Interlaken or Lugano?

Neither town has a real beach, but Lugano gives you more lake time. Its water gets a little warmer, the season runs from June into early September, and the lidos at the mouth of the Cassarate river and along the shore towards Paradiso have lawns, decks and pools for a whole afternoon.

In Interlaken a swim is mostly a reward after a day in the mountains, and only in July and August. Lake Thun's grassy lidos at Neuhaus are the warmer option, while glacial Lake Brienz at Bönigen is a beautiful but cold dip.

Lugano eats noticeably better. Its grotti serve polenta, braised meats and local cheeses at granite tables, with Ticino Merlot from vineyards near the city, and the old town adds pastry shops and a weekly market.

Interlaken's restaurants are hearty but predictable, mostly fondue, rösti and international places for the visitors. The best meals are up on the mountains, on a hut terrace above Grindelwald or Mürren, and plenty of people simply live on supermarket picnics.

This is where the two differ most. Lugano has a compact Lombard old town around Piazza della Riforma, the Cathedral of San Lorenzo above it, Luini's great fresco in Santa Maria degli Angioli, the art museum at LAC and Palazzo Reali, and the Hesse museum in Montagnola. That is a good day of sightseeing.

Interlaken has the row of nineteenth-century hotels on the Höheweg, the Kursaal and a few timber houses in Unterseen, and not much more. For museums and old streets, people take the train to Bern.

Both towns go quiet before midnight, but Lugano has the more enjoyable evening. Aperitivo on the lakefront or under the arcades leads into a long dinner, with wine bars and lounges by the water for a well-dressed local crowd. Interlaken's going out is mostly backpacker pubs, sports bars and a couple of basement clubs near the hostels, plus the Kursaal casino, for people who have an early train the next morning.

Interlaken is in a different league for mountains. Within an hour by rail you can stand at 3,454m on the Jungfraujoch above the Aletsch glacier, walk the Schynige Platte ridge or watch Trümmelbach's meltwater roar through the rock. The town also runs paragliding, canyoning and rafting, and turns to skiing in winter.

Lugano's landscape is softer and greener: funiculars up Monte Brè and San Salvatore, the lakeside path to Gandria, the Lema to Tamaro ridge walk and the clear green water of the Verzasca valley. It is lovely, but the high Alps are further away.

Both are excellent bases, and both reach Lucerne in about two hours, but Lugano's position on the border gives it the edge. Milan's cathedral and The Last Supper are just over an hour away, Como half an hour, and the castles of Bellinzona and the lakes around Locarno are close by.

Interlaken stays within Switzerland: arcaded Bern in under an hour, Thun's castle along the lake, paddle steamers to Spiez and Oberhofen, and the open-air museum at Ballenberg.

Interlaken keeps children busier. The rack railways and gondolas are an outing in themselves, and the summit stations have playgrounds, cliff walks and summer toboggan runs, with the St Beatus caves and Ballenberg's farm animals for variety. The very highest excursions are a stretch for small children, though.

Lugano relies on the lake: boat trips, lido slides, the funiculars and the miniature Swiss landmarks at Melide. Its steep streets are hard work with a pushchair. Neither town has a zoo or a big science museum, so wet days are tricky in both.

You can manage without a car in either town, but the ground is different. Interlaken is flat, its two stations are a twenty-minute walk apart, and narrow-gauge trains, cog railways and steamers connect neatly across the Jungfrau region, though the popular mountain trains get crowded in summer.

Lugano's centre is just as walkable along the promenade, but it climbs steeply, with a funicular linking the high station to the old town. Buses and lake boats cover the rest.

Lugano has more to browse. Via Nassa's porticoes are lined with watchmakers and Italian fashion houses, the old-town lanes add delicatessens and wine shops, and there is a large designer outlet near Mendrisio. Interlaken's Höheweg sells watches, army knives and cuckoo clocks to tour groups. The one local craft worth buying is woodcarving from Brienz.

Both are very expensive, as you'd expect in Switzerland, and neither has a cheap way to stay. The big cost differs. In Interlaken it is the mountain railways, with the Jungfraujoch above all and adventure sports on top. In Lugano it is the lakeside hotels and restaurant meals, which you can soften by eating at grotti or across the Italian border on a day trip.

Lugano has a proper cultural season. The concert hall at LAC is home to the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana, its theatre stages drama and dance, and Estival Jazz fills Piazza della Riforma with free concerts in summer.

Interlaken's highlight is the amateur open-air William Tell, performed in the woods every summer. Beyond that there are folklore evenings with yodelling and alphorns, and Bern is the place for an orchestra.

Neither town has thermal springs, so the difference is in how you rest. In Lugano the pace of the place does the work: coffee under the arcades, a bench in Parco Ciani, long grotto lunches, with a big indoor pool and sauna complex near Rivera. Interlaken's centre is busy and built around activity. Calm comes from the grand hotel spas, slow steamer crossings, or staying up in quiet Wengen or Mürren.