Hallstatt or Trieste?

Neither place has sand, but Trieste offers far more swimming. Hallstatt's lake is deep and fed by mountain water, so a dip from the jetty in the village or at the Obertraun lido is a bracing reward after a hike rather than a way to spend the afternoon.

In Trieste the Adriatic is part of daily life. People sunbathe on the stepped platforms and pine-shaded lawns at Barcola, the old bathing establishments have changing cabins, and there are prettier pebble coves at Sistiana and Duino. The sea is much warmer for a long summer swim, as long as you are happy climbing down a ladder off rocks.

Eating in Hallstatt comes down to a few guesthouse dining rooms serving schnitzel and goulash, plus char or whitefish from the lake, which are worth trying once. Kitchens close early, and the nearest serious pastry is in Bad Ischl.

Trieste has a cuisine of its own, shaped by Italy, Austria and the Slavic world. You can stand at a buffet counter over boiled pork with horseradish, order jota or fried sardoni, and learn to ask for a 'capo in b' in an old coffee house. Then you can drive up to an osmiza on the Karst for Terrano and home-cured ham. Fine dining is limited in both places.

Hallstatt's history goes back a very long way. Salt has been mined here for some seven thousand years, the Iron Age Hallstatt culture is named after the village, and the Beinhaus holds its painted skulls. Even so, the salt mine, the small museum and the lane of wooden houses fill a day at most.

Trieste is a whole Habsburg port city to explore. There is the huge seafront Piazza Unità, the canal-side grid of the Borgo Teresiano, the cathedral and castle on San Giusto above a Roman theatre, and the white Miramare Castle on the shore. The Revoltella museum, the great synagogue and the Risiera di San Sabba memorial add several more days.

In Hallstatt an evening out means dinner and a walk by the dark lake, and nothing more. Trieste is no party city either, with few clubs and quiet winter weeknights. Still, its aperitivo around Piazza Unità and the Canal Grande, the student wine bars and the summer kiosks along Barcola give you somewhere to go after dinner.

This is Hallstatt's great strength. The lake lies in a glacial trough under the Dachstein, and from Obertraun a cable car climbs to the Five Fingers platform, the high karst plateau and the Giant Ice Cave. There are waterfall paths up the Echerntal, the reflected peaks at the Gosausee and ski touring in winter.

Trieste's outdoors is gentler and more varied: cliff walks along the Strada Napoleonica and the Rilke Path, climbing in Val Rosandra, the vast Grotta Gigante, and sailing and snorkelling off Miramare. It is good for mixing with city days, but it is not high mountain country.

Hallstatt's outings stay within the Salzkammergut. You can visit the Kaiservilla in Bad Ischl, St Wolfgang's altarpiece and Gmunden's lake castle, while Salzburg is a long day away. Without a car, all of this takes careful planning around buses.

Trieste opens up three countries. Aquileia's mosaics, star-shaped Palmanova and the Collio wine villages are in Friuli. Piran and Ljubljana are across the Slovenian border, Istria is reachable by car, and Venice is about two hours by train.

Hallstatt has a few outings children love, such as the miners' slides and underground lake in the salt mine and the icy caverns up the Krippenstein. Beyond those, its single steep lane is crowded at midday and hard work with a pushchair.

Trieste is easier to settle into. Families can use the Miramare gardens, the waterfront aquarium, a hands-on science centre and summer days at Barcola. Swimming off rocks and the stepped streets still make it better for older children than toddlers.

Hallstatt takes minutes to cross on foot, but getting there is the awkward part. The station is across the lake, so you arrive by boat, and buses to Obertraun, Gosau and Bad Ischl are sparse outside summer, which is why many visitors bring a car.

Trieste's centre is flat and compact along the water. Frequent city buses run out to Barcola, Miramare and the Karst, and ferries cross to Muggia. Here a car is needed only for wine country and cross-border trips.

Neither is a place to shop. Hallstatt has a lane of souvenir stalls where the one real find is salt from the mountain mine. Trieste has more to browse: antique and second-hand shops in the old town, ordinary Italian fashion along Corso Italia, and coffee, Karst wine and presnitz to take home.

Hallstatt is costly for the little it offers in rooms and meals. The village has very few beds for a worldwide crowd, and the salt mine, funicular and cable car soon add up, so budget travellers often sleep in Obertraun or Bad Ischl and visit for the day.

Trieste is noticeably easier on the wallet. Buffet meals and coffee at the bar are cheap, the buses are inexpensive, and swimming at Barcola, the cathedral hill and the Karst walks cost nothing. Smarter hotels and seafood still charge normal Italian city prices.

Trieste has a proper stage life. The waterfront Teatro Verdi runs seasons of opera and ballet, the Politeama Rossetti stages plays and musicals, and there is a Slovenian-language theatre, though live music outside the theatres is thin.

Hallstatt offers only a brass band on feast days and the occasional church concert. Both places share a Habsburg fondness for operetta, but to hear it from Hallstatt you have to go to Bad Ischl in summer.

The two are about equal for a restful stay, but the rest is of a different kind. From Hallstatt the salt-brine baths and thermal complex of Bad Ischl, along with the spa towns of Bad Aussee and Bad Goisern, are close at hand. The village's own calm comes in the misty mornings and evenings, either side of the crowded middle of the day.

Trieste has no thermal tradition and only hotel spas. What it offers instead is an unhurried city rhythm: long sittings in old coffee houses and sunset strolls out along the Molo Audace.