Hallstatt or Split?

Hallstätter See is a mountain lake that stays cool even in high summer. Swimming here means a quick, bracing dip from the jetty lawn in the village or the lido at Obertraun, usually after a hike, and the steep shores leave little room to spread a towel.

Split is a real sea-swimming city from June into early October, with warm, clear Adriatic water a walk from the old town. Bačvice has shallow sand and the local game of picigin, the coves around Marjan offer pine shade and deeper water, and ferries to Brač, Šolta and Hvar lead to longer beaches. Along most of the shore, expect pebbles and concrete platforms rather than sand.

Hallstatt's choice is short: guesthouse schnitzel, goulash and dumplings, plus smoked or pan-fried char and whitefish from the lake, which is the one dish worth seeking out. Kitchens may close early in the evening, and for real choice people drive to Bad Ischl.

Split gives you a whole regional cuisine to work through, from black risotto and pašticada to octopus baked under the peka, along with a fish market, the Pazar and local Plavac Mali and Pošip to drink. The better meals are in the konobas of Varoš rather than inside the palace walls, and things are quieter in winter.

Both places are built around one remarkable site, but on a different scale. In Hallstatt the sight is the village itself and its deep prehistory: seven thousand years of salt mining, the Iron Age burial ground that gave the Hallstatt culture its name, the mine, the small museum and the painted skulls of the Beinhaus. It all fits into a day.

Split has more to see. Diocletian's Palace is a Roman complex that people still live in, with the Peristyle, a cathedral inside the emperor's mausoleum and the vaulted substructures. Around it are Venetian streets, Narodni Trg and the Meštrović Gallery on Marjan, enough for two full days.

Hallstatt has effectively no nightlife. After the day visitors leave, an evening means dinner, a glass of wine on a terrace and a walk beside the dark lake. In summer Split fills the palace alleys and stairways with small bars and has beach bars and clubs around Bačvice that run into the early hours, though from October to May it shrinks back to coffee and wine with locals.

This is the one area where Hallstatt clearly leads. High mountain country starts at the edge of the village: the Krippenstein cable car up to the Five Fingers platform and the Dachstein ice caves, the Echerntal waterfalls, the walk to the Gosausee, hut-to-hut routes and via ferratas in summer, and freeride and ski touring in winter.

Split's outdoors is very good in a different way, more sea than summit. Marjan's pine woods sit at the edge of town, Mosor and Biokovo have ridge walks, the Cetina canyon at Omiš offers rafting and canyoning, and Krka's waterfalls are an hour away, with kayaking and island sailing as well. What it lacks is the glaciers and sheer Alpine scale, and midsummer heat makes hiking hard.

Hallstatt's outings are the lake towns of the Salzkammergut: imperial Bad Ischl and the Kaiservilla, the altarpiece at St Wolfgang, Gmunden's lake castle on the Traunsee and Altaussee on the Styrian side. Salzburg makes a long but rewarding day. Without a car, all of these trips take planning.

Split gives you more variety for less effort. Trogir, with its UNESCO-listed medieval core, is about half an hour away, and Šibenik, home of the UNESCO-listed Cathedral of St James, is about an hour. Salona and Klis Fortress are close by. In summer, ferries from the harbour make Hvar and Brač easy days out, and Vis is a longer island trip.

Neither place is built around children, but Split is the easier of the two. Hallstatt has a couple of real highlights: the salt mine with its wooden slides and underground lake, and the Krippenstein ice caves for older children. The village itself, though, is one steep, crowded lane that is hard going with a pushchair, so families usually stay in Obertraun instead.

Split gives small children shallow water at Bačvice, space to run on Marjan and a ferry ride that often turns out to be the highlight. The catch is July and August, when heat and crowds wear young children out.

Both centres are for walking, not driving. Hallstatt's is only a few minutes from end to end, though it has steps and steep lanes. The hard part is getting in and out: the railway station is across the lake, buses are sparse outside summer, and a car makes the Salzkammergut far easier.

Split's car-free centre is larger but still walkable. The ferry port, bus station and railway station all sit together on the harbour, so you can reach the islands and coastal towns without a car. Expect polished stone steps in the palace and slow summer traffic on the coast road.

Neither place is a shopping destination. Hallstatt's lane of souvenir shops makes half an hour of browsing, and the one distinctive buy is salt from the local mine.

Split offers a little more, with fashion chains on Marmontova and galleries inside the palace. Its best browsing is the Pazar market, where dried figs, honey, olive oil and Dalmatian wine make better things to take home.

Hallstatt is the more expensive place to stay. Rooms are few, demand comes from all over the world, meals are priced at resort level, and the salt mine, funicular and cable car all add to the bill. The usual way to save is to sleep in Obertraun, Bad Goisern or Bad Ischl and come in for the day.

Split is costly in July and August, but rooms cost far less in May, June, late September and winter. All year, markets, bakeries, local buses and the konobas away from the Riva keep everyday spending moderate.

Hallstatt offers a brass band on feast days and the odd church concert, so a night of music means a drive to Salzburg or to Bad Ischl's summer operetta. Split has the Croatian National Theatre for opera and ballet, the Split Summer Festival with performances in the Peristyle, and klapa singers whose harmonies fill the domed vestibule of the palace. Outside summer, though, Split's calendar thins out as well.

Hallstatt sits in an old spa region, with the historic brine baths of Bad Ischl and Bad Aussee close by, although the village itself has little more than hotel saunas. Its own kind of rest comes in the early mornings and evenings, when the tour groups have gone. At midday the lane is crowded, so on a slow day you spend those hours on the lake or in the hills.

Split has no bathing tradition, only hotel spas along the coast east of the centre. What it does have is fjaka: long coffees on the Riva and empty streets in the afternoon heat. It is calmest in May, June and September. In midsummer the old town stays loud late into the night, and real rest means the pine woods of Marjan or a trip to an island.