no venue of its own. It has only the odd summer concert in the castle or a church, and folk evenings put on for visitors, so serious music means a trip to Ljubljana.

Bled is the more restful of the two. It grew up as a nineteenth-century health resort around Arnold Rikli's sun and air cures. Warm springs at the eastern end of the lake still feed the hotel pools, and outside the summer peak the village is very still.

Lucerne has no bathing tradition of its own. Its best soak is Mario Botta's mineral bath high on the Rigi, an hour away. Steamer trips are restful, but the Old Town fills with tour groups in the middle of the day.