Hallstatt or Zurich?

Neither place has a beach, but Zurich is the better place to swim. Its lake is a few degrees warmer, and the lidos at Utoquai, Enge and Mythenquai have lawns and wooden decks. On the Limmat, the river baths at Letten let you float downstream with the current, a short walk from the old town.

Hallstätter See is deeper and colder and reaches about 20°C at best. The lawn and jetty at the north end of the village and the lido at Obertraun are good for a quick, bracing swim after a hike, but the steep shores leave little room for an afternoon on the grass.

Zurich has far more choice. You can eat Geschnetzeltes with rösti in the Altstadt guild houses, have fondue in winter, try the tea rooms on Paradeplatz and their Luxemburgerli, or go to the international places around Langstrasse, with Swiss lake-shore wine on most lists.

In Hallstatt, eating means a few guesthouse dining rooms and terraces serving schnitzel and dumplings. The local speciality is char or whitefish from the lake. Kitchens can close early, so anyone who cares about food will want a trip to Bad Ischl's patisseries.

Hallstatt's history goes back much further. People have mined salt here for some seven thousand years, the village gave its name to an early European culture, and the painted skulls of the Beinhaus are unique. Still, the salt mine, the small museum and the village itself fill a day at most.

Zurich has more to see over a longer stay. The Kunsthaus, the Swiss National Museum and the Museum Rietberg cover art and history in depth. The Grossmünster, the Fraumünster with its Chagall windows and the guild houses on the Limmat make the old town worth two or three days.

For a night out, these two could hardly be further apart. In Hallstatt the evening ends where dinner does. There is no bar to move on to and no music to find, so if a late drink matters to you, stay somewhere else and visit the village by day.

Zurich gives you a real choice of nights. Electronic music is the city's strength, and at weekends its dance floors keep going until daylight. On warm evenings, plenty of people simply sit with a drink on the banks of the Limmat. Midweek is much tamer, so plan a going-out trip around a Friday and a Saturday.

Hallstatt has the edge because the mountains start at the village. The Krippenstein cable car climbs to the Five Fingers platform and the ice caves, paths run up the Echerntal towards the glacier, and the Gosausee view is one of the classics of the Alps. In winter there is freeride skiing on the same slopes.

Zurich's nature is gentler and closer to town. There are lake promenades with the Glarus Alps in view and forest trails on the Uetliberg. Rigi, Pilatus and the Flumserberg pistes are about an hour away by train. Hallstatt's mist and Zurich's winter fog both affect the views.

Both are good bases, but Zurich is the easier one. Lucerne, Bern, Basel and St Gallen's abbey library are each about an hour away by train, and the Rhine Falls with Stein am Rhein, Rapperswil by boat and Einsiedeln are closer still, all without a car.

From Hallstatt, the Salzkammergut lake towns are lovely day trips: the Kaiservilla in Bad Ischl, the altarpiece at St Wolfgang and Gmunden's lake castle. Salzburg makes a long day out. Without a car, though, every outing depends on buses and the lakeside railway and needs planning.

Zurich is much easier with children. The zoo has its Madagascar rainforest hall and forest playgrounds, the lidos have shallow water, and Technorama and the Swiss Museum of Transport make good day trips. Trams and trains cope easily with buggies.

Hallstatt's salt mine, with its wooden slides and underground lake, is a real hit, and older children remember the ice caves. Away from those, the single steep lane is hard work with a pushchair, and families are better off staying in Obertraun.

Zurich is about as easy to get around as a city can be. Trams, S-Bahn trains, funiculars and even the lake boats all use one ticket, and the airport is a short train ride from the main station.

Hallstatt is small enough to cross on foot in minutes, though it is steep in places. Getting in and out is the hard part: the station is on the far shore, a boat takes you over, and buses to Obertraun and Gosau run less often outside summer. Many visitors decide a car is worth having.

Zurich is a real shopping city. Bahnhofstrasse runs to the lake past watchmakers and jewellers, the Altstadt lanes have boutiques and antique shops, and the arches of the old railway viaduct in Zurich West hold design shops. Hallstatt's one lane of souvenir shops takes half an hour, and the thing worth buying there is salt from the mine above the village.

Neither is cheap, but Hallstatt costs less. It is expensive by Austrian standards, with few rooms and resort-level meals, but you can save a good deal by sleeping in Obertraun, Bad Goisern or Bad Ischl and coming in for the day.

Zurich is among the most expensive cities in the world, and there is no cheaper town nearby to stay in instead. Savings there are small: supermarket lunches, picnics by the lake, the free lidos and a visitor card that covers transport and museums.

Zurich has a full programme, with opera and ballet at the Opernhaus, the Tonhalle Orchestra in its restored hall and the Schauspielhaus for German-language theatre. The Rote Fabrik and Kreis 4 and 5 host jazz, indie and electronic acts, and the Theater Spektakel brings performances to the lake shore in summer.

Hallstatt has only the village brass band on feast days and the occasional summer concert in church. For an evening of music you would drive to Bad Ischl's summer operetta or to Salzburg.

Zurich has more to offer in town. The baths in the vaults of the old Hürlimann brewery have a rooftop pool, and in winter the wooden bathing houses on the lake and the Limmat become saunas with cold dips between sessions. Roman Baden is twenty minutes away by train.

Hallstatt's calm comes from the landscape: mist on the lake at dawn and an empty lane after the tour groups leave. For proper bathing, you go to the brine baths at Bad Ischl, about half an hour away.