Interlaken or La Spezia?

Neither town has a beach on its doorstep, but from La Spezia you reach the Mediterranean easily. The sheltered sand and pebble at San Terenzo and Lerici, the clear rocky coves of Portovenere and Palmaria, and Monterosso's long sandy beach are all short trips. The sea stays warm enough from June into early October.

Interlaken offers lake swimming instead. In July and August there is a pleasant dip in Lake Thun from the lidos at Neuhaus, and the turquoise but colder Lake Brienz has a bathing area at Bönigen. It makes a good end to a hiking day rather than a reason to come.

La Spezia eats much better. Farinata from wood ovens, mesciua soup, pesto on trofie and testaroli, and gulf mussels stuffed or in sauce give the city a cuisine of its own. The Piazza Cavour market and the Cinque Terre whites and Sciacchetrà round it out.

Interlaken's restaurants serve fondue, raclette and rösti to visitors, reliably but without much depth. Its best meals come from the region around it: Alpine cheese from mountain dairies, a hut terrace above Grindelwald or Mürren, or a glass of Lake Thun white.

La Spezia gives you a proper day or two of sightseeing. There are early Italian paintings and ivories at the Museo Amedeo Lia, seafaring history at the naval museum and the Lunigiana stele statues in the Castello San Giorgio, all in a grid of Liberty-style streets built around the naval base.

Interlaken barely competes. A walk past the grand hotels and the Kursaal on the Höheweg, then across the Aare to the timber houses of Unterseen, covers most of it. For history, take the train to Bern.

Both towns go to bed early, but La Spezia has more of an evening ritual. Spritz and Vermentino on Via del Prione and around Piazza Verdi, and in summer the waterfront bars at Lerici and San Terenzo, make the aperitivo hour a pleasure even if little follows it.

Interlaken's going out is pubs, sports bars and a couple of basement clubs near the hostels, aimed at backpackers, plus the casino in the Kursaal. Away from that it is a quiet drink on the Höheweg.

Both are bases for remarkable landscapes, but Interlaken's is on another scale. The Lauterbrunnen valley, the Trümmelbach falls inside the rock and the Jungfraujoch above the Aletsch glacier are all close by. Cable cars put high trails within easy reach, and paragliding, canyoning, rafting and winter skiing all run from town.

La Spezia's draw is the terraced cliffs of the Cinque Terre, with the Sentiero Azzurro and quieter ridge paths, Palmaria's forts and sea caves, and kayaking and diving in the gulf. The Apuan Alps add serious hiking about an hour inland.

La Spezia puts more variety within shorter reach. The Cinque Terre villages are minutes away by train, Portovenere and Tellaro sit on either side of the gulf, and walled Sarzana and Roman Luni are close. Pisa and Lucca are about an hour away.

Interlaken's rail links serve it well too. Arcaded Bern is under an hour, there are lakeside castles at Thun, Spiez and Oberhofen, and Brienz has its woodcarving and the Ballenberg open-air museum. Lucerne, though, is a two-hour ride.

Interlaken is the easier choice with children. The transport is the entertainment: rack railways, gondolas and paddle steamers lead to summit playgrounds, cliff walks and summer toboggan runs, with the St Beatus caves and Ballenberg's farm animals as backups. Wet days and high altitudes for very small children are the weak points.

La Spezia is relaxed and pushchair-friendly in its flat centre. Boat trips round Portovenere and the shallow beaches at Lerici are the best days out. Beyond those, its steep villages and long coastal walks suit older children more than young ones.

You can manage both without a car, but Interlaken's system is the more seamless. Mainline trains, narrow-gauge mountain lines, cog railways, gondolas and steamers all connect with each other, and many hotels hand out a regional transport card.

La Spezia's walkable centre and its coastal trains, gulf buses and seasonal ferries work well. The villages they serve have narrow roads and crowded platforms in summer, though. Both places see packed trains at the height of the season.

Neither is a shopping destination, though La Spezia offers a more normal city high street. Via del Prione and Corso Cavour have chains, shoe shops and a few independent boutiques, and the best things to take home are pesto, olive oil and Sciacchetrà.

Interlaken's Höheweg is given over to watch stores, army knives, cuckoo clocks and chocolate for tour groups. Carved wood from Brienz is the souvenir with real local roots.

La Spezia costs far less. Its food and local transport are fair value, and rooms are cheaper than in the Cinque Terre villages, although summer stays, trail passes and paid beaches add up.

In Interlaken everything runs at full Swiss prices, and the mountain railways, the Jungfraujoch above all, are the biggest shock. Hostels and picnics help, but only so far.

La Spezia has a little more to attend. The Teatro Civico runs a season of theatre and concerts, and summer brings a long-established jazz festival and open-air concerts in piazzas and castle courtyards.

Interlaken's highlight is the amateur open-air William Tell in the woods each summer, along with yodelling and alphorn evenings. Bern, under an hour away, fills the gap.

Interlaken offers somewhat more for resting. Several grand hotels on the Höheweg have sizeable spas, the town has a public wellness area, and slow steamer crossings or a night up in Wengen or Mürren are restful.

La Spezia's equivalent is the small thermal baths at Equi Terme, an hour inland, or simply a slower pace: a long lunch in Tellaro or a quiet day on Palmaria.