Hallstatt or Heidelberg?

Neither is a swimming destination, but Hallstatt at least has water you can get into. Hallstätter See is clear and cold, and you can swim from the jetty lawn at the north end of the village or the lido at Obertraun. It works best as a bracing dip after a hike in July or August.

Heidelberg's Neckar is not a river for swimming. On a hot day, the choice is a city outdoor pool or a gravel-pit lake on the Rhine plain about half an hour away.

Heidelberg eats noticeably better. It has Baden and Kurpfalz dishes such as Maultaschen and Schäufele, white asparagus in spring, and Riesling and Pinot from the Bergstrasse vineyards at the edge of town. The best meals are in the Altstadt side streets, in Neuenheim and in the wine villages, and students keep cheap food plentiful.

Hallstatt has a handful of guesthouse dining rooms serving schnitzel and goulash. The one local dish is char or whitefish from the lake, and kitchens can close early. For pastries and more choice, people go to Bad Ischl.

Heidelberg has more to see over a longer stay. The red sandstone castle with its Great Tun, the baroque Altstadt, the Old Bridge, the university's Student Prison and the Kurpfälzisches Museum easily fill a day or two.

Hallstatt's sights are fewer but very old. The village is the heart of a UNESCO landscape, salt has been mined in the mountain for seven thousand years, and the Iron Age Hallstatt culture of early Europe takes its name from finds here. The salt mine, the museum and the painted skulls of the Beinhaus make a memorable but short day.

Heidelberg has a real night out, although a student-sized one. The Untere Strasse fills with small bars in term time, old student taverns sit nearby, and there are a few clubs towards the station. For anything bigger, people take the train to Mannheim.

Hallstatt has essentially nothing after dinner. The evening means a glass of wine by the water and a walk along the dark lake, which many overnight guests come for.

This is where Hallstatt wins easily. Sheer Alpine country rises straight from the lakeshore. There is the Five Fingers platform on the Krippenstein, the Giant Ice Cave and the Mammoth Cave, the Echerntal path towards the glacier, hut-to-hut hiking and via ferratas, and freeride and ski touring in winter.

Heidelberg's outdoors is softer and greener. You can climb the Philosophers' Walk, take the funicular up the Königstuhl for forest trails, find Celtic ramparts on the Heiligenberg and cycle the Neckar valley. It suits walkers and cyclists rather than mountaineers.

Heidelberg is the better base for day trips, mostly because the trains make them easy. Speyer's Romanesque cathedral, the Schwetzingen palace gardens, Worms, Lorsch and Maulbronn are all close, Frankfurt and Mainz are about an hour away, and Strasbourg is possible as a long day.

From Hallstatt you can visit the Salzkammergut lake towns: imperial Bad Ischl, St Wolfgang, Gmunden on the Traunsee and Altaussee, with Salzburg about an hour and a half away by car. They are lovely, but without a car the buses and lakeside railway need planning.

Heidelberg is easier with children. There is the funicular to the Königstuhl with a small fairy-tale park at the top, a compact zoo by the Neckar and river boat trips. Within reach are the Technik Museum Speyer, with a space shuttle and submarine to climb into, and a large theme park.

Hallstatt has a few highlights for children: the wooden miners' slides in the salt mine and, for older children, the ice caves. Its single steep lane is crowded at midday and hard work with a pushchair, so families usually stay in Obertraun.

Both centres are walkable, and both have steep, uneven streets. Heidelberg is far easier once you go further. Trams take you in from the station, a funicular runs up to the castle, and one fare system covers buses, trams and the S-Bahn across the Rhine-Neckar region.

Hallstatt village takes minutes to cross on foot. To get there, though, you take a small boat from the station on the far shore, and regional buses are sparse outside summer, so many visitors find a car worth having.

Heidelberg gives you a proper shopping street. The long pedestrian Hauptstrasse has chain stores and department stores at one end, cuckoo clocks and Studentenkuss chocolates at the other, and independent bookshops and boutiques in the side lanes. A bottle of Bergstrasse wine is the best thing to take home.

Hallstatt's shopping is a half-hour stroll past souvenir shops on one lane. Salt from the local mine, carved wood and schnapps are what you will find there.

Heidelberg is the cheaper of the two. Its hotels are its main expense, with prices around the western German norm. Bakeries, student cafés and simple taverns keep meals cheap, and the regional transport ticket makes day trips good value.

Hallstatt has few rooms and visitors from around the world, so lodging is well above the Austrian average and resort-level meals add up. The salt mine, funicular and cable car all charge on top. Budget travellers stay in Bad Goisern or Bad Ischl and visit Hallstatt for the day.

The two are far apart here. Hallstatt has nothing you could plan an evening around. Music there is a matter of luck: the brass band at a feast day, or a church concert if you happen to be there in summer. For a real night of opera or operetta, you have to make the trip to Bad Ischl or Salzburg.

Heidelberg, small as it is, gives you something to book on almost any visit. The town theatre in the Altstadt puts on opera, plays, dance and orchestral concerts through its season. In spring the Heidelberger Frühling festival brings chamber music, and in summer performances move into the ruined castle courtyard, which is the most memorable setting either town offers.

Neither has spa baths of its own, and both rely on nearby spa towns. From Hallstatt it is Bad Ischl's historic salt-brine baths, along with Bad Aussee and Bad Goisern. From Heidelberg it is the thermal pools of the Kraichgau and, a little further, Baden-Baden.

The calm itself feels different. Hallstatt's quiet comes from mist on the lake at dawn and an empty lakeshore in the evening. Heidelberg's comes from summer evenings on the Neckar meadows in Neuenheim and unhurried wine taverns.