Interlaken or Monaco?

Neither is a true beach destination, but Monaco gives you far more to swim in. In Interlaken that means the grassy lidos on Lake Thun or a bracing dip in turquoise Lake Brienz at Bönigen after a hike, in July or August only.

Monaco has warm, clear Mediterranean water from June into early October. Larvotto is small and enclosed by breakwaters, with beach clubs and rock platforms around it. The coves of Cap d'Ail are a short walk over the border, and the long beaches of Menton and Nice are a short train ride away.

Interlaken feeds hikers rather than food lovers. Restaurants serve fondue, rösti and raclette alongside Indian and Asian places, and many visitors live on supermarket picnics. The best meals are up the mountain, on a hut terrace above Mürren or with cheese bought from an Alpine dairy.

Monaco eats much better, though mostly at the top end. Starred and grand hotel dining rooms cook Riviera and Ligurian food, and on the harbourside terraces the view is half the point. Casual restaurants are scarce and dinner is a dressed-up affair, so for something cheaper and local, go to the Condamine market for barbagiuan and socca.

Interlaken has almost nothing to see in town beyond the grand hotels on the Höheweg, the Kursaal and the few timber houses in Unterseen. For museums and old towns you go to Bern or Thun.

Monaco fits a proper day or two of sights into a small space. On the Rock are the Prince's Palace with its guard ceremony, the cathedral with Grace Kelly's tomb and the Belle Époque Oceanographic Museum on the cliff edge. Monte-Carlo adds the Casino, the national museum's villas and the princely family's car collection. None of it goes very deep, but Monaco works as a sightseeing destination in a way Interlaken never tries to.

Interlaken goes to bed early because its visitors want the first train up the mountain. A few backpacker pubs and basement clubs near the hostels, plus the Kursaal casino, are about all there is.

Monaco offers a real night out, if a narrow one: hotel bars on the Casino square, glossy clubs along the Larvotto seafront and the port, and a harbour-wide party on Grand Prix weekend. It is dressy and costly, with no casual pubs, but you can actually go out, which Interlaken rarely lets you do.

This is where Interlaken wins outright. Within an hour by rail you can be under the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, beside the waterfalls of the Lauterbrunnen valley or on the Harder Kulm above town. The Jungfraujoch takes longer, about two hours each way by train and cog railway, and ends at 3,454m looking over the Aletsch glacier. Paragliding, canyoning, rafting and skiing are all run from town, and low cloud hiding the peaks is the one catch.

Monaco's setting is dramatic in a different way, with the limestone cliff of Tête de Chien, the old mule path up to Èze and the pine-lined paths around Cap Martin. What it has that Interlaken lacks is the sea: diving, snorkelling and sailing in clear, warm water.

Both make excellent bases, Monaco slightly more so. From Interlaken, trains reach Bern's arcaded old town in under an hour. Lake steamers call at the castles of Thun, Spiez and Oberhofen, Ballenberg's open-air museum is near Brienz, and Lucerne is a scenic two hours away over the Brünig Pass.

Monaco's advantage is how much sits along one coastline. Nice is under half an hour away, with Menton, Villefranche and Èze even closer. Antibes, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Cannes and Grasse are within about an hour and a half. Crossing into Italy for Sanremo or Dolceacqua adds a second country to the trip.

Interlaken suits children better because the excursions are the fun part. They get rack railways, gondolas and lake steamers, summit playgrounds and summer toboggan runs above Grindelwald and on the Harder Kulm, plus the St Beatus caves and the farm animals at Ballenberg. Wet days and the altitude of the highest trips are the weak points with toddlers.

Monaco is safe, clean and compact, and its highlights are the aquarium in the Oceanographic Museum and the calm water at Larvotto. Beyond those it is built for adults, with formal restaurants and steep streets, so families staying longer often spend time elsewhere on the coast.

Both are easy without a car, in different ways. Interlaken itself is small and flat. Its real strength is the network of mainline trains, narrow-gauge mountain lines, cog railways, gondolas and steamers that covers the whole Jungfrau region, crowded only on the busiest summer trains.

You walk Monaco rather than ride it. It is only about 3km end to end but very steep, with free public lifts and escalators between the levels and a small ferry across the harbour. Its station, dug deep into the hillside, puts the rest of the Riviera within easy reach.

The shops along Interlaken's Höheweg sell watches, army knives, cuckoo clocks and chocolate to tour groups, plus outdoor gear. Woodcarving from Brienz is the one local craft worth buying.

Monaco has more to offer, though within a narrow range. The Carré d'Or around the Casino gardens gathers fashion houses, jewellers and watchmakers into a stroll of a quarter of an hour, and window-shopping there on a summer evening is part of the Monte-Carlo experience. For everyday shopping or more choice, visitors go to Nice.

Neither is cheap in any way, and the gap between them is small. In Interlaken the big cost is the mountain railways and cable cars, the Jungfraujoch above all, on top of full Swiss prices for hotels and meals. Hostels, transport passes and picnics take some of the edge off.

In Monaco the beds and meals themselves are the problem: they are priced for the very wealthy and go higher still on event weekends. The free lifts and walks around the Rock and the harbour cost nothing, and many budget visitors sleep in Nice or Beausoleil and come in for the day.

Interlaken's stage is mostly a summer one: the amateur William Tell performances in the woods, folklore evenings with yodelling and alphorns, and the odd concert at the Kursaal. For serious music you go to Bern.

Monaco has performing institutions of real standing for a place its size. The Monte-Carlo Opera performs in the gilded Salle Garnier, built in 1879, and the Philharmonic and Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo are known internationally. The main season runs from winter into spring, and summer brings open-air concerts by the sea.

In Interlaken the calm comes from the setting more than the facilities. There are hotel spas on the Höheweg and a public wellness area, but the real rest is in early mornings by the lake, slow steamer crossings and nights in quiet Wengen or Mürren, away from the coach groups in town.

Monaco is better for a dedicated treatment day, with a large thalassotherapy centre beside the Casino, offering heated seawater pools, and several grand hotel spas. Its orderly streets and the Japanese Garden make for unhurried mornings, except during Grand Prix week.