Colmar or Zermatt?

Neither town has anywhere to swim in the sea, and in this they are much alike. The difference is in summer comfort. Colmar's warm summers make its municipal pools and the small lakes up in the Vosges valleys pleasant for a swim. In Zermatt the mountain tarns stay icy all year, so swimming means an indoor hotel pool.

Colmar has much more to offer at the table. Wood-panelled winstubs serve choucroute, baeckeoffe and tarte flambée, munster cheese comes down from the valleys, and the covered market by the canal is good for picnics. Riesling and Gewurztraminer are poured everywhere, and cellar tastings are a short ride away.

Zermatt's best meals are lunches on the mountain, in chalets around Findeln and Furi with the Matterhorn in view. In the village the choice comes down to raclette, fondue, hotel dining rooms and a few expensive kitchens, and many places close between seasons.

This is where Colmar leaves Zermatt far behind. Its old town survives as a whole, from the Maison Pfister and the Koïfhus to the canals of Petite Venise. The Unterlinden Museum alone, with Grünewald's altarpiece, justifies the journey, and two days covers the town comfortably.

In Zermatt, history means mountaineering: the underground Matterhorn Museum tells the story of the 1865 first ascent, there is a climbers' cemetery, and the dark larch barns of the Hinterdorf recall the old farming village. Together they fill a morning.

Zermatt has the livelier evenings, though mainly in winter. Après-ski bars on the runs into the village fill in the late afternoon, and a few bars and small clubs on the main street stay open past midnight on busy weekends. Summer nights end early.

Colmar's evenings are long dinners and a glass of wine on a terrace near Petite Venise, and the streets grow quiet early. For a real night out, take the train to Strasbourg.

Both towns have mountains on the doorstep, but they are very different mountains, and anyone travelling mainly for the outdoors will find Zermatt far ahead. Around Colmar the country is gentle and green: walks through the vines from one wine village to the next, easy cycling on the flat plain, and higher up the forested Vosges with summer pastures, small glacial lakes and modest winter skiing. It is at its loveliest at harvest time, but beyond the vineyards you will want a car.

Zermatt is high-altitude terrain of rock, ice and permanent snow, with ibex and marmots on the slopes and the Haute Route finishing in the valley. The Alps that Colmar sees only as a line on the horizon on a clear day are all around you here. The biggest practical difference is access. Lifts and cog railways start at the edge of the village and reach above 3,000m within the hour, so you need no car, and the glacier keeps some skiing going even in summer.

Colmar makes one of the best bases you could ask for. Strasbourg is half an hour away by train, and the wine villages of Eguisheim, Riquewihr and Kaysersberg are only a few kilometres apart. Basel and Freiburg are both about an hour across the borders.

Every outing from Zermatt starts with a long train ride down the valley. Sion, with its castle hills, is the most rewarding destination, and Brig is a pleasant stop. Most visitors simply spend their spare days back in the mountains.

Colmar gives children more variety. In town there are boat rides through Petite Venise and storks on the rooftops. Within reach are the stork and otter park at Hunawihr, free-roaming macaques at Kintzheim, the Mulhouse train and car museums and Europa-Park across the Rhine, though a car is needed for most of them.

Zermatt's car-free streets make it calm and safe, and ski schools and nursery slopes on the Sunnegga side suit families who ski. Beyond that there is little built for children, rainy days are hard to fill, and the highest viewpoints can be too much for small children.

Once you've arrived, Zermatt is the easier place to get about. With no cars, everything is on foot or by small electric taxi, and the cog railway, the funicular and the gondolas all leave from the edges of the village. Getting there and away is slower, since every trip involves the valley train.

Within Colmar you can walk everywhere, and trains to Strasbourg and Mulhouse are quick. Between the wine villages and up into the Vosges, buses are sparse, so you'll need a car or a bicycle.

Colmar is the more satisfying town to browse, at least for regional goods. You can buy wine straight from the producers, Soufflenheim pottery, Alsatian table linen and gingerbread, with independent boutiques around Rue des Marchands and a good covered market. Zermatt's single main street sells luxury watches, souvenirs and genuinely good ski and climbing gear, and not much else.

The gap here is huge. Colmar is moderately priced for Western Europe: set lunches and local wine are reasonable, village tastings are often free, and the main pressure is on hotel rooms in peak weeks.

Zermatt is among the most expensive places in the Alps. Rooms, terrace lunches and the lift tickets every visitor needs all cost well above the norm. Self-catering or sleeping down the valley in Täsch helps, but only a little.

Both towns depend on festivals, but Colmar has more beyond them. Its Italian-style municipal theatre hosts plays and concerts, the Opéra national du Rhin tours here, and there is a classical festival in July and a jazz festival in autumn.

Zermatt has no theatre or concert hall. Zermatt Unplugged in spring and a chamber music festival in late summer are the highlights, and the rest of the year live music means a band in an après-ski bar.

Zermatt is better set up for pampering. It has an unusual number of fine hotel spas with pools, saunas and mountain views, some of them open to non-residents, and its car-free quiet is restful after a day outdoors. In peak weeks, though, the mood is active rather than slow.

Colmar has no spa culture to speak of. Relaxing there means a slow lunch, a walk through the vines and a quiet evening by the canals once the day visitors have gone.