Bled or Portofino?

Neither has a proper sandy beach on the doorstep, but Portofino's sea gives it the edge. You can swim in deep, clear water off the rock platforms towards the lighthouse, on the small sandy bay at Paraggi or from the pebbles at San Fruttuoso, and the season runs from June into early October. The catch is that every spot is small, much of Paraggi is taken up by paid beach clubs, and they all fill fast.

In Bled you swim in fresh water from grassy lidos and wooden piers, and the shallow western end near Velika Zaka is gentle for children. The season is shorter, roughly late June to early September, and nearby Bohinj is colder still.

Neither is a place to travel to for the food, but Portofino eats better. It has proper Ligurian cooking, with trofie and pesto, pansoti in walnut sauce, fritto misto and Recco's cheese-filled focaccia, served on harbour terraces facing the yachts. You pay heavily for the view, though, and the more local cooking is in Camogli or the hill trattorie.

Bled's choice is thinner. There is kremšnita on a lake terrace, and trout, žlikrofi and buckwheat dishes in a few inns, with hotel dining rooms and pizzerias filling the gaps. The better meals are out in the valley farm inns.

In both places the setting is the sight, and each can be seen in about a day. Bled's set pieces are the cliff-top castle and the pletna boat out to the island church with its wishing bell and long stairway.

Portofino's are the coloured horseshoe of the harbour, the climb to San Giorgio and Castello Brown, and the abbey of San Fruttuoso, which you can reach only by boat or on foot. Bled has a little more to step inside, with the castle's museum and printing workshop, while Portofino is more about walking between viewpoints.

Portofino at least has an evening ritual. People dress up for an aperitivo at the bars facing the moored yachts, and these stay busy on summer nights before the village goes quiet. In Bled the evening is a drink on a hotel or lakeside terrace and a stroll along the lit shore, and the village is asleep well before midnight. Neither has clubs. For a real night out, from Portofino you go to Santa Margherita, Rapallo or Genoa, and from Bled to Ljubljana.

Both sit in protected landscapes, but Bled opens onto a whole mountain range. Within easy reach are the Vintgar Gorge, Triglav National Park, Lake Bohinj and the Savica waterfall. There are multi-day hut routes, rafting and canyoning on the Sava, paragliding and winter skiing, so the range of things to do outdoors is far wider.

Portofino's headland is smaller and more concentrated. Cliff trails cross Monte di Portofino to San Fruttuoso and Punta Chiappa, some with chains on the exposed sections. Its real strength is under the water, in the marine reserve's coral walls and seagrass, which Bled cannot match.

Both make good bases, and Portofino is a little ahead for variety and for the pleasure of the journey itself. Summer ferries run to the Cinque Terre, Portovenere and Camogli, and Genoa's medieval centre and the Strade Nuove palaces are under an hour away. Out of season the boats stop and the trains take over.

Bled's trips take in more of a country: Ljubljana within the hour, medieval Radovljica, Postojna cave and Predjama Castle, the Adriatic at Piran, and the Wörthersee in Austria through the Karawanks tunnel. More of these are easier with a car.

Bled is much the better choice with children. The flat lake path takes pushchairs, the lidos are shallow, rowing out to ring the island bell is a favourite, and Straža hill has a summer toboggan run and rope park. Its weak spot is a rainy day.

Portofino is safe but made for adults, with steep steps, no playgrounds and little free sand. Families usually stay in Santa Margherita or Rapallo and make a trip to Genoa's aquarium.

Bled is the easier of the two to reach and leave. Regional buses run to Ljubljana and Bohinj, and there are two railway stations, including Bled Jezero on the scenic Bohinj line above the western shore. Getting up to Pokljuka, the Vršič pass or the Soča valley still usually means a car.

Portofino is a short walk from end to end, but only one narrow road comes in from Santa Margherita. Parking is scarce and the buses are crowded in summer. From spring to autumn the ferries are the more pleasant way in, and a car is mostly a hindrance.

Portofino gives you something to browse, if only briefly: a few lanes of fashion and jewellery boutiques, resort linen and swimwear, and some Ligurian lace, ceramics and pesto. It all takes under an hour, and for a proper browse people go to the arcades of Chiavari or to Genoa. Bled has only lakeside gift stalls selling honey, lace and painted beehive panels, so anything more means a trip to Ljubljana.

Bled is the priciest corner of Slovenia, but it is still far easier on the budget than Portofino. Guesthouses, private apartments and the campsite at the western end keep costs down, as does staying in Radovljica or Bohinj, and the lake path and mountain trails are free.

Portofino is one of the most expensive places to stay in Italy. It has a handful of luxury hotels, costly terraces and paid loungers at Paraggi. The usual answer is to sleep in Santa Margherita, Rapallo or Camogli and come in by bus or boat.

Neither has a theatre or a regular venue, and both offer only occasional summer concerts: Bled's in the castle and churches, Portofino's in the piazzetta or at Castello Brown. The real difference is where the nearest proper stage is. For Bled it means opera, theatre and concerts in Ljubljana, and for Portofino an evening at Genoa's Teatro Carlo Felice.

Bled has a genuine spa history going back to Arnold Rikli's nineteenth-century air and sun cures. Mild springs at the eastern end of the lake feed hotel pools that day guests can sometimes use, and early walks around still water and slow pletna rides make it restful outside the summer peak.

In Portofino, wellness means the spas of the luxury hotels. Its calm belongs to early mornings, evenings and the months either side of summer, before the tour-boat crowds arrive or after they have gone.