Interlaken or Nuremberg?

Neither place is a beach destination, but Interlaken at least has lakes on its doorstep. In July and August you can step from town onto the lidos and shingle at Neuhaus on Lake Thun, or brave the colder turquoise water at Bönigen on Lake Brienz, with snow peaks behind you.

Nuremberg's nearest open water is the Franconian Lake District, about an hour south. It has slightly warmer reservoirs and small sandy strips, but it is an outing rather than part of the day, so in the city itself swimming means pools.

Nuremberg gives you food with a local identity: finger-sized bratwurst grilled over beechwood, Schäufele with crackling, Lebkuchen and, above all, beer from Franconia's many small breweries, poured in old town taverns and riverside beer gardens.

Interlaken's restaurants serve fondue, rösti and international menus that are dependable but rarely more. The best eating there is up in the mountains, at a hut terrace or a dairy selling Alpine cheese, and many visitors get by on picnics.

This is the widest gap between the two. Nuremberg's walled old town, the Kaiserburg, St Sebaldus and St Lorenz and the Germanisches Nationalmuseum could fill several days. The Rally Grounds documentation centre and Courtroom 600 add a sobering chapter of twentieth-century history.

Interlaken grew up as a base for the mountains. Its sights amount to the grand hotels and Kursaal on the Höheweg and a few old timber houses in Unterseen, so for history you have to take the train somewhere else.

Nuremberg makes for a better night out, though mostly in bars rather than clubs. You can start in the old town taverns and wine bars, then head to the small bars and alternative venues of Gostenhof, with students on the riverbanks in summer. Interlaken turns in early, because people are up early for the mountains. Evenings there come down to a few backpacker pubs and basement clubs, the Kursaal casino and a quiet drink on the Höheweg.

Interlaken is one of the great Alpine bases. The Jungfraujoch railway climbs above the Aletsch glacier, Trümmelbach's meltwater roars inside the rock, and trails from Grindelwald First, Schynige Platte and Mürren are reached without effort. Add paragliding over the Höhematte, rafting, lake paddling and winter skiing, with weather the only real limit.

Nuremberg offers pleasant rather than dramatic country. There is the Reichswald at the edge of town, and the limestone towers, caves and climbing crags of Franconian Switzerland are an hour away. It is good for walkers and cyclists, but there are no mountains.

Both are excellent bases, but for different kinds of outing. From Interlaken the trips mix mountains and lakes. Paddle steamers call at castle towns such as Spiez and Oberhofen, and you can reach Bern's arcades in under an hour, the Ballenberg open-air museum, or Lucerne over the Brünig Pass.

From Nuremberg the outings are almost all about historic towns. Bamberg, Regensburg and Würzburg are each about an hour away, Rothenburg and Dinkelsbühl lie on the Romantic Road, and Bayreuth's opera houses and Munich are also within reach.

Interlaken has the edge for families, because getting around is the fun part. Cog railways, gondolas and steamers lead to summit playgrounds, cliff walks and summer toboggan runs, with the St Beatus caves and Ballenberg's farm animals as backups. Rainy days are hard to fill, though, and the highest summits can be too much for toddlers.

Nuremberg works best when the weather turns. It has a toy museum, a railway museum with real locomotives and a zoo set in old quarries, and at Christmas a children's market with carousels.

Interlaken's transport is built for the mountains rather than the town. The centre is a flat twenty-minute walk between its two stations. The real network starts there: mainline trains, narrow-gauge lines up to Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald, cog railways, gondolas and lake steamers all link up, so you can reach the whole Jungfrau region, including car-free Wengen and Mürren, without a car. The catch is crowding on the most popular mountain trains in summer.

Nuremberg works the other way round. Almost everything you will want lies inside walls about 1.5km across, so you simply walk, and the only real effort is the cobbled climb to the castle. For the outskirts, U-Bahn, trams and S-Bahn run on one ticket to the zoo, the Rally Grounds and Fürth.

Nuremberg has more to buy that belongs to the place. There is Lebkuchen in decorated tins, wooden toys and tin figures, the craft workshops of the Handwerkerhof and, in Advent, the stalls of the Christkindlesmarkt, though the main streets are mostly chain stores. Interlaken's Höheweg caters to tour groups with watch and jewellery stores, army knives and cuckoo clocks. Carvings from Brienz are its one real local craft.

This gap will shape most budgets. Interlaken charges full Swiss prices for beds and meals, and the mountain railways, especially to the Jungfraujoch, add a large sum that no pass or picnic fully offsets.

Nuremberg is mid-priced, with filling tavern meals, cheap beer and inexpensive transport. Its one trap is hotel rates during trade fairs and the Advent market, so book around those weeks.

Nuremberg has a real season. The Staatstheater stages opera, ballet and drama in its Art Nouveau house, two orchestras perform, and summer brings free folk music at the Bardentreffen and a large open-air concert in the Luitpoldhain. Interlaken's performances are smaller and tied to the summer. The best known is the amateur open-air William Tell in the woods, alongside folklore evenings with alphorns and yodelling, and for anything bigger you go to Bern.

Nuremberg is slightly better for a classic spa day. It is a short U-Bahn ride to the large thermal spa with sauna gardens in Fürth, and Bad Windsheim's saline pools are about an hour away, though you should expect the German habit of nude, mixed saunas.

Interlaken has no thermal water. Its calm comes from hotel spas, steamer crossings and quiet mornings in Wengen or Mürren, away from the coach groups in town.