Colmar or Interlaken?

Neither is a beach destination, but Interlaken at least has water on its doorstep. In July and August, Lake Thun warms enough for a swim from the lidos at Neuhaus or along the shore towards Spiez, and the glacial turquoise of Lake Brienz at Bönigen makes for a bracing dip. Colmar sits far inland on the Alsace plain and has only municipal pools and the odd small Vosges lake, so a swim there is an errand rather than part of the day.

Colmar is the place to eat. Its wood-panelled winstubs serve the Franco-German cooking of Alsace: choucroute, baeckeoffe, tarte flambée and munster cheese. The covered market on the Lauch is full of charcuterie and gingerbread, and the Riesling and Gewurztraminer come from the slopes just outside town, with cellar tastings in the villages.

In Interlaken you mostly eat to refuel. Fondue, rösti and raclette for visitors, plus Indian and Asian places for the international crowd, are dependable but forgettable. The memorable meals happen higher up, on a hut terrace above Grindelwald or with cheese from a mountain dairy, and many visitors live on supermarket picnics.

A culture-minded visitor can fill two full days in Colmar without leaving town. The old town works as one late-medieval and Renaissance ensemble rather than a few showpieces, so the walk from the tanners' quarter to Petite Venise is itself part of the sightseeing. Grünewald's altarpiece in the Unterlinden is the kind of work people plan a whole trip around, and Schongauer's Madonna and Bartholdi's birthplace round out the visit.

You can see Interlaken in an hour: the grand hotels and the Kursaal along the Höheweg, then across the Aare to the timber houses of Unterseen. The town was built as a base for the mountains, and any serious art or architecture means a train ride somewhere else.

Both towns go quiet early, but in different ways. In Colmar the evening is a long dinner followed by a glass in a wine bar or brasserie near Petite Venise, and summer terraces are as lively as it gets. Interlaken has a small backpacker circuit of pubs, sports bars and a couple of basement clubs near the hostels, plus the Kursaal casino, though most people there are in bed early for the morning trains.

Colmar's countryside is lovely and close. Marked paths run through the vines between wine villages, and above them rise the rounded, forested Vosges, crossed by the Route des Crêtes past the Grand Ballon. Autumn is the best season, and a car makes it all easier.

Interlaken is on another scale altogether. The Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, the waterfalls of Lauterbrunnen and the Aletsch glacier seen from the Jungfraujoch are all within an hour by rail, and paragliding, canyoning, rafting and serious skiing are run from town. The one catch is cloud, which can hide the peaks for days.

Both make fine bases, but Colmar has more variety within easy reach. Strasbourg's cathedral is half an hour away by train, and the walled and winding wine villages of Riquewihr, Eguisheim and Kaysersberg lie a few kilometres apart. Basel and Freiburg put two more countries within about an hour.

From Interlaken, Bern's arcaded old town is under an hour away, lake steamers link the castles of Thun, Spiez and Oberhofen, and the Ballenberg open-air museum is near Brienz. Lucerne takes about two hours, though the scenic line over the Brünig Pass makes the journey part of the day.

Interlaken has the edge with children because the excursions themselves are the fun. Rack railways, gondolas and steamers lead to summit stations with playgrounds, cliff walks and summer toboggan runs, and the St Beatus caves make a change. Rainy days are harder to fill, and very young children may struggle at the highest altitudes.

Colmar is flat and easy, with boat rides through Petite Venise and storks nesting on the roofs. Its best family outings, though, are outside town and need a car: the macaques at Kintzheim, the stork and otter park at Hunawihr and Europa-Park across the Rhine.

Both towns are small and flat enough to walk. The difference lies beyond them. Interlaken connects straight into a well-timed system of mainline trains, narrow-gauge mountain lines, cog railways and lake boats, so the whole Jungfrau region works without a car, though the popular trains get crowded in summer.

Colmar has quick regional trains to Strasbourg and Mulhouse, but buses to the wine villages and the Vosges are thin. Most visitors hire a car or cycle the vineyard roads.

Colmar is the better place for things that come from the region itself: wine bought from the grower, Soufflenheim pottery and kougelhopf moulds, printed Alsatian linen, and the independent boutiques around the Rue des Marchands. In December the Christmas markets spread across several squares and turn shopping into the main event.

Interlaken's Höheweg is given over to tour groups, with big watch stores, army knives, cuckoo clocks and chocolate, plus outdoor gear for anyone who came underprepared. Brienz woodcarving is the one local craft worth seeking out.

Colmar is moderately priced for Western Europe. Set lunches are reasonable and village wine tastings are often free. Rooms are the expensive part, especially in summer and during the Christmas market weeks, and staying in a nearby village helps.

Interlaken runs at full Swiss prices, and the mountain railways that are the point of a stay add a large bill on top, the Jungfraujoch above all. Transport passes, hostels and picnics help, but a week there costs far more than a week in Alsace.

Colmar has a small Italian-style theatre with a proper season of plays, opera and concerts, and the Opéra national du Rhin tours there. A classical music festival in July and a jazz festival in autumn are the high points of its year. Between those weeks the programme is thin.

Interlaken's best-known show is the open-air William Tell, put on in the woods each summer by local amateurs, along with folklore evenings of yodelling, alphorns and flag throwing. For orchestral music or serious theatre you go to Bern.

In Colmar, spas mean hotel spas, in town or out in the wine villages. The rest comes from the pace: long lunches, quiet evenings by the canals once the day-trippers have gone, and unhurried walks through the vines.

Interlaken offers more for anyone who wants pampering. Several of the grand Höheweg hotels have sizeable spas, and the town has a public pool and wellness area. The centre itself is busy and geared to activity, but early mornings by the lake, slow steamer crossings and the quiet of Wengen or Mürren are genuinely restful.