Freiburg or Lausanne?

Lausanne has the better swimming because the lake is right on its doorstep. From late June to early September, people swim from the lawns and piers at Vidy and Pully. The historic Bellerive lido is the classic summer afternoon, though the shores are grass, concrete or shingle rather than sand.

Freiburg has no natural swimming in town, only open-air pools that fill up in July and August. For open water, locals cycle out to the warm gravel-pit lakes on the Rhine plain or drive about an hour to Titisee and Schluchsee, where the water stays cool. Both cities offer a pleasant swim, but neither makes a beach vacation.

The two are broadly level, and both are best explored through their local wine. Freiburg's cooking is Baden food with a French touch, such as Flammkuchen and Schäufele, served with Pinot from the Kaiserstuhl. The daily market around the Münster, with its grilled sausages in rolls, makes casual eating easy.

Lausanne serves lake perch, papet vaudois and winter fondue. Its best moments come in the Lavaux cellars, where you taste Chasselas straight from the growers, and at the region's celebrated top restaurants. The middle range is plainer, and budget meals are harder to find than in Freiburg.

Both have a fine Gothic cathedral at their centre and need only a few days, but their strengths lie in different places. Freiburg's pleasure is in its streets: the red sandstone Münster, the medieval gates and the running water of the Bächle, though much of the centre is a careful post-war rebuild.

Lausanne's old town of covered stairways and steep lanes is smaller to wander, and its museums are where the weight lies. The Olympic Museum at Ouchy, the Plateforme 10 cluster by the station and the Collection de l'Art Brut give it more to see indoors.

Both are student towns with a better evening than their size suggests, and the difference is mostly one of style. Freiburg is pubs, wine bars and beer gardens around the Martinstor, with summer crowds sitting out on the squares and along the Dreisam.

Lausanne's night out centres on the Flon, a valley of old warehouses full of clubs and late bars. It comes alive mainly at weekends, and drinks cost far more than in Freiburg.

Both have superb country close at hand, but it is quite different country. Around Freiburg it is forest and rounded mountains. The Schauinsland cable car and Feldberg hikes are close, the mountain biking is excellent, and the gentle Kaiserstuhl vineyards are good for cycling.

Lausanne has a slight edge in scale. The UNESCO-listed Lavaux terraces fall to the lake, and you can sail or paddleboard on the water. Within an hour you reach the high Vaud Alps, including the glacier at Glacier 3000, with the Jura on the other side.

Both are excellent bases, and Lausanne pulls ahead because the lake and the Swiss railways make nearly every outing car-free. Montreux and the Château de Chillon are a short ride away, Geneva and Bern are about an hour, and boats cross to Évian. Gruyères and Murten make classic days out.

From Freiburg's corner of three countries, Basel and Strasbourg are easy to reach. The most charming Alsace wine villages, such as Riquewihr and Eguisheim, are much easier to reach by car.

Freiburg is the easier family destination. Its centre is flat and safe, children love the Bächle, the Mundenhof animal park is free, and Europa-Park is under an hour away. Its weak spot is rainy days, when there is little to do indoors.

Lausanne has good outings of its own, such as the hands-on Olympic Museum, the aquarium-vivarium, Sauvabelin's pedal boats and paddle steamers on the lake. However, the steep streets wear out anyone pushing a buggy, and eating out as a family gets expensive.

Both are small and easy to manage without a car, but the experience is very different. Freiburg is flat and largely car-free, with trams and bike lanes everywhere and regional trains up the Höllental.

Lausanne is built on a steep hillside, and its m2 metro climbs more than 300m from the lake to the upper town. Fast, reliable Swiss trains and lake boats take you further afield.

Lausanne is slightly better for shopping, mainly for Swiss specialities. Rue de Bourg has watchmakers, jewellers and chocolatiers. Freiburg's main street is mostly German chains, though the Gerberau lanes have independent bookshops and boutiques, and cuckoo clocks are on sale everywhere. Neither city has a luxury district, and Freiburg's keen shoppers head to Basel.

This is the widest gap between the two. Hotel rooms in Freiburg can be scarce and cost more than you might expect, but once you are there, market food, taverns, trams and the Münster itself are affordable or free.

Lausanne is expensive in almost everything, from hotels and meals to wine and taxis. Budget travellers there live on bakery picnics and free lakeside walks.

Lausanne has a clearly stronger stage scene, and dance leads it. It is home to the Béjart Ballet and the Prix de Lausanne, the Théâtre de Vidy stages contemporary work that tours Europe, and the Montreux Jazz Festival is a short ride away each July.

Freiburg has a good repertory theatre and the Freiburger Barockorchester, a leading period-instrument ensemble. Its summer tent festival makes a pleasant evening out rather than a reason to travel.

Freiburg is the stronger choice for spas and a slower pace. It has a thermal bath on its edge, the large Bad Krozingen complex about twenty minutes away, the Roman ruins at Badenweiler and Baden-Baden's bathhouses an hour north.

Lausanne has no bathing tradition of its own. It relies on its hotel spas and a train ride to the warm springs at Yverdon or Lavey, and its steep centre is busier, so the calm lies along the lakeshore and in the vineyards.