Bled or Zurich?

Neither has a beach, and both swim well from lakes in July and August, when the water is about 24°C. Bled's water is the slightly warmer of the two. You get in from grassy lidos below the castle cliff, from the shallow western end or straight off the rocks on the shore path, and strong swimmers head out to the island. Lake Bohinj nearby is colder and wilder, with pebble shores.

Zurich's swimming is a city habit instead. Wooden bathing houses line the lake at Utoquai and Mythenquai, and at the Letten river baths you float down the Limmat with a young crowd, a few minutes from the old town.

Zurich is much the better place to eat. It has veal Geschnetzeltes with rösti in panelled Altstadt taverns, fondue in winter, the tea rooms of Paradeplatz with their Luxemburgerli, and a wider spread of casual, international and fine-dining kitchens around Langstrasse. It is expensive, though, and street food and markets are thin.

Bled can cover a day or two at the table. Kremšnita on a lakeside terrace is the ritual, and trout, žlikrofi and buckwheat dishes appear in the inns, but much of the cooking is aimed at day visitors. The better meals are in the farm inns of the surrounding valleys.

Zurich gives you two or three days of real sightseeing. The Kunsthaus runs from Swiss painters to Monet and Giacometti, the National Museum tells the country's history, and the Rietberg shows art from beyond Europe. In the Altstadt are the Grossmünster, where the Swiss Reformation began, and the Chagall windows of the Fraumünster.

Bled's culture is a postcard you walk into: the clifftop castle with its small museum, and a pletna boat out to the island church to ring the wishing bell. You will have seen it all within a day.

Zurich has a serious electronic music scene. Clubs in Kreis 4 and 5 and in the old industrial halls of Zurich West stay open until morning at weekends, Langstrasse stays loud late, and in August the Street Parade fills the lake shore. Weeknights are calmer, and the price of a round keeps nights out shorter.

Bled offers a drink on a hotel terrace and a walk along the lit shore, and that is the evening. Anyone wanting more takes the bus to Ljubljana.

Bled has the edge because you are already in the mountains. The 6km lake circuit, the short climbs to Ojstrica and Osojnica, and the walkways of the Vintgar Gorge start from the village. Bohinj, the Savica waterfall and the Pokljuka pastures are about half an hour away, and the Soča valley lies over the Vršič pass. Add rafting, canyoning, paragliding and skiing at Vogel in winter.

Zurich's landscape is its lake, with the Glarus Alps at the far end and the Uetliberg ridge a short train ride from the centre. The big peaks, such as Rigi, Pilatus and the slopes of Flumserberg, are about an hour away by rail. They are easy to reach without a car, but each one is a trip out.

Zurich is at the centre of the Swiss rail network, so Lucerne, Bern, Basel and the St Gallen abbey library are each about an hour away. The Rhine Falls with Stein am Rhein, Rapperswil by lake boat and the abbey at Einsiedeln are closer still, all reachable by train.

Bled's day trips are good but less effortless. Ljubljana and medieval Radovljica are easy by bus. Postojna with Predjama Castle, Venetian Piran on the coast, Austria's Wörthersee and Italian Friuli are much easier with a car.

Zurich is easier with children, mainly because there are things to do whatever the weather. The zoo has its Madagascar rainforest hall and an elephant park, the lake lidos have shallow areas and lawns, and the Technorama in Winterthur and Lucerne's Transport Museum are short train rides away.

Bled works well for outdoorsy families in good weather. Children can row a boat out to the island, ride the summer toboggan and try the rope park on Straža hill, and push buggies along the flat lake path. With no zoo or big indoor attraction, a wet day is hard to fill.

In Zurich you never need to think about transport. Trams, S-Bahn, funiculars and even the lake boats run on one ticket, and the airport is a short train ride from the main station.

Bled is easy on foot around the lake, and buses link it to Ljubljana, Radovljica and Bohinj. The trailheads, Pokljuka and the Vršič pass are poorly served by public transport, so most people who explore hire a car, and lakeside parking is tight in summer.

Zurich has Bahnhofstrasse, where watchmakers, jewellers and old department stores run from the station to the lake. It also has antique shops and boutiques in the Niederdorf, and design shops in the arches of the old railway viaduct in Zurich West. The range is narrow beyond luxury and design, and everything is expensive.

Bled has a few lakeside stalls selling honey, lace and painted beehive panels, and a small supermarket.

Bled is clearly cheaper. It is still Slovenia's priciest resort, and you pay for a lake view. Guesthouses in the surrounding villages, the campsite at the western end and the free mountain trails keep the bill reasonable, though the island boat, castle and gorge all charge entry.

Zurich is among the most expensive cities in the world for rooms, meals and drinks. Supermarket lunches, lakeside picnics, the free lidos and the visitor card help a little, but they do not change the picture.

Zurich has a full cultural calendar: opera and ballet at the Opernhaus on the lake, the Tonhalle Orchestra in its restored hall, and leading German-language theatre at the Schauspielhaus. Jazz, indie and electronic acts play at the Rote Fabrik, and the Theater Spektakel takes over the shore in summer.

Bled has no stage of its own. There are a few summer concerts in the castle or churches and some folk evenings for visitors, and Ljubljana is the place for anything more.

Both are calm places to unwind, in different ways. Bled's appeal is its stillness. It grew up as Arnold Rikli's nineteenth-century health resort, warm springs feed the indoor pools of the big lakeside hotels, and an early walk around the still lake does the rest, best outside high summer.

Zurich offers more actual bathing: thermal pools and a rooftop pool in the vaults of the old Hürlimann brewery, and sauna sessions in the wooden lake and river bath houses in winter, with cold dips in between. The Roman spa town of Baden is twenty minutes away by train.