Hallstatt or Ljubljana?

Neither is a place for a swimming vacation, but Hallstatt at least has water on its doorstep. The lake is deep, clear and cold. There is a bathing lawn at the north end of the village and a lido at Obertraun, both good for a bracing dip after a hike, though the season is short and the steep shores leave little room.

From Ljubljana, a swim always means leaving the city. You can go to the Sava on its northern edge, to Bled, which is warmer than Hallstätter See in high summer, or to the concrete platforms of Piran and Izola on the Adriatic. The water is warmer, but it costs you a day out.

Ljubljana eats far better. The Central Market under Plečnik's colonnades sells cheese, cured meats and pumpkin-seed oil. Gostilna inns serve štruklji, jota and Carniolan sausage, and riverside wine bars pour Vipava, Brda and orange wines by the glass.

Hallstatt has a few guesthouse dining rooms and terraces serving schnitzel and goulash, and lake char or whitefish is the one dish worth seeking out. Kitchens close early, and for anything more people drive to the patisseries of Bad Ischl.

Ljubljana offers more to see over more days. Plečnik's bridges, embankments and library shape the whole centre, and there are baroque churches and Secession façades, a castle above them and the murals of Metelkova. It takes two or three days, and the pleasure lies in the cityscape as a whole.

Hallstatt's culture is a single, deep story. Salt has been mined here for some seven thousand years, Iron Age finds from the village named the Hallstatt culture, and you can follow it in the salt mine, the small museum and the painted skulls of the Beinhaus. It is remarkable, but it fills a day at most.

In Hallstatt, evenings mean dinner, a glass of wine by the water and a dark lakeside walk, and nothing after that. Ljubljana has a real if modest night scene. Students fill the bars along both banks of the Ljubljanica on warm nights, and Metelkova's scruffy clubs run late at weekends, though it is better for a relaxed drink than for a big night out.

Both are superb bases for the outdoors, but Hallstatt puts the mountains right outside your door. The Dachstein rises above the lake, the Krippenstein cable car climbs to the Five Fingers platform and the ice caves, and the Gosausee walk and the via ferratas are close by. Ski touring and freeride take over in winter.

Ljubljana has more variety, but more of it needs a journey. Tivoli Park and Šmarna Gora are in town. The Kamnik-Savinja Alps, Triglav National Park, rafting on the Soča and the Postojna and Škocjan caves all lie between forty minutes and an hour or more away.

Ljubljana sits in the middle of a small country, so a great deal is within reach. Bled, Škofja Loka and Radovljica are close, Predjama Castle, Lipica, Idrija and Piran are further out, and Trieste and Zagreb are about two hours away. Buses and trains reach most of them.

Hallstatt's outings are lovely but fewer and harder to reach. You can visit the Kaiservilla in Bad Ischl, St Wolfgang's altarpiece, Gmunden's lake castle and, on a long day, Salzburg. Without a car, every trip means working around buses and the lakeside railway.

Ljubljana is the easier choice with children. The centre is flat, largely closed to cars and good for pushchairs. It has the castle funicular, the Dragon Bridge, playgrounds in Tivoli, a modest zoo and a puppet theatre that small children can follow without the language.

Hallstatt has fewer highlights for children, though they are memorable ones: the miners' slides and underground lake in the salt mine, and the ice caves for older children. The single steep lane gets packed at midday, and families usually stay in Obertraun instead.

Both are places you cover on foot, but in different ways. Ljubljana's flat centre links the old town, the market, the museums and Tivoli within about twenty minutes, with bike share and electric shuttles to help. Intercity buses serve the rest of the country.

Hallstatt is tiny but steep, with steps up to the church. Arriving is the awkward part: the station is across the lake and you finish by boat, and buses thin out outside summer. Many visitors find a car worth having.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Ljubljana gives you more to browse. There is honey, pumpkin-seed oil and coastal salt at the market, Idrija lace, gingerbread hearts, the Sunday flea market on the embankment and a few design boutiques around Trubarjeva. In Hallstatt, shopping is a half-hour stroll along the souvenir lane, where the one distinctive buy is salt from the mountain mine.

Ljubljana is noticeably kinder to the wallet. Set lunch menus at the inns, fairly priced local wine and a centre you can walk keep daily costs moderate. Only summer rooms in the old town reach Western European prices.

Hallstatt has few rooms and draws visitors from across the world, so lakeside beds and meals are priced at Alpine resort level. Add the salt mine, the funicular and the cable car, and it gets expensive. Staying in Obertraun or Bad Goisern and visiting for the day saves a lot.

Ljubljana has a proper season for a city of its size. There are the Slovenian Philharmonic, opera and ballet in the neo-Renaissance house, a year-round programme at Cankarjev dom and the summer Ljubljana Festival in Plečnik's Križanke courtyard. Hallstatt offers a brass band on feast days and the odd church concert, so for an evening of music you go to Bad Ischl for operetta or to Salzburg.

The two are about equal for rest, but they offer it differently. Hallstatt's calm comes from misty early mornings and quiet evenings on the lake, with the historic salt-brine baths of Bad Ischl and Bad Aussee nearby. The crowded middle of the day is best spent on the water or up in the hills.

Ljubljana's calm comes from its car-free, green centre and long afternoons at riverside cafés. For real bathing there is a big water park with saunas on the city's edge, and Slovenia's thermal spa towns are about an hour away.