Flåm or Oslo?

Flåm has only shingle, rock and quayside at the head of the fjord, and snowmelt keeps the water cold, so a swim is a brief plunge, often straight out of the sauna.

Oslo is no beach destination either, but it has a proper summer swimming habit. Ferries run to the rocky shores and small coves of Hovedøya and Langøyene, there are diving platforms at Sørenga, and lakes such as Sognsvann sit at the end of a metro line.

Meals in Flåm come from a few hotel dining rooms, cafés serving day visitors and a brewery pub with smoked and grilled dishes. The local produce is good, notably fjord salmon and Undredal goat cheese, but there is little choice and even less in the evening.

Oslo gives you a real range, from Nordic tasting menus built on fish, game and berries to the food hall at Mathallen and the streets of Grünerløkka. Its light-roast coffee culture is a pleasure in itself.

Flåm's own sights come down to the railway museum by the station and the painted wooden church of 1670 up the valley. The stave churches and old villages the area is known for lie further out.

Oslo has a proper museum city: Munch and The Scream, the National Museum, the Fram and Kon-Tiki on Bygdøy and the open-air Folk Museum. Akershus Fortress, the City Hall murals, Vigeland Park and the Opera House roof round out two or three full days, even without an old townscape.

After dinner in Flåm you have the brewery pub, a couple of hotel bars and a walk by the water, and nothing stays open late.

Oslo offers a real night out, if not a famous one. Grünerløkka and the streets around Youngstorget have craft beer and natural wine bars and a few electronic clubs, and in summer people drink outdoors on the waterfront at Aker Brygge. Weekends are far busier than weeknights.

Both put serious nature on the doorstep, but Flåm's is the more spectacular. Mountainsides rise almost straight out of the Aurlandsfjord, the UNESCO-listed Nærøyfjord narrows to a few hundred metres, and the Stegastein platform juts out 650m above the water. Walking down from Myrdal or riding the Rallarvegen are proper mountain days.

Oslo's strengths are easy access and winter. The metro climbs straight into Nordmarka's lakes and trails, which become floodlit ski tracks when Flåm has far less for walkers, and ferries reach the skerries of the Oslofjord. The hills are gentle, though, and nothing near Oslo matches the western fjords.

Outings from Flåm are rural: goat-cheese Undredal, the Viking village at Gudvangen, and, through the Lærdal tunnel, Borgund stave church and the wooden lanes of Lærdalsøyri. Bergen is close to three hours away and works better as a stop on the way in or out.

Oslo has a wider spread of towns reached by train or boat. Among them are the star-shaped fortress town of Fredrikstad, white-painted Drøbak, Viking-age Tønsberg and Lillehammer on Lake Mjøsa. None is a highlight on its own, but together they give you more variety.

Flåm suits active families. The railway stopping beside a waterfall, the fjord boats and Gudvangen's Viking village go down well, but nothing else is designed for children, and the long hikes suit older ones better.

Oslo is easier with small children. There are playgrounds in most parks and prams on every tram, and the Bygdøy museums make a full family day, with a polar ship to climb aboard and farm animals at the Folk Museum. The hands-on science museum, Tusenfryd amusement park and winter sledding near Holmenkollen add more, though there is no zoo or aquarium.

Flåm takes ten minutes to cross on foot, and the railway, fjord boats and buses connect it to Myrdal, Gudvangen and Voss. Outside summer, though, services thin out, and a car helps for reaching Stegastein and Lærdal.

Oslo needs almost no planning. It has a walkable centre, and trams, metro, buses and harbour ferries form one network, with an airport express train into the centre and the metro running right up to the forest edge.

In Flåm, shopping means the gift shops by the station and harbour, selling trolls, knitwear and goat cheese to day visitors. Oslo is no shopping capital, but it has proper streets for it: the chains on Karl Johans gate, the old Steen & Strøm department store, Bogstadveien, and the vintage, record and design shops of Grünerløkka. Patterned knitwear and outdoor clothing are sold in both, with far more choice in Oslo.

Both are costly by any standard, and Flåm is the harder on the wallet. Norwegian prices meet a tiny village with few rooms, and the railway and boat trips add up. Self-catering cabins, the campsite and the supermarket are the main ways to save, and the hiking is free.

Oslo is expensive too, but a city leaves more room to economise. Vigeland Park, the Opera House roof, the forest trails and the fjord islands cost nothing, and one transport pass covers the ferries.

Apart from the odd musician in the pub on a summer evening, Flåm has no stage at all. Oslo has the national opera and ballet in the Opera House, the Oslo Philharmonic at the Konserthus, Ibsen at the National Theatre (mostly in Norwegian), small jazz and rock clubs, and outdoor festivals in summer. The scene is not large, so a short stay may not line up with much, but the choice is real.

Both build relaxation around the Nordic routine of sauna and cold plunge. Flåm has one floating sauna and the deep quiet of its evenings once the day visitors leave, though the harbour is crowded from late morning in summer. Oslo has a row of wood-fired saunas at the Opera House and Sørenga, many of them public and sociable and used in every season, inside a calm, green city that suits slow days.