Hallstatt or Strasbourg?

Neither is a swimming destination, but Hallstatt at least has its lake right in front of it. The Hallstätter See is deep, clear and cold, with a bathing lawn in the village and a lido at Obertraun, and it makes a good bracing dip after a hike in July or August.

In Strasbourg, people swim in old gravel pits such as the Baggersee, which you can reach by tram. They have grassy banks and lifeguards in high summer, so they are pleasant on a hot afternoon, but they lack the clear mountain water and the scenery of an Alpine lake.

Here Strasbourg is far ahead. Alsatian cooking gives it a strong identity, from choucroute and baeckeoffe in wood-panelled winstubs to Munster cheese at the covered market. There are serious fine-dining tables in the city and the nearby villages, and the wine comes from vineyards just to the south.

Hallstatt has a few guesthouse dining rooms serving schnitzel and goulash, and the one local dish worth looking for is char or whitefish from the lake. Kitchens close early, and for anything more you go to Bad Ischl and its historic patisseries.

Strasbourg has enough for several days: the pink sandstone cathedral with its astronomical clock, the timber-framed streets of the Grande Ile and Petite France, the German-built Neustadt, and museums ranging from the three collections in the Palais Rohan to modern art by the river.

Hallstatt's history goes much further back but takes up much less time. Seven thousand years of salt mining, the Iron Age graves that gave the Hallstatt culture its name, the mine itself and the painted skulls of the Beinhaus make a memorable day, and the village on its lakeside ledge is as much the sight as any single building.

Strasbourg's evenings are modest but real: student bars in Krutenau and around Place Saint-Étienne, beer cellars and summer terraces on the quays, though there are few clubs and little goes on after midnight. Hallstatt has nothing like it, since once the day visitors leave, an evening out means dinner, a glass of wine by the water and a walk along the lake in the dark.

For mountain scenery, Hallstatt is in a different league from Strasbourg. The Dachstein rises almost straight out of the lake, so a morning can start in the village and end on a high limestone plateau or on a path climbing past waterfalls towards the glacier. The Gosausee, with the whole massif reflected in its water, is one of the great views of the Alps. Rain and lake mist are frequent, and in winter the slopes above Obertraun are used for freeride and ski touring.

Strasbourg's countryside is gentler, and you have to travel to reach it. The city is flat and green, with the Orangerie park and woodland along the Rhine where storks and beavers live, and level bike routes that follow the river and the canals into Germany. For hills you go about an hour west to the Vosges, with forest paths, ruined castles and Mont Sainte-Odile, or east to the fir woods and higher ridges of the Black Forest.

Both sit in regions full of good outings, but Strasbourg offers more variety and much easier connections. Colmar is about half an hour by train, and the Alsace wine route, Baden-Baden, Freiburg, Basel and Heidelberg add up to villages, spa towns and cities in two countries.

From Hallstatt, the outings are the lake towns of the Salzkammergut, such as Bad Ischl with its Kaiservilla, St Wolfgang and Gmunden, with Salzburg about an hour and a half away by car. Without a car, each trip means working around buses and the lakeside railway.

Strasbourg is the easier place with children. The centre is flat and largely car-free, and there are boat trips through Petite France, storks and rowing boats in the Orangerie and the hands-on Le Vaisseau science centre, with Europa-Park about an hour away.

Hallstatt has a few real highlights for children, the salt mine's wooden slides and underground lake and the ice caves for older ones. But the single steep lane is hard going with a pushchair, so families often stay in Obertraun and come over for a few hours.

Both centres are easy to explore on foot, but Strasbourg is far better if you don't have a car. Trams run from the centre to the station, the European quarter and across the Rhine to Kehl, and separated cycle lanes often make a bike the quickest way around.

You can cross Hallstatt on foot in minutes, though the lanes are steep. The difficulty is getting in and out: the station is on the far shore and a small boat crosses to the village, and buses to Obertraun, Gosau and Bad Ischl are infrequent outside summer, so many visitors bring a car.

Strasbourg is good for a proper afternoon's shopping, with chain stores and a department store around Place Kléber, independent bookshops and delicatessens near the cathedral, and regional things to take home such as Soufflenheim pottery, printed linens and Alsace wine. Shopping in Hallstatt is one lane of souvenir shops, and the thing worth buying is salt from the local mine.

Neither is cheap, but Strasbourg is easier on the wallet. Winstub meals, wine by the pichet and the trams are reasonably priced, and the cathedral and old town cost nothing. Hotels are the main expense, especially during the Christmas market and the weeks when the European Parliament sits.

Hallstatt has few rooms and visitors from all over the world, so staying in the village costs well above the Austrian average, and the salt mine, funicular and cable car add up. The usual way round this is to sleep in Obertraun or Bad Ischl and visit for the day.

Strasbourg has a genuine season: the Opéra national du Rhin on Place Broglie, a full philharmonic programme, the Théâtre National de Strasbourg and the autumn Musica festival of contemporary music, plus jazz and touring bands.

Hallstatt has a brass band on feast days and the occasional summer concert in its churches. For a proper evening of music, you would go to Salzburg or to Bad Ischl's summer operetta.

Both rely partly on spa towns nearby. From Hallstatt, Bad Ischl's salt-brine baths are half an hour away, and from Strasbourg, Baden-Baden's Friedrichsbad and Caracalla baths are under an hour across the Rhine. Strasbourg comes out ahead because it also has its own tiled Bains municipaux and an easy, unhurried pace of canal walks and riverside cycling.

In Hallstatt, the calm comes at the beginning and end of the day: mist on the lake in the early morning and quiet after the tour groups leave. At midday the lane is packed, so a restful stay means spending those hours on the water or up in the hills.