Bled or Munich?

Neither city is on the coast, so in both places this means lake swimming. Bled has the edge because the water is right in front of you. You can swim from the lidos below the castle, the shallow western end or the rocks along the path, and in July and August the lake is warmer than most in the Alps. The larger, wilder and colder Bohinj is nearby.

Swimming in Munich takes more effort. The gravel banks of the Isar are for sunbathing and barbecues, and the real swims are in the Starnberger See or the Ammersee, a train ride out of town, where the alpine-fed water feels fresh, not warm.

Munich offers far more to eat. Its beer halls, its beer gardens under the chestnut trees, the Viktualienmarkt and a serious coffee-and-cake habit give a visitor several days of good eating. Above the roast pork and white sausage there are also a few starred restaurants.

In Bled, eating comes down to a slice of kremšnita on a lakeside terrace, trout and žlikrofi in an inn, and a lot of hotel and pizzeria food. The better meals are in the farm inns out in the valleys, so a food lover staying here will be driving to find them.

Munich is the place for sights. The Kunstareal alone, with the Alte Pinakothek, the Glyptothek and the Lenbachhaus, could fill a weekend before you even reach the Residenz, Nymphenburg or the Deutsches Museum.

Bled has two famous views, not a collection. One is the castle on its cliff, with a small museum and a printing workshop. The other is the baroque church on the island, reached by pletna boat. Both are worth doing, and you can see both in a day.

Munich has a night out and Bled does not. In the city an evening runs from a beer hall to the cocktail and gay bars of Glockenbach and Gärtnerplatz, and at weekends a few techno clubs stay open until morning. For just over two weeks from late September, the Oktoberfest takes over the city.

In Bled, the evening means a drink on a terrace and a walk along the lit shore, and the village is quiet well before midnight.

Both are excellent, but in different ways. In Bled the Julian Alps begin at your door. There is the 6km lake path, the climbs to Ojstrica and Osojnica and the Vintgar Gorge, with Bohinj and the Pokljuka plateau about half an hour away. Rafting on the Sava and paragliding are close by too.

Munich's mountains are about an hour away, with the Zugspitze, Garmisch and Tegernsee reached by train. Munich makes up for the distance with green space in the city itself: the English Garden, the surfers on the Eisbach and the cycle paths along the Isar.

Munich has the longer and richer list. Augsburg, Nuremberg, Regensburg, Salzburg and Innsbruck are all within reach by train, and Neuschwanstein and Herrenchiemsee supply the fairy-tale royal castles.

Bled is a good base too, but its outings are smaller in scale. Ljubljana is under an hour away and medieval Radovljica is next door, and you can also reach the Postojna cave, Predjama Castle and Piran on the Adriatic. Several trips, including the Austrian lakes and Italian Friuli, are easiest by car.

Munich has more for children, especially in bad weather. There is the Hellabrunn zoo, the hands-on sections of the Deutsches Museum, the transport museum and the Sea Life aquarium. Many beer gardens have playgrounds, and Legoland is within driving distance.

Bled is a gentle outdoor village where children row out to the island, ring the church bell, ride the summer toboggan on Straža and swim from the shallow lidos. It has hardly any indoor attractions, though, so a wet day there is hard to fill.

Munich is far easier. One joined-up network of U-Bahn, S-Bahn, trams and buses covers the museums, the palaces, the airport and the lakes. Regional trains handle the day trips, and a car is more trouble than it is worth.

Bled itself is easy to walk, and buses run to Ljubljana, Radovljica and Bohinj. The trailheads, the Vršič pass and the Soča valley have few connections, though, so most people who come for the mountains hire a car and then struggle to park by the lake in summer.

Munich, without question. It has Maximilianstrasse for luxury brands, the Kaufingerstrasse pedestrian street for department stores, Dallmayr for fine food, specialist tailors for dirndls and lederhosen, and Christmas markets in December. Bled has lakeside stalls selling honey, lace and painted beehive panels, and very little else.

Bled is easier on the wallet, though it is not cheap by Slovenian standards. Lakeside hotels and terrace restaurants charge for the view. Guesthouses in the nearby villages, the campsite or a room in Radovljica or Bohinj bring costs down, and the trails and viewpoints are free.

Munich is the most expensive city in Germany, and hotel rooms are where you feel it most, especially during the Oktoberfest and the big trade fairs. A picnic in a beer garden, the free parks and lakes and token museum entry on Sundays all help, but the total still comes out higher.

This is Munich's biggest lead. The Bavarian State Opera in the National Theatre, three orchestras of real standing, the rococo Cuvilliés Theatre and operetta at the Gärtnerplatztheater mean there is something worth booking on most nights of the year.

Bled has no venue of its own, just occasional summer concerts in the castle or the churches and folk evenings put on for visitors. Anyone who wants opera or a proper concert heads to Ljubljana.

Munich has the edge, thanks to a real bathing culture. There is the Art Nouveau Müller'sches Volksbad, public saunas with infusion rituals where everyone goes without swimwear, the huge thermal complex at Erding, and spa towns such as Bad Tölz towards the mountains.

Bled's wellness is quieter and comes from its past as a health resort. Warm springs feed a few hotel spas, which sometimes let in day guests. Its real draw is the stillness: early walks around the lake and calm evenings once the busy summer is over.