Colmar or Zurich?

Neither city has a coast, but Zurich makes far more of its water. In summer you can swim straight from the city at the lake bathing houses at Utoquai or Mythenquai, or drift down the Limmat at the Letten river baths. They are lawns and wooden decks rather than sand, but the water is clean and genuinely inviting.

In Colmar, swimming means a municipal pool or a drive up to a small Vosges lake. If cooling off after a day's sightseeing matters, Zurich is the clear winner.

Colmar eats better. Its wood-panelled winstubs serve a cuisine that is truly regional, from baeckeoffe and choucroute to munster cheese and tarte flambée, and the wines from the slopes outside town come with every meal. The covered market by the canal adds cheese, charcuterie and gingerbread.

Zurich is reliable rather than memorable. The veal in cream sauce with rösti, the winter fondue and the chocolate are fine, and Kreis 4 and 5 offer more international variety than Colmar. Every meal costs a lot, though, and nothing on its tables has the pull of an Alsace dinner.

Colmar has the edge, mostly through two things. Its old town survives as a near-complete late-medieval and Renaissance whole, and the Unterlinden Museum holds the Isenheim Altarpiece, a single painting that people cross Europe to see.

Zurich spreads its interest more widely: the broad collection at the Kunsthaus, the Swiss National Museum, the Rietberg's world art and Chagall's windows in the Fraumünster. Both reward two or three unhurried days. Choose Colmar for one great picture in a storybook setting, and Zurich for a wider choice of museums.

This is one of the widest gaps between the two. Zurich has a real club culture rooted in electronic music, with venues in Kreis 4 and 5 and Zurich West open until morning at weekends, the rough-edged bars of Langstrasse, and summer drinks at the lake bathing houses. The cost of a round is the only brake.

Colmar goes quiet soon after dinner. A wine bar or a terrace in Petite Venise is about as late as most evenings run, and anyone wanting to dance takes the train to Strasbourg.

Both are good bases for the outdoors, but Zurich reaches higher. The lake and the Uetliberg are on its doorstep, and the true Alps, Rigi, Pilatus and the Glarus valleys, are about an hour away by train for high-mountain hiking or a winter ski day.

Colmar's landscape is gentler: vineyard paths between wine villages, and the rounded, forested Vosges with the Route des Crêtes, glacial lakes and long ridge views. It is lovely in autumn and good for cycling, but it needs a car and lacks the drama of Zurich's peaks.

Both cities make outstanding bases, but they work differently. From Colmar, the best outings are a few kilometres away: Riquewihr, Eguisheim and Kaysersberg along the wine route, plus Haut-Koenigsbourg, Strasbourg by train and Freiburg over the Rhine. The villages really want a car or a bicycle.

Zurich's day trips are bigger cities and landscapes reached effortlessly by rail, such as Lucerne, Bern, St Gallen's abbey library and the Rhine Falls. Basel's museums are within easy reach of both.

Zurich is the easier family city. The zoo with its rainforest hall, the shallow lake lidos, the boat trips and the Technorama in Winterthur are all reachable by tram or train, and the city is clean and calm.

Colmar itself is small and gentle, with boat rides through Petite Venise and storks on the rooftops. Its biggest draws, though, are out of town: the monkey park, the eagle show, Mulhouse's museums and Europa-Park. Plan on a car, which Zurich spares you.

Zurich is about as easy as cities get. Trams, S-Bahn trains, funiculars and even lake boats run on one integrated ticket, and the airport is a short train ride from the centre.

Colmar's centre is small enough to walk end to end, and trains to Strasbourg and Mulhouse are quick. The trouble is the countryside: buses to the wine villages and the Vosges are sparse, so a hire car or bicycle becomes almost essential.

Zurich is the stronger shopping city, built around Bahnhofstrasse with its watchmakers, jewellers and department stores, plus design shops in the viaduct arches of Zurich West. The range is narrow outside luxury, and it is expensive.

Colmar is about things to carry home from Alsace: wine bought from the producer, Soufflenheim pottery, kougelhopf moulds and printed table linen. Its Christmas markets are the high point of the year.

Colmar costs far less. It is moderate by Western European standards, with reasonable set lunches and village tastings that are often free. Rooms are the exception during summer and the Christmas market weeks, when staying in a nearby village helps.

Zurich is expensive in every respect, from simple hotel rooms to a casual lunch or a drink. Supermarket picnics by the lake and the free lidos soften it only slightly.

Zurich offers far more on stage. The Opernhaus has a full season of opera and ballet, the Tonhalle Orchestra plays in its restored nineteenth-century hall, and the Schauspielhaus is a major German-language theatre. The Rote Fabrik and the venues of Kreis 4 and 5 cover jazz, indie and electronic acts.

Colmar has a small Italian-style theatre and lively festival weeks, notably classical music in July and jazz in autumn. Outside those weeks, serious performances mean a trip to Strasbourg or Basel.

Zurich has more to offer here. There are thermal pools in the vaults of the old Hürlimann brewery, and in the colder months the historic lake and river bathing houses open as saunas with cold-water dips. Baden's Roman hot springs are twenty minutes away by train.

Colmar has only hotel spas, but its restfulness is real: quiet evenings by the canals once the day visitors leave, long lunches and slow walks through the vines.