Flåm or Hallstatt?

Neither is a swimming destination, but Hallstatt at least has a proper place to bathe. Flåm's shore is rock, shingle and quayside on fjord water chilled by snowmelt, so a swim there is a quick plunge, usually after the sauna.

Hallstätter See is cold too, but in high summer it warms enough for a real swim. You can go in from the lawn and jetty at the north end of the village or from the lido at Obertraun. For lazier lake days, the warmer Wolfgangsee is within a drive, and Flåm has nothing like it.

Both feed visitors simply, and neither is worth the trip for its tables. The difference is the produce. Flåm leans on fjord salmon, valley lamb, cured meats and the goat cheeses of Undredal, and its brewery pub is the focus of the evening.

Hallstatt serves Austrian guesthouse cooking, with char and whitefish from the lake as the local touch and coffee and cake in the square. It also has the better fallback, in the old patisseries of Bad Ischl half an hour away.

Here Hallstatt is well ahead. The village is a sight in itself, painted houses on a ledge above the lake at the heart of a UNESCO landscape. The salt mine, the Museum Hallstatt and the Beinhaus with its painted skulls fill a day with a story that goes back to the Iron Age.

Flåm has a small railway museum and the painted wooden church of 1670 up the valley, and little else. Its stave churches and old villages are outings, not things on the doorstep.

Neither offers a night out in any usual sense, and both go quiet once the day crowds have left. Flåm has slightly more to drink in, with its brewery pub and hotel bars, and summer light keeps people outside by the fjord late into the evening. Hallstatt's evening is a long dinner, a glass of wine on a lakeside terrace and a walk by the water in the dark.

Both are among the most striking settings in Europe, and the difference is in kind. Flåm is about water and sheer rock walls. There are the Aurlandsfjord and the narrow Nærøyfjord, best seen by boat or kayak, the Stegastein platform high above, the railway up to Myrdal and long routes such as Aurlandsdalen and the Rallarvegen.

Hallstatt is high Alpine country under the Dachstein. You have the Krippenstein cable car to the Five Fingers, the giant ice caves, via ferratas and the walk to the Gosausee. It also keeps going in winter, with ski touring and pistes near Gosau, while Flåm's walking largely winds down.

Hallstatt has far more within a day's reach. The Salzkammergut lake towns are close by, with Bad Ischl and its Kaiservilla about half an hour away and St Wolfgang, Gmunden and Altaussee further on. Salzburg makes a full but rewarding day out.

Flåm's outings are rural: Undredal, Aurland and the Viking village at Gudvangen, plus Lærdalsøyri and the Borgund stave church through the Lærdal tunnel. Bergen is too far for a comfortable return trip, so there is no real city outing.

Both suit active families better than those with toddlers, and both have midday crowds to dodge. In Flåm the highlights for children are on the move: the steep railway that stops by a waterfall, the fjord boats and the Viking village at Gudvangen, all in a village with little traffic.

Hallstatt has the salt mine, with its wooden miners' slides and underground lake, and the ice caves for older children. Its steep single lane is hard going with a pushchair, though, and many families stay in Obertraun instead.

Both villages are tiny and quick to cross on foot. In Flåm the railway, boats and buses all start a short walk from your bed, and the line meets the Oslo to Bergen railway at Myrdal, so many visitors do the whole region without a car.

Hallstatt's lanes are steep and climb in steps, and its station is across the lake, reached by a small boat. Buses around the Salzkammergut are sparse enough that a car earns its keep. In both places, services thin out outside summer.

Flåm's shops around the station and harbour are stocked for the train and cruise crowds: trolls, Norwegian knitwear and outdoor gear, with Undredal goat cheese and cured meat as the most local things on the shelves. Hallstatt's lane of souvenir shops has the better keepsake, salt from the mine above the village, sold in grinders and bath mixes, along with carved wood, dirndl accessories and schnapps. In either village the shopping fills half an hour of browsing and is no reason to go.

Flåm is the dearer of the two, and much of the reason is the country. Almost everything in Norway costs a lot by most visitors' standards, a beer above all. In Flåm the main sights are also paid journeys: the railway up to Myrdal and the boats into the Nærøyfjord are the trip itself, not optional extras. A small village with few beds and a short summer season does the rest.

Hallstatt's high prices have a more local cause. They come from its worldwide fame and the shortage of rooms on its narrow ledge, not from Austria as a whole, so the premium fades a few kilometres along the lake. The salt mine, funicular and Dachstein cable car add up over a stay, but the lake shore, the walks and the view cost nothing.

Neither has a stage of its own. In Flåm you may at most find a musician in the pub on a summer night, and Bergen is the nearest place with a real programme. Hallstatt has a little more local colour, with the brass band on feast days and the odd church concert, and Bad Ischl's summer operetta and Salzburg's season are both within reach.

Both are restful in the same way: quiet at the start and end of the day, crowded around midday. In Flåm the ritual is the floating sauna and a plunge into the cold fjord, followed by a long summer evening that never quite gets dark.

Hallstatt has its misty mornings on the lake, and it has a deeper spa tradition nearby. Bad Ischl has brine baths and a thermal complex, and Bad Aussee and Bad Goisern have spas of their own.