Innsbruck or Portofino?

Portofino has the sea, though not sandy beaches. People swim from rock platforms with ladders along the lighthouse path, at the small sheltered bay of Paraggi, which is mostly given over to paid beach clubs, or at the pebble cove below San Fruttuoso, reached by boat or on foot. The water is clear and warm for the whole summer, but the spots are small and fill up.

Innsbruck can only offer mountain lakes. The shallow plateau lakes such as the Lanser See warm up nicely in July and August, while the Achensee is beautiful but cold. Swimming there is a pleasant summer afternoon, not a reason to choose the city.

Neither city is a place to travel for food, but they eat in very different ways. Innsbruck serves hearty Tyrolean dishes such as Gröstl, dumplings and Kaiserschmarrn, best eaten at a mountain hut after a walk, and it has coffee houses for strudel and cheaper student places for the budget.

Portofino means Ligurian cooking: pesto with trofie, fritto misto and Recco's cheese focaccia, eaten on harbour terraces where you pay for the view of the yachts. For more choice and better food, keen eaters head to Camogli or the trattorie in the hills.

Innsbruck has far more to see. Its Habsburg past fills a compact old town: the Golden Roof, the Hofburg, and the Hofkirche with Maximilian I's tomb ringed by bronze giants. Ambras Castle and two good museums take the visit to two or three days.

In Portofino the sight is the village itself, a painted horseshoe around the harbour, plus San Giorgio church, Castello Brown and the medieval abbey at San Fruttuoso. It all takes about a day, and it is the atmosphere you remember, not any collection.

Innsbruck's university gives it a real if modest night scene. Bars and small clubs fill the brick arches under the railway viaduct and stay open late at weekends, and there are pubs around the old town. In winter, après-ski in the nearby resorts adds more.

Portofino's evenings end with dinner. You dress up for an aperitivo facing the moored yachts, and after that there are no clubs and hardly any late bars. Anyone wanting a night out takes the road to Santa Margherita or Rapallo.

Innsbruck has high Alpine mountains right outside town, while Portofino has a small protected headland above the sea, and the mountains give you far more to do. You can be on the Nordkette ridge at about 2,300m in under half an hour, with the Karwendel, Austria's largest nature park, behind it and the Stubai Glacier across the valley. Summer brings hut-to-hut hiking, via ferratas, paragliding and rafting, and in winter several ski areas share one pass.

Portofino's park and marine reserve are smaller but offer something no Alpine city can. Trails climb through holm oak and pine to Monte di Portofino and drop down to San Fruttuoso, and some sections are exposed and fitted with chains. Under the water, divers find red coral walls and the bronze Christ of the Abyss.

Both are good bases, though in different ways. Innsbruck sits on the main Alpine rail lines, so day trips can cross borders: Munich and Salzburg are each under two hours away, and Bolzano and Merano lie over the Brenner Pass. Medieval Hall in Tirol is ten minutes away.

Portofino's outings run along the coast and are often made by boat: Camogli, Santa Margherita, Genoa's palaces in under an hour, and in summer ferries to the Cinque Terre and Portovenere. Out of season the ferries stop and the trip takes more planning.

Innsbruck is the easier family base. The funicular stops at the Alpenzoo with its ibex and wolves, the mountains have adventure trails and playgrounds by the huts, and in winter there are ski schools on gentle slopes. Rainy days are the main gap.

Portofino is safe, and children like the boats and the climb to the castle, but there are no playgrounds, the sand at Paraggi is mostly paid beach clubs, and the steps defeat pushchairs. Most families stay in Rapallo or Santa Margherita instead.

Innsbruck is simple to get around. The flat centre is easy to walk, trams and buses run out to Igls and the Stubai valley, and the funicular to the Nordkette starts from the old town. The main station is central, so you do not need a car.

Portofino is just as walkable inside the village, but the paths up to the church and lighthouse are steep. The real problem is getting in and out on one narrow coast road with very little parking. In summer the buses are crowded, so the ferries are often the more pleasant way to travel.

Innsbruck covers more ground. Maria-Theresien-Strasse has the high-street chains, the old town arcades sell loden jackets, woodcarvings and Speck, and the specialist ski and outdoor shops are excellent. It is still an afternoon's shopping at most.

Portofino is the opposite. A few lanes behind the harbour hold big fashion and jewellery labels and resort wear for yacht visitors, plus some lace and ceramics, and you have seen it all in under an hour. For a market or a longer browse, people go to Chiavari or Genoa.

Neither is cheap, but they are in different leagues, and Innsbruck is far easier on the wallet. It costs what a popular Alpine town usually costs: a normal Western European bill with a resort mark-up, highest in ski season and at Christmas and noticeably lower in its own quieter months of spring and autumn. On an active trip the cable car tickets are where the money goes, and the guest cards that bundle transport, lifts and sights take some of the sting out.

Portofino is a luxury resort first and a village second, so the same days cost a great deal more there. Its few rooms are nearly all at the top end, so there is no mid-range option to fall back on, and the setting is built into the price of every drink, lounger and boat. The headland trails cost nothing, but the usual way to manage on an ordinary budget is to stay in Camogli or Rapallo and come over by day.

Innsbruck has a real programme. The Tiroler Landestheater stages opera, drama and dance, the Tyrolean Symphony Orchestra gives concerts, and the summer Festival of Early Music fills historic rooms such as the Spanish Hall at Ambras Castle.

Portofino has almost nothing beyond the odd summer concert in the piazzetta or at the castle. Opera and theatre mean an evening trip to Genoa's Teatro Carlo Felice.

The two are about level, and both rely on hotel spas instead of public baths. In Innsbruck, rest means a sauna with a mountain view in Igls after a day outdoors, and the big thermal complexes in the Ötztal and Zillertal are about an hour away.

Portofino slows you down with sea views, long lunches and shaded paths. It feels calmest early in the morning, in the evening and outside summer, because tour-boat crowds fill the harbour at midday in high season.