Hallstatt or Lucerne?

Neither has a beach, only cold Alpine water in July and August, but Lucerne makes more of it. Its Lido, the old wooden lake baths and the lawns at Ufschötti give the city a real summer bathing habit, and the water runs a degree or two warmer.

Hallstatt's deep, dark lake offers a jetty and lawn at the north end of the village and the lido at Obertraun. The shore is steep with little room to spread out, so it is a bracing dip after a hike rather than an afternoon by the water.

Neither is a food destination, but Lucerne gives you more choice. Its Old Town guild houses serve Chügelipastete, fondue and rösti, and there are riverside terraces along the Reuss, the Saturday market and a few modern bistros in the Neustadt.

Hallstatt comes down to a handful of guesthouse dining rooms where smoked or pan-fried char from the lake is the dish worth ordering, and kitchens close early once the day visitors leave. For a proper café stop, the imperial-era patisseries of Bad Ischl are the nearest answer.

Hallstatt's culture is concentrated and ancient: seven thousand years of salt mining, the Iron Age burial finds that named a whole European culture, the mine itself and the Beinhaus skulls. It makes a fascinating day, but it is one story told in one village.

Lucerne has more to see and more variety. There is the Chapel Bridge and Water Tower, the climbable towers of the Musegg Wall, the Lion Monument and the Bourbaki Panorama, plus real art at the Rosengart Collection and Wagner's villa at Tribschen. It still fits into a day or two, but those days are fuller.

Hallstatt has no nightlife at all. After dinner the evening is a glass of wine on a terrace and a dark walk by the lake, which is exactly why some people stay the night.

Lucerne at least gives you a choice: pubs and wine bars by the river, a few cocktail bars and a small club scene near the station, and student weekends. During Fasnacht the whole town stays out until dawn. It is still a quiet place, and anyone after a late night will find it runs out early.

Both sit beneath serious mountains, and both are superb. The difference is in how you reach them. In Hallstatt the wild country starts at the village edge. You walk the Echerntal to the waterfalls, hike to the Gosausee, or ride from Obertraun up the Krippenstein to the Five Fingers platform and the giant ice caves, and in winter there is freeride terrain.

Lucerne's mountains come with rails. You take the cogwheel railway up Pilatus, Europe's oldest mountain railway up Rigi, the open-top Stanserhorn cable car, and Titlis with its glacier, all tied together by lake steamers. Hallstatt feels wilder and more remote, while Lucerne lets you string boat, train and ridge walk into one easy day.

Hallstatt's outings are the Salzkammergut lake towns: the Kaiservilla in Bad Ischl, the altarpiece at St Wolfgang and the lake castle at Gmunden. Salzburg is a long but worthwhile day. They are charming, but they take a car or careful bus planning.

Lucerne has more within easy reach and makes it simpler. Bern, Basel and Zurich are each under an hour by train, Einsiedeln and Zug are closer still, and the lake steamers run to the Rütli meadow and the William Tell country at Altdorf.

Hallstatt has a few great moments for children, above all the salt mine with its funicular, wooden slides and underground lake, plus the ice caves for older ones. The village itself is a steep single lane, packed at midday and hard with a pushchair, so families often base themselves in Obertraun.

Lucerne is easier on parents. The Transport Museum and its planetarium can fill a whole day, the Glacier Garden and Goldau wildlife park add more, and the riverside centre is flat and safe with lawns for picnics.

Hallstatt is small enough that you never need transport once you are there, though the lane is narrow and parts of the village are only reached by stairs. The trouble is arriving and leaving. Trains stop on the far shore, so you finish the journey on a little ferry, and the buses towards Obertraun, Gosau and Bad Ischl are few, and fewer still out of season. Most visitors exploring the wider Salzkammergut end up driving.

Lucerne is built for travelling without a car. You step off the train within sight of the steamers and the Chapel Bridge, cover most of the town on level ground, and use one ticket system for buses, boats, cogwheel railways and cable cars. A mountain day that links several of them means checking connections, but they run to time, so you can leave the car at home.

Hallstatt's shopping is a half-hour stroll along the souvenir lane, and the one thing worth carrying home is salt from the local mine, alongside carved wood and schnapps.

Lucerne gives a shopper more to do, mostly if the shopper wants a Swiss watch. The big houses on Schwanenplatz dominate, with army knives, chocolate and a few Old Town boutiques around them, but fashion and design are thin.

Neither is a cheap place to stay, but Hallstatt is easier to manage. Its few lakeside rooms are dear and the mine and cable car tickets add up, yet sleeping in Obertraun, Bad Goisern or Bad Ischl brings costs down noticeably.

Lucerne has no such escape route. Central hotels, ordinary restaurant meals and the mountain railways are all costly, and a Swiss travel pass and lakeside supermarket picnics only take the edge off.

This is where the two are furthest apart. In Hallstatt live performance means the village brass band on feast days and the odd summer church concert, and for anything more you need Salzburg or the operetta season in Bad Ischl.

Lucerne is a serious music town. Leading orchestras come to the lakefront concert hall for the Lucerne Festival, the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra plays there through the year, and the city theatre stages opera, drama and dance.

Both are calm places with no bathing tradition of their own, and both crowd up in the middle of the day. Hallstatt's spa culture lies nearby, in the salt-brine baths of Bad Ischl, Bad Aussee and Bad Goisern, and its stillness is best at dawn with mist on the lake.

Lucerne's soaking spot is Mario Botta's mineral bath high on the Rigi. Otherwise relaxing there means slow promenades, the wooden lake baths and an unhurried afternoon on a steamer.