Cortina d'Ampezzo or Hallstatt?

Neither is a swimming destination, but Hallstatt at least has a lake you can actually swim in during high summer. There is a bathing lawn at the north end of the village and a lido at Obertraun, with water near 20°C in July and August. Cortina's snowmelt lakes, Ghedina and Pianozes, are for walking round, the Adriatic is more than two hours away, and for most people a swim there means a hotel pool.

Cortina eats noticeably better. Its wealthy visitors keep a few ambitious kitchens and wood-panelled stube dining rooms going. The Ampezzan dishes, beetroot casunziei with poppy seeds and polenta with game, are worth seeking out, and so is lunch on a rifugio terrace.

Hallstatt offers a short list of guesthouse classics, schnitzel, goulash and dumplings, saved by char and whitefish from the lake. Kitchens close early once the day visitors leave, and for more choice you go to Bad Ischl's patisseries. Neither place is varied or cheap, but Cortina gives you more reason to linger at the table.

Hallstatt has far more history for its size. Salt has been mined here for seven thousand years, and the Iron Age burial ground gave its name to a whole early European culture. You can see that story in the mine, reached by funicular, in the Museum Hallstatt and in the painted skulls of the Beinhaus, all inside a UNESCO landscape.

Cortina's sights in town are slighter: the basilica and its bell tower, painted houses, the 1956 Olympic ice stadium and the Rimoldi art collection. Its most moving heritage, the First World War tunnels and trenches on Lagazuoi and the Cinque Torri, lies up in the mountains and takes a full day to reach.

Cortina at least has evenings. There is après-ski when the lifts close and a passeggiata along the Corso Italia, and in the peak winter weeks a few smart bars and a club or two stay open late. Hallstatt has nothing like that. After the tour groups leave, a night out means dinner, a glass of wine on a terrace and a walk by the lake in the dark. Even so, summer in Cortina is almost as quiet.

Both are among the finest mountain settings in the Alps, and Cortina has the edge in scale. A full ring of Dolomite peaks surrounds the valley, lifts start in town, and the Tre Cime and Lago di Misurina are close. The Alta Via 1, historic via ferratas and the Dolomiti Superski network give you months of hiking and skiing.

Hallstatt's landscape is smaller and wetter, with more water in it: a glacial lake beneath the Dachstein, the Five Fingers platform on the Krippenstein, the ice and mammoth caves, and the walk to the Gosausee. Its winter is more about freeride and ski touring than big lift-served pistes, and mist can hang over the lake for days.

Hallstatt is much better placed for outings. Bad Ischl and the Habsburg Kaiservilla are half an hour away. The lake towns of St Wolfgang, St Gilgen and Gmunden are a little further on, and Salzburg makes a full day by car.

From Cortina, most excursions head into the mountains themselves. San Candido, Dobbiaco and Brunico in South Tyrol are pleasant, Bolzano and its Iceman are two hours off, and Venice means a long day on the coach. These towns are nice extras but rarely a reason to choose Cortina.

Neither is built for children, and both work best for families who enjoy being outdoors. Cortina suits skiing families, with ski schools for all ages, beginner slopes at Socrepes and public skating, plus gentle hut walks and a rope park in summer, all from a calm, flat centre.

Hallstatt's appeal comes from a few big outings: the slides and underground lake in the salt mine, the ice caves and rowing on the lake. The steep, crowded lane is hard going with a pushchair, so many families stay in Obertraun and visit for a few hours.

Hallstatt is the easier of the two without a car. There is a railway station across the lake with a boat over to the village, and regional buses run to Obertraun, Gosau and Bad Ischl, though services are thin outside summer. On foot the village is tiny but steep, with steps up to the church.

Cortina's flat centre takes minutes to cross, and in winter ski buses link the lifts, but the town has had no railway since 1964. You arrive by coach from Venice or after a long drive, buses up to the passes are limited, and most visitors end up hiring a car.

Cortina has real shopping, even if it is all on one short street. The Corso Italia has luxury fashion, jewellers and upmarket mountain wear, along with the many-floored Cooperativa, founded in 1893, and shops selling wood carving and filigree. In Hallstatt you get souvenir shops along the lane, where salt from the mine, in bags, grinders and bath mixes, is the one thing worth taking home.

Cortina is the dearer of the two by some way. It charges luxury-resort rates in the winter peak and in August, restaurant bills match, and lift passes and equipment hire come on top. Hallstatt is expensive for Austria, with few rooms, and the salt mine, funicular and cable car all add up, but the overall bill is lower.

The way round it is the same in both: sleep somewhere cheaper nearby and travel in, Obertraun, Bad Goisern or Bad Ischl for Hallstatt and a neighbouring valley for Cortina. In Cortina, rifugio meals and early summer or late September also ease the cost.

Both are thin on evening culture, in different ways. Cortina's offer is its summer chamber and classical festivals, some held in mountain settings, plus talks and a few concerts around Christmas. Hallstatt has its brass band on feast days and the odd church concert, but Bad Ischl's summer operetta and Salzburg's season are within reach, and Cortina has nothing like them nearby.

Relaxation takes a different form in each. In Cortina it happens inside the hotels, in Alpine spas with hay baths, saunas and pools after a day on the slopes, and the valley is calmest in June, September and the quieter winter weeks. Hallstatt sits in an old brine-spa region, with Bad Ischl's thermal complex half an hour away, and the village is at its most peaceful early in the morning and in the evening, once the midday crowds have gone.