Flåm or Interlaken?

Interlaken at least offers a proper summer swim. In July and August Lake Thun warms enough for the grassy lidos and small shingle beaches at Neuhaus and towards Spiez, and the colder turquoise Lake Brienz has a bathing area at Bönigen.

Flåm has nothing comparable. The fjord shore is rock, shingle and quay, and the snowmelt-fed water suits a quick plunge after a sauna more than an afternoon of swimming.

Neither place is a food destination, and both lean on hearty, filling meals. Flåm's eating is tightly limited to a handful of harbour spots, though it has a stronger sense of place in its smoked fjord salmon, valley lamb and the goat cheeses from Undredal. Interlaken offers more choice, from fondue and rösti to Indian and Asian kitchens, plus the pleasure of a hut terrace lunch high above Grindelwald or Mürren.

Both are thin on sights of their own, since each exists for the scenery around it. Flåm's two real visits are the small railway museum, which explains how the line was cut through the mountain, and the painted wooden church from 1670 up the valley. Interlaken offers the look of an old resort instead, with its row of grand hotels and the Kursaal on the Höheweg and the timber houses of Unterseen across the Aare.

Interlaken gives you somewhere to go after dinner. Its backpacker pubs, sports bars and a couple of basement clubs near the hostels, plus the casino in the Kursaal, liven up in summer and the ski season, even if the streets empty well before midnight.

Flåm has only a brewery pub and hotel bars, and on light summer evenings the main activity is a stroll by the fjord before an early night.

Both are among the great mountain bases of Europe, and the difference is in the kind of landscape. Flåm is about water and walls of rock: the narrow, UNESCO-listed Nærøyfjord seen from a boat or kayak, the Stegastein platform over the Aurlandsfjord, and routes such as Aurlandsdalen and the Rallarvegen cycle road across the plateau.

Interlaken is about height and adrenaline. Rail lines and cable cars carry you to the Jungfraujoch over the Aletsch glacier, to ridge walks at Schynige Platte and First, and into Lauterbrunnen's waterfall valley, while paragliding, canyoning and winter skiing add a sporting side Flåm lacks. Low cloud can hide the Swiss peaks, while Flåm's winter darkness limits walking.

Interlaken is far the stronger base for outings. Bern's arcaded old town is under an hour by train, Thun and the castle villages of Spiez and Oberhofen are reached by paddle steamer, and Brienz's woodcarving and the Ballenberg open-air museum sit close by, with Lucerne a scenic run over the Brünig Pass.

From Flåm the choices are rural and few: Undredal's goat-cheese hamlet, the Viking village at Gudvangen, and the drive through the Lærdal tunnel to the Borgund stave church. Bergen is too far for an easy return in a day.

Flåm gives children a few big moments rather than a full programme. A ride up to Myrdal and a boat between the cliffs of the Nærøyfjord can fill a couple of days, and a self-catering cabin in a village this small makes family life simple. After that, though, there is little to fall back on, and what you do next depends on how far young legs can walk.

Interlaken has much more to offer families, because its network of trains, gondolas and lake steamers turns almost every outing into a ride. Several of the scenic routes are flat enough for a pushchair, and Bern and Thun are close if you want a change from the mountains. Like Flåm, it has no zoo or aquarium for a rainy day, and the thin air on the Jungfraujoch is a good reason to keep the youngest at the lower stations.

Both can be done without a car, but Interlaken makes it effortless. Mainline trains, mountain railways, cog lines, gondolas and lake steamers connect neatly, and many hotels give guests a regional transport card, though the busiest mountain trains can be crowded in summer.

Flåm is a ten-minute village with the railway, fjord boats and buses leaving from the same spot. Services thin out after summer and need planning, and reaching Stegastein, Borgund or Lærdal is far easier with a car on tunnelled, coach-filled roads.

Interlaken has more to browse, though it is still visitor shopping: watch and jewellery stores along the Höheweg, army knives, chocolate and cuckoo clocks, and hand-carved pieces from Brienz as the one craft worth seeking out. Flåm is limited to a few gift shops by the station selling trolls, knitwear and goat cheese.

Both are among the most expensive places to spend a vacation, and transport is a big part of the bill in each, from the Flåm railway and fjord boats to the Jungfraujoch trains. Flåm's main savings are its self-catering cabins, campsite and supermarket, while Interlaken offers hostels and regional travel passes, and in both, walking from the valley floor is free.

Interlaken has a little live culture where Flåm has essentially none. Its signature is the open-air William Tell, staged by local amateurs in the woods each summer, backed by occasional Kursaal concerts and folklore evenings with alphorns and yodelling.

In Flåm the most you can hope for is a musician in the pub on a summer night.

Neither has a bathing culture, but the way to unwind differs. Flåm offers stillness and the Nordic cold-plunge ritual from a floating sauna on the fjord, with the whole village quiet once the day boats leave.

Interlaken has larger spas in its grand Höheweg hotels and a public wellness area, but the town centre is busy and active, so real calm means a lakeside village or a night up in Wengen or Mürren.