Innsbruck or Rovinj?

Rovinj is a real swimming destination and Innsbruck is not. On the Istrian side you get kilometres of limestone ledges, pebble coves and bathing platforms along the Golden Cape, plus quieter coves on St Catherine and Red Island. You can swim straight off the rocks below the old town walls. There is no sand, though, so pack water shoes.

Innsbruck's swimming is a summer afternoon at the Lanser See or Natterer See on the plateaus above town, shallow lakes that warm up in July and August. The Achensee is beautiful but too cold for most people.

Rovinj eats better and more varied food. It has seafood from the boats, scampi buzara, Istrian pasta with truffle, peppery olive oil, local Malvazija and Teran, and konobas in the hinterland that are worth the drive. Innsbruck's cooking is good after exercise but heavy: Gröstl, Kaspressknödel, Speck and Kaiserschmarrn, best eaten at a mountain hut.

Both towns have tourist menus at their centres, around the Golden Roof and along Rovinj's harbourfront. Rovinj at least has a morning market, while Innsbruck adds Viennese-style coffee houses and cheap student places.

Innsbruck has far more to see. Its Habsburg past left the Hofburg, the Hofkirche with the tomb of Maximilian I, the Golden Roof and Ambras Castle with its cabinet of curiosities. Add the Ferdinandeum and the folk art museum, and you have enough for two or three days.

In Rovinj the town is the attraction: Venetian houses climbing the former island to St Euphemia, the Balbi Arch and Grisia lane. With the Batana House and a small town museum, it fills an afternoon.

Neither is a nightlife destination, but Innsbruck has more going on. Its university fills the bars and small clubs in the brick arches under the railway viaduct, which stay open late at weekends all year, and in winter the resorts around it add après-ski.

Rovinj's evenings are a long dinner and a drink on the rocks at sunset, with a few waterfront cocktail bars. The town is mostly quiet by midnight and has almost nothing on outside summer.

Innsbruck's mountains are on another scale. The Nordkette ridge at about 2,300m is under half an hour from the centre, with the Karwendel nature park behind it and glaciers in the Stubai. In winter that means skiing, and in summer hut-to-hut hiking, via ferratas, mountain biking and rafting.

Rovinj's outdoors is calmer and closer to the water. You can walk or cycle the pine paths of the Golden Cape, kayak or dive around the low islands, and take a boat into the green Lim Fjord. It is pleasant country, but there are no high peaks.

Both make good bases, but the trips are very different. From Innsbruck the trains do the work: Hall in Tirol in ten minutes, Munich and Salzburg in a little under two hours, and Bolzano and Merano over the Brenner. You only need a car for the Bavarian castles around Füssen.

Rovinj's day trips are closer together but mostly need a car. Pula's Roman amphitheatre and Poreč's Euphrasian Basilica are each about forty minutes away, the hill towns of Motovun and Hum are inland, and Piran and Trieste are over the border.

Innsbruck works better with children, mainly because it is easy to get them into the mountains. The funicular stops at the Alpenzoo with its ibex and lynx, the huts have adventure trails and playgrounds, and there are ski schools on gentle slopes in winter. Rainy days need some planning, though.

Rovinj offers island boat trips, gelato, and resort pools and playgrounds. On the other hand, the shore is rocky, so young children need watching, and the old town's steep, polished cobbles are hard work with a pushchair.

Innsbruck is easier on two counts. The flat centre is walkable, and trams, buses, the Hungerburg funicular and regional trains reach the mountains and the valley towns, so you don't need a car.

Rovinj is fine on foot inside the car-free old town and along the promenade, but there is no railway. Getting to the wineries and hill towns realistically means driving, and parking near the old town is tight in summer.

Neither is a shopping trip, but Innsbruck has a bit more range. Maria-Theresien-Strasse has high-street chains, the old-town arcades sell Tyrolean crafts and loden, and the specialist ski and outdoor shops are excellent.

Rovinj's shopping is food and art to take home: truffle products, olive oil, Teran and lavender, plus the small galleries and studios along Grisia.

Both are expensive, for different reasons. Innsbruck adds an Alpine premium in ski season and around the Christmas markets, and cable car tickets add up quickly. The guest cards that bundle lifts and transport take some of the sting out.

In Rovinj, high-summer rooms near the old town and fish sold by weight on the harbour push costs up. Private apartments and the campsites are the way to save, and late spring and September are noticeably cheaper.

Innsbruck has a real programme all year. The Tiroler Landestheater stages opera, drama and dance, the Tyrolean Symphony Orchestra plays through the season, and in summer the Festival of Early Music fills the Spanish Hall at Ambras Castle.

In Rovinj, performance is mostly summer concerts in St Euphemia and on the squares, plus the occasional bitinada singing. For bigger shows you would go to Pula's arena.

Neither town has thermal springs, so the two are close, but they relax you in different ways. Innsbruck's version is a sauna with mountain views in the spa hotels of Igls after a day on the trails, with the large thermal complexes of the Ötztal and Zillertal about an hour away.

Rovinj's calm comes from the sea: late swims off the rocks, walks in the pines and long lunches, best in May, June and September. In high summer you have to look for quiet away from the crowded harbour.