Graz or Hallstatt?

Neither is a place to come for swimming, but Hallstatt has the water right on the doorstep. You can swim in the lake from the small lawn and jetty in the village or at the larger lido in Obertraun, a cold, clear dip with the mountains above, ideal after a hike.

From Graz, a swim means going out to the former gravel pits on the flat land south of the city, such as the Schwarzlsee. The water there is warmer and the grassy banks have more space, but it is a break on a hot afternoon rather than part of the setting.

Graz is the place to eat. Styrian cooking has real character, from cold fried chicken salad dressed with dark pumpkin seed oil to pork boiled with root vegetables and horseradish. The markets at Kaiser-Josef-Platz and Lendplatz are worth a morning, and the crisp white wines of the southern hills are poured all over town.

Hallstatt has a handful of guesthouse dining rooms serving Austrian standards. The lake char and whitefish are worth trying once, and the terraces have lovely views, but kitchens can close early. For anything more, you would drive to Bad Ischl.

Graz has a full city's worth of sights. The red-roofed old town runs from the Hauptplatz to the cathedral and the imperial mausoleum. The seventeenth-century armoury is still stacked with thousands of suits of armour, and Schloss Eggenberg and the blue Kunsthaus show two very different ages of the city.

In Hallstatt the history is deep but compact. Salt has been mined in the mountain for some seven thousand years, the finds here gave their name to an Iron Age culture, and the charnel house holds rows of painted skulls. A day covers all of it, while Graz rewards a longer stay.

Graz has a real night out, if not a big one. Thanks to its students, the bars in the lanes around Mehlplatz spill outside on summer evenings, and Lend has artier places across the river. It thins out in the summer break, though. In Hallstatt, an evening means dinner and a walk by the dark lake, nothing more.

Hallstatt is mountain country from the moment you step outside. The Krippenstein cable car climbs to the Five Fingers platform and the Dachstein ice caves, paths lead up the Echerntal past waterfalls, and the Gosausee is one of the classic views of the Alps. In winter there is ski touring and freeride on the same slopes.

Graz has easy green escapes instead: the Schöckl with its cable car and paragliders, the Mur cycle path and the gorge at Bärenschützklamm. For alpine hiking on Hallstatt's scale, you need to travel about two hours from Graz to the Gesäuse or the Hochschwab.

Both are good bases for outings, but the outings differ. From Graz you head into the wine country to the south, with vineyard taverns, Riegersburg castle on its volcanic crag, the Lipizzaner stud at Piber, or across the border to Maribor by train.

From Hallstatt the trips are to lake towns: imperial Bad Ischl, St Wolfgang and Gmunden, and Salzburg for a long but rewarding day. Without a car, they take more planning than the trips from Graz.

Graz is the easier city with children. It is compact and calm, the trams take buggies, and the Schlossberg alone fills a day: a lift up, a fairytale train in the tunnels and a long underground slide back down. The children's museum in the Augarten adds a rainy-day option.

Hallstatt's salt mine, with its wooden miners' slides, is a real hit, and older children enjoy the ice caves. But the steep, single lane is crowded at midday and hard work with a pushchair, so families usually stay in Obertraun.

Graz is simple. The flat, largely pedestrianised centre is easy to walk, trams and buses run on one ticket, and cycling along the Mur is easy.

Hallstatt is tiny, so the problem is getting in and out. The station is on the far shore and a boat crosses to the village, the lanes and steps are steep, and buses are thin outside summer. In both places, a car helps for exploring the wider region.

Graz has enough for an afternoon. The Herrengasse and the sloping Sporgasse have shops in historic buildings, a grand old department store has a roof terrace over the old town, and Lend has small design and vintage shops. The best things to take home are pumpkin seed oil, wine and chocolate from the markets.

In Hallstatt, shopping means half an hour along the souvenir lane, where the one buy with a real story is salt from the mine.

Neither is cheap, but Graz is fairly priced for Austria. Its students mean plenty of good-value lunches and bakeries, and you can walk the centre for free.

Hallstatt has few rooms and visitors from all over the world, so beds and meals cost well above the norm. The salt mine and cable car add up too. Many visitors on a budget stay in Obertraun or Bad Goisern and come in for the day.

Graz has a full programme of performances. The opera house runs a season of opera, ballet and operetta, the Musikverein hosts concerts, Styriarte focuses on early music in summer, and steirischer herbst brings avant-garde work in autumn. The music university's jazz programme also keeps a club scene going.

In Hallstatt, music means the brass band on feast days or the odd church concert. For a real evening out, you go to the operetta in Bad Ischl or to Salzburg.

Both rely on a nearby spa region rather than baths of their own. From Graz, the thermal villages in the hills to the east are about an hour away, including Bad Blumau with its Hundertwasser design. From Hallstatt, the salt-brine baths of Bad Ischl are half an hour away.

The calm differs too. Graz is unhurried all day, with time in coffee houses and the Stadtpark. In Hallstatt the quiet comes early in the morning and in the evening, with mist on the lake, while the midday crowds are best avoided by heading into the hills.