Colmar or Lucerne?

Neither city has a coast, but only Lucerne gives you somewhere real to swim. In July and August locals swim from the Lido, the old wooden lake baths and the lawns at Ufschötti, in clean water backed by mountains. The shore is grass and jetties rather than sand, and the season is short.

In Colmar a swim means a municipal pool or a drive up to a small lake in the Vosges valleys. If cooling off in open water matters to you, Lucerne is the one.

Colmar is the clear winner at the table. The winstubs serve the hearty, half-German cooking of Alsace, from baeckeoffe and choucroute to tarte flambée and munster cheese. The covered market by the canal is good for picnic supplies, and a few ambitious kitchens along the wine route add a fine-dining option. Above all there is the wine, poured everywhere and tasted at the cellar door.

Lucerne's Chügelipastete, fondue and lake perch are reliable but narrow in range, and many places near the Chapel Bridge cater to coach parties. You will eat well and pay a lot, but food is rarely the reason to choose it.

Colmar has a slight edge for sightseeing. Its old town has survived as one continuous late-medieval and Renaissance whole, from the carved faces of the Maison des Têtes to the canals of the tanners' quarter. The Unterlinden Museum adds Grünewald's Isenheim Altarpiece, and Schongauer's Madonna in the Dominican church gives the town a depth of medieval art that Lucerne cannot match.

Lucerne packs a handful of Switzerland's best-known sights into and around its compact Old Town: the Chapel Bridge and Water Tower over the Reuss, the towers of the Musegg Wall that you can climb, the Lion Monument carved into its cliff, and the Picasso and Klee of the Rosengart Collection. It is more a set of famous images than a deep collection, and like Colmar it is seen in a day or two.

Neither city is for late nights, but Lucerne has a little more going on. Cocktail bars in the Neustadt, a small club scene near the station and student weekends keep a few places open, and at Fasnacht the whole town stays out in costume until dawn.

Colmar's evenings end with dinner and a last glass in a wine bar by Petite Venise, and for anything more you take the train to Strasbourg.

Lucerne's setting is in another league. You can be on Pilatus by cogwheel railway, walking the ridge of Rigi or out on the glacier at Titlis within the hour. Paddle steamers on the branching lake tie it all together, and in winter there is proper skiing. The one catch is low cloud, which can hide the peaks for days.

Colmar offers gentler country: walks through the vines between wine villages, the rounded, forested Vosges with glacial lakes along the Route des Crêtes, and flat roads that make for easy cycling. It is lovely, especially at harvest time, but softer than the Alps and mostly needs a car.

Colmar is slightly the better base for day trips. The wine villages of Eguisheim, Riquewihr, Kaysersberg and Ribeauvillé lie a few kilometres apart, Haut-Koenigsbourg looks down from its ridge, and Strasbourg, Basel and Freiburg take you into three different cities and two countries. The villages are much easier with a car or bike, though.

Lucerne's outings rely on fast trains to Zurich, Bern and Basel and on the lake, where boats run to the Rütli meadow and the William Tell country around Altdorf. Getting there is easier, but the range of places is a little narrower.

Both work well with children, in different ways. Colmar's own pleasures are small, like boat rides through Petite Venise and storks on the rooftops. Its big draws are outside town: the macaques at the Montagne des Singes, the stork park at Hunawihr, the train and car museums in Mulhouse, and Europa-Park about an hour across the Rhine, almost all needing a car.

Lucerne has one major attraction in the Swiss Museum of Transport, and the outings themselves become the fun: steamers, cogwheel trains and the summer toboggan run on Pilatus. These depend on the weather and are costly, and with no zoo nearby, wet days can be hard to fill.

Lucerne is much easier to get around. Station, boat piers and Old Town sit together on the lakefront, and the steamers, cogwheel railways and cable cars into the mountains all run on integrated tickets, so you can do everything without a car.

Colmar's centre is just as walkable and trains reach Strasbourg and Mulhouse quickly. The gap shows once you head for the wine villages and the Vosges, where buses are thin and most visitors hire a car or a bicycle.

Lucerne is a little stronger for shopping, mainly if you are after a Swiss watch. The big watch and jewellery houses on Schwanenplatz and the lakefront are the main event, alongside army knives and chocolate. Fashion is thin.

Colmar's shopping is about the region: wine bought from the producer, Soufflenheim pottery, kougelhopf moulds and printed table linen, with the Christmas markets as the high point. It is better for gifts than for anything else.

Colmar is far kinder to the wallet. Prices are moderate for provincial France and tastings in the villages are often free. The real cost is rooms in summer and at Christmas, which a village base can soften.

Lucerne is among the most expensive places you could choose. Rooms, even simple meals and the mountain railways that are the point of the trip all add up. A Swiss travel pass and supermarket picnics by the lake help, but only at the margins.

For music, Lucerne is clearly ahead. The Lucerne Festival brings the world's leading orchestras to Jean Nouvel's lakefront hall, which keeps a year-round programme with its own symphony orchestra, and the city theatre stages opera and dance.

Colmar has a small Italian-style theatre, a classical festival in July and an autumn jazz festival. Between those weeks, serious concerts mean going to Strasbourg or Basel.

Colmar's idea of rest is the slow evening: walks by the canals once the day-trippers have gone, long lunches and unhurried strolls through the vines. Hotel spas are the only real pampering on offer.

Lucerne gives you more to work with. Botta's mineral bath high on the Rigi offers a soak with a mountain view, and the resorts on the slopes above the lake have proper spas. A long steamer trip with nothing to do but watch the shore makes an easy afternoon. Visit the Old Town early or late, though, because the tour groups arrive in the middle of the day.