Innsbruck or Interlaken?

Neither city is a swimming destination, and in both it comes down to a lake on a hot afternoon in July or August. From Innsbruck that means going up to the small, shallow plateau lakes such as the Lanser See and Natterer See, or out to the Achensee, which is beautiful but cold.

Interlaken does better because it sits right between two large lakes. Lake Thun has grassy lidos and shingle shores at Neuhaus and towards Spiez, and turquoise Lake Brienz is there for a bracing dip, all under snow peaks.

Innsbruck eats better. Tyrolean cooking such as Gröstl, Kaspressknödel and Kaiserschmarrn is a cuisine of its own, served in old-town inns and Viennese-style coffee houses, and the student districts add cheaper international places.

Interlaken's restaurants mostly serve fondue, raclette and rösti to visitors, plus a run of Indian and Asian places, all reliable but rarely memorable. In both, the meals you will remember are at mountain huts, and Interlaken adds Lake Thun white wine and dairy cheese.

The gap here is wide. Innsbruck was a Habsburg seat, and its arcaded old town holds the Golden Roof, the Hofburg and the Hofkirche with Emperor Maximilian's tomb, while Ambras Castle on the edge of town adds a Renaissance cabinet of curiosities and an armour collection. The Bergisel ski jump brings modern architecture into the mix.

Interlaken grew up as a base for the mountains and has little of its own beyond the grand hotels on the Höheweg and a few timber houses in Unterseen. For museums and old streets you take the train to Bern or Thun.

Innsbruck is the place for a night out, mainly thanks to its university. The brick arches under the railway viaduct hold a run of bars and small clubs that stay open late at weekends, and there are pubs and wine bars around the old town.

Interlaken goes to bed early because its visitors are up for trains and paragliding. You get a few backpacker pubs and basement clubs, the Kursaal casino and a quiet Höheweg long before midnight.

Both are among the finest mountain bases in Europe, so the difference is in kind. Innsbruck is a city with peaks right overhead: a funicular from the old town links to the Nordkette cable cars, the Karwendel nature park starts behind the ridge, and several ski areas plus the Stubai Glacier share one pass.

Interlaken has the famous names: the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, the waterfalls of the Lauterbrunnen valley and the railway to the Jungfraujoch at 3,454m. It is also a centre for adventure sport, with paragliders landing on the Höhematte and canyoning on the Lütschine, though low cloud can hide the view for days.

Interlaken has a slight edge because so much is close and easy to reach. Bern is under an hour away, Thun and its castle half an hour, and paddle steamers stop at lakeside towns such as Spiez and Oberhofen. Brienz and the open-air museum at Ballenberg, and Lucerne over the Brünig Pass, round out the choice.

Innsbruck reaches further and crosses borders. Hall in Tirol is ten minutes away, Munich and Salzburg are each a little under two hours by train, and over the Brenner Pass Bolzano has Ötzi the Iceman, with Neuschwanstein about two hours away by car.

Both are safe and simple with children, and the mountains are the entertainment in each. Innsbruck has the Alpenzoo with ibex, bears and wolves on the funicular line, plateau lakes for a family swim and the play tower at the Swarovski Crystal Worlds, but most sights in town are for adults.

Interlaken does it better because getting up the mountain is half the fun: rack railways, gondolas and steamers lead to summit playgrounds, cliff walks and summer toboggan runs. The St Beatus caves and Ballenberg's farm animals are reliable, but the highest altitudes are hard on very young children.

Both are easy without a car, but they work differently. Innsbruck's strength is how close the mountains are to the city: a flat, walkable centre, trams out to Igls and the Stubai valley, and a funicular from the edge of the old town, though a car still helps for remote valleys and lakes.

Interlaken's town is just a twenty-minute walk between its two stations. Its real asset is the regional web of narrow-gauge and cog railways, gondolas and steamers that covers the whole Jungfrau region, with car-free Wengen and Mürren at the end of the line. The most popular trains do get crowded in summer.

Innsbruck gives you more to buy. Maria-Theresien-Strasse has the high-street chains, the old-town arcades sell Tyrolean crafts, and loden jackets, dirndls, Speck and schnapps make good things to take home. Its specialist outdoor and ski shops are excellent.

Interlaken's Höheweg is aimed at tour groups, with watch and jewellery stores, army knives, cuckoo clocks and chocolate. Carved wood from Brienz is the one local craft worth finding.

Neither is cheap, but Interlaken is far harder on the budget. Innsbruck has Western European prices with an Alpine premium, and it is noticeably cheaper in spring and autumn. Its guest and city cards bundle transport with lifts and sights.

In Interlaken, hotels, meals and drinks run at full Swiss levels. The mountain railways, the Jungfraujoch above all, cost more than most visitors expect, so even hostels and supermarket picnics only soften the bill.

Innsbruck has a real season. The Tiroler Landestheater stages opera, drama and dance, the Tyrolean Symphony Orchestra plays in the congress hall, and the summer Festival of Early Music uses settings such as the Spanish Hall at Ambras Castle.

Interlaken's signature is the amateur open-air William Tell, performed in the woods each summer, plus folklore evenings with alphorns and occasional concerts at the Kursaal. For an orchestra or a proper theatre, you go to Bern.

Neither has thermal springs, and both rely on hotel spas and mountain calm. Innsbruck's best spas are in hotels up in Igls and the plateau villages, the large thermal complexes of the Ötztal and Zillertal are about an hour away, and the town itself is unhurried.

Interlaken has sizeable spas in the grand Höheweg hotels and soothing steamer crossings and early lakeshore mornings. The centre fills with coach groups and backpackers, though, so for real rest you stay out in a lakeside village or up in Wengen or Mürren.