Innsbruck or Vienna?

Neither city is a place to go for swimming, but Vienna's summer bathing is on a bigger scale. The 20km of banks on the Danube Island and the lidos on the Alte Donau are a U-Bahn ride from the centre, so a swim fits into an ordinary city day.

In Innsbruck, a swim means going up to the small plateau lakes such as the Lanser See, which get pleasantly warm in high summer, or out to the Achensee, which is beautiful but cold. In both cities the season is short, and swimming fills an afternoon rather than a whole trip.

Vienna has a cuisine of its own and the institutions that serve it: Beisl taverns, the grand coffee houses, the Naschmarkt and, unusually for a capital, Heuriger taverns pouring wine from vineyards inside the city limits. You could eat somewhere different every day for a week.

Innsbruck's cooking is hearty Tyrolean food such as Gröstl, Kaspressknödel and Speck, and it tastes best at a mountain hut after a climb. In town the choice is narrower, and the restaurants around the Golden Roof mostly serve tour groups.

Innsbruck's sights are good and close together: the Golden Roof, the Hofkirche with Maximilian's ring of bronze figures, and Ambras Castle, all covered in two or three days. Vienna works on another scale, with Schönbrunn, the Hofburg, the Ringstrasse and major museums ranging from the Bruegels in the Kunsthistorisches to Klimt's The Kiss at the Belvedere.

Both cities were Habsburg seats, so their history is linked. Vienna also has a second great period in Jugendstil and the Secession, and it fills a week without effort.

In both cities the late crowd heads for bars and small clubs under old railway arches: the viaduct in Innsbruck and the Gürtel in Vienna. Vienna has a good deal more on top of that. There is the Bermuda Triangle in the old town, deckchair bars on the Danube Canal in summer, electronic nights in old industrial spaces and, in winter, formal balls that visitors can buy tickets for.

Innsbruck's scene is small and driven by its students. In winter much of the fun moves out to après-ski in the resorts.

This is where Innsbruck is in a different league. A funicular from the old town connects with cable cars that reach the Nordkette ridge at about 2,300m in under half an hour. The Karwendel lies behind the ridge and there are glaciers in the Stubai valley, so the mountains give you skiing in winter and via ferratas, paragliding and hut-to-hut hiking in summer.

Vienna's green side is gentler. There are beech woods and vineyard trails up to the Kahlenberg, the meadows of the Prater, the Donau-Auen floodplain forest and flat cycling along the Danube. The nearest real mountains, the Rax, are an hour and a half away.

Both cities make good bases, but the trips lead in different directions. From Innsbruck they are Alpine and cross borders: Munich and Salzburg are each a little under two hours by train, Bolzano and Merano are over the Brenner, and medieval Hall in Tirol is ten minutes away.

From Vienna the trips are into river and wine country. There is the Wachau with Melk Abbey, the abbeys of Klosterneuburg and Heiligenkreuz, Haydn's Eisenstadt, and a second capital, Bratislava, about an hour away by train or boat.

Vienna gives children more to do and more to fall back on. On dry days there is Schönbrunn Zoo, the Prater with its rides and Ferris wheel, and the aquarium inside a wartime flak tower. On wet days there are the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum, the Technical Museum and ZOOM.

Innsbruck suits families who want to be outdoors. There is the Alpenzoo with its ibex and lynx, adventure trails and playgrounds by the huts in summer, and ski schools in winter. It has few attractions built for children, though, so a rainy day takes more planning.

Both centres are easy to walk, but Vienna's public transport is the more complete system. Five U-Bahn lines and a dense tram network run on one ticket and reach Schönbrunn, the Danube Island and the vineyard villages, and the U-Bahn runs all night at weekends.

Innsbruck's strength is getting up into the mountains. The funicular from the edge of the old town puts the Nordkette within easy reach, and ski buses run out to the slopes. For the remoter valleys and lakes, though, a car helps, which you never need in Vienna.

Vienna has the range Innsbruck lacks. The luxury houses are on the Kohlmarkt and Graben, everyday fashion runs along Mariahilfer Strasse, independent designers are in Neubau, and there is Augarten porcelain to take home.

Innsbruck's Maria-Theresien-Strasse and old-town arcades fill an afternoon. Both cities sell loden jackets and dirndls, but Innsbruck's real strength is its specialist outdoor and ski shops, which are useful if you are buying gear for the mountains.

Neither city is cheap, but a budget goes a little further in Vienna. Set lunch menus, sausage stands, Heuriger buffets, free palace gardens and standing places at the State Opera all help.

Innsbruck adds an Alpine premium that is highest in the ski season, and cable car tickets add up quickly on an active trip. The guest cards that bundle lifts with transport soften the cost, and spring and autumn are clearly cheaper.

For music the gap is wide, and in Vienna it is a reason to go in itself. The State Opera plays on most nights, the Vienna Philharmonic is at home in the Musikverein's Golden Hall, the Konzerthaus, Volksoper and Burgtheater fill out the week, and the Boys' Choir sings on Sundays.

Innsbruck has a solid provincial season at the Tiroler Landestheater and one standout, the summer Festival of Early Music, held in settings such as the Spanish Hall at Ambras Castle. It is worth checking the dates for a summer visit, but it does not compete with Vienna.

Vienna has the thermal water that Innsbruck lacks. There is Therme Wien in Oberlaa, the Art Deco Amalienbad, and the sulphur springs of Baden half an hour away, along with the slow ritual of the coffee house.

Relaxing in Innsbruck is Alpine in style. Hotels in Igls and the plateau villages have spas with mountain views, a sauna follows a day outside, and the big thermal complexes in the Ötztal and Zillertal are about an hour away.