Interlaken or Nice?

Nice lives on its shoreline. The 7km pebble beach under the Promenade des Anglais is fit for swimming from June to October, and sandier, calmer coves at Villefranche, Cap Ferrat and Juan-les-Pins are a short ride away. Bring water shoes or rent a lounger, because the stones are hard going.

Interlaken offers a swim, not a beach trip. Lake Thun warms up enough in July and August for its grassy lidos, while Lake Brienz is a striking turquoise but colder. It is a lovely way to cool off after a mountain day, under snow peaks, but not something to plan a stay around.

Nice has a cuisine you can name: socca hot from the wood oven, pissaladière, stuffed vegetables and a much-argued salade niçoise, with the Cours Saleya market and small Bellet vineyards behind it. Eat in the family places of Vieux Nice and around the port, and skip the set-menu terraces.

In Interlaken, the meals worth remembering happen outside town. Restaurants in the town serve dependable fondue, rösti and international dishes, but the best eating is cheese bought at mountain dairies and lunch on a hut terrace above Grindelwald or Mürren.

There is a real gap here. Interlaken's own sights fit into a short stroll: the grand hotels and Kursaal on the Höheweg and a few timber houses in Unterseen. Anything more means a trip to Bern or Thun.

Nice can fill two or three days with culture. Vieux Nice's ochre lanes and baroque chapels sit under Castle Hill, the Belle Époque villas and the Russian Orthodox Cathedral recall the winter-resort years, and the art museums in Cimiez and MAMAC are the reason many visitors come.

Nice is where you will want to stay out. The lanes of Vieux Nice fill with wine and cocktail bars, and in summer the port and beach clubs keep people out late, although the city has few clubs worth seeking out. Interlaken's nights are a few backpacker pubs, a basement club or the casino, and most people are in bed early before a morning train up the mountain.

Both sit at the foot of the Alps, but Interlaken is right among them. The Jungfraujoch, the waterfalls of Lauterbrunnen, the Schynige Platte ridge and the ski slopes of Wengen and Mürren are all reached by rail. The town is also a world centre for paragliding and canyoning. Its one weakness is cloud that can hide the peaks for days.

Nice puts sea and mountains side by side. You get headland paths on Cap Ferrat, cycling on the corniches, diving and kayaking offshore, and the Mercantour and the Esterel within reach. Most of this takes planning, and summer heat limits hiking to the early morning.

Both are excellent bases, and Nice has slightly more variety. Monaco, Èze, Menton, Antibes, Cannes, Grasse and Saint-Paul-de-Vence are mostly under an hour away, with Italy a short train ride along the coast.

From Interlaken, the trips mix towns and lakes. You can go to Bern's arcaded old town, by steamer to the castles at Thun, Spiez and Oberhofen, to the woodcarvers of Brienz and the Ballenberg open-air museum, or over the Brünig Pass to Lucerne.

Interlaken turns the transport itself into the entertainment. Cog railways, gondolas, cliff walks, summer toboggan runs, the St Beatus caves and the farm animals at Ballenberg fill long days, though rainy days are hard to fill and the highest summits are a lot for toddlers.

Nice suits families in a gentler, city way. It has the water jets of the Promenade du Paillon, Parc Phoenix and a flat promenade for pushchairs. Pebbles, crowds and heat in midsummer are the main drawbacks.

Neither needs a car, and Interlaken's network is a little more complete. Mainline trains, mountain railways, gondolas and lake steamers connect so well that the whole Jungfrau region can be done on one transport card, and the town itself is a flat walk between two stations.

Nice works more like a normal city. Its centre is walkable, a tram runs to the airport, buses climb to Cimiez, and coastal trains run to Monaco and Cannes. Summer crowds slow both places down, and in Nice the coast roads are slow as well.

Nice is the better place to browse. Avenue Jean Médecin has the high-street chains, the streets around rue Paradis have the fashion houses, the old town sells olive oil, soaps and Provençal fabrics, and the Cours Saleya turns into an antiques market on Mondays. Interlaken's Höheweg mostly sells watches, army knives and souvenirs to tour groups, and the woodcarving of Brienz is its one real local craft.

Neither is cheap, but Interlaken is the harder on your wallet. Swiss prices for hotels and meals are only the start, because the mountain railways and the Jungfraujoch are what really push up the bill. Picnics and transport passes help only so much.

Nice is easier to manage on a budget. The trams and coastal trains are inexpensive, so the day trips cost little, and socca and market food keep meals cheap. Spring and late autumn bring hotel prices down.

Nice has a season, and Interlaken mostly has summer shows. The Opéra de Nice, the Philharmonic, the national theatre, the July jazz festival and the February Carnival give the city a real calendar. In Interlaken it is the open-air William Tell in the woods, folklore evenings and the lake-stage musical at Thun, with Bern the place to go for an orchestra.

The two are about level here, and neither has a bathing tradition. In both, spa time means the big hotels.

What differs is the kind of calm. Interlaken's comes from mountain quiet in Wengen or Mürren and slow steamer crossings, away from the busy town centre. Nice's is a seaside rhythm of early swims and evening walks on the promenade, with thalassotherapy along the coast. It is at its most restful out of season.