Colmar or Lugano?

Neither has a coast, but only Lugano gives you real swimming. In summer Lake Lugano is warm enough for a proper swim. The main lido at the Cassarate mouth and the smaller spots towards Castagnola and Paradiso give you lawns, decks and pools, and it is lake bathing rather than sand.

Colmar is out on the Alsace plain. All it has is the town pools and a few small lakes up in the Vosges valleys, so water does not belong in the plan.

Colmar is the stronger place to eat. Its winstubs serve a serious regional cuisine of choucroute, baeckeoffe, tarte flambée and munster cheese, and some of France's best white wines come from the slopes right outside town. A small fine-dining tier adds to it, although the most-photographed lanes have plenty of lazy menus.

Lugano's best tables are in its grotti: polenta, braised meats and salumi eaten under chestnut trees, with a glass of Ticino Merlot. Away from those, the choice is thin and expensive, and many visitors save their big meal for Italy.

Colmar has much more to see. Its half-timbered old town survived largely intact, so Petite Venise, the Maison Pfister and the Koïfhus read as one continuous whole. The Unterlinden's Isenheim Altarpiece alone justifies the journey, and Schongauer's Madonna and the Bartholdi museum fill out two full days.

Lugano offers a pleasant arcaded Lombard centre, San Lorenzo, the Luini Passion fresco and the art collection split between LAC and Palazzo Reali. That is a good morning and afternoon, not a cultural destination in itself.

Both are dinner-and-a-glass towns, and Lugano is slightly livelier. Its lakefront aperitivo, cocktail bars and one or two clubs keep the promenade busy on summer weekends, though you pay for it. Colmar's evenings end in a wine bar or on a terrace by the canals, and anyone after a real night out takes the train to Strasbourg, much as Lugano's young head for Milan.

Lugano has the more dramatic setting. Funiculars climb straight from town to Monte Brè and San Salvatore, the Gandria lake path starts at the edge of the city, and the Monte Lema to Tamaro ridge and the Verzasca valley give it real mountain-and-water scenery, much of it without a car.

Colmar's landscape is gentler and needs wheels. You walk between villages through the vineyards, climb the forested Vosges along the Route des Crêtes and cycle the flat plain. It is lovely in autumn, but it is rolling country rather than lake and peak.

Both are first-rate bases, and the difference is in kind. Colmar's best outings are small and close together: Eguisheim, Riquewihr and Kaysersberg a few kilometres apart, Haut-Koenigsbourg on its ridge, and Strasbourg, Basel and Freiburg for a bigger city, which means three countries within an hour.

From Lugano the trips are grander and run by rail and boat. Milan's Last Supper and the Brera, Lake Como, the castles of Bellinzona and the Borromean Islands are all within reach, and you get there more easily than to Colmar's villages, where buses are sparse.

Both are calm, safe choices with children, and Colmar edges ahead on things to do. The boat rides through Petite Venise and the rooftop storks keep young children happy in town. Within a drive there is the stork and otter park at Hunawihr, the macaques at Kintzheim, the Mulhouse train and car museums and Europa-Park.

Lugano's appeal is the lake itself: boat hops, lido slides, funiculars and the miniature Switzerland park at Melide. The steep streets are hard work with a pushchair, and there are no big attractions for teenagers.

Lugano is easier to manage without a car. Boats, funiculars, rack railways and the Swiss trains reach the lake villages, the summits and Milan, and hotel stays usually include free regional transport. The catch is the slope between the station and the old town.

Colmar's flat centre is quick to walk and the trains to Strasbourg are fast. However, the wine villages and Vosges valleys that make the region worth visiting are badly served by buses, so you will want a car or a bike.

Lugano offers more for shoppers, and most of it is upmarket. Via Nassa's arcades are lined with Swiss watchmakers and Italian fashion houses, and there is a big designer outlet near Mendrisio. Colmar is the place for things to carry home: wine bought from the grower, Soufflenheim pottery, Alsatian linen and gingerbread, with the Christmas markets as the highlight of the year.

Colmar costs far less. It has ordinary Western European prices, cheap tastings in the villages and good-value set lunches, and its only real pressure point is rooms in summer and during the Christmas markets, which you can avoid by staying in a nearby village.

Lugano is expensive in every respect, from the lakeside hotels to the boat trips and mountain railways. Grotti, set lunches and the included transport pass soften the cost a little, but there is no cheap way to stay.

Lugano gives you more to hear and see. LAC's concert hall is home to the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana and has a regular season of drama and dance, and Estival Jazz brings free summer concerts to Piazza della Riforma.

Colmar has a small Italian-style theatre and visits from the Opéra national du Rhin. Otherwise it relies on its July classical festival and autumn jazz, so for anything substantial you go to Strasbourg or Basel.

Neither has thermal baths, and Lugano is the more restful place. Its palm-lined shore, mild climate, lidos and the large indoor pool and sauna complex near Rivera make slowing down easy. Colmar's version of rest is a quiet canal-side evening and a slow walk through the vines, with nothing beyond hotel spas for real pampering.