Interlaken or Pisa?

Interlaken has lake swimming rather than beaches. There are grassy lidos and shingle on Lake Thun and the colder glacial turquoise of Lake Brienz, lovely under the peaks but only really swimmable in July and August.

Pisa has a proper coast about 12km away. Tirrenia and Calambrone have long sandy beaches backed by pines, with shallow, warm water in high summer and the full Italian set-up of rented umbrellas. Versilia is a short train ride north. It still works best as an afternoon off from sightseeing.

Interlaken's restaurants are dependable and hearty, with fondue, raclette and rösti alongside Indian, Asian and Middle Eastern places, but nothing in town is worth seeking out. The good meals come from the region around it: cheese from the mountain dairies, lunch on a hut terrace above Grindelwald or Mürren, or a white wine from Lake Thun.

Pisa eats better, though it is no dining destination either. Cecina comes hot from wood ovens, and the trattorias around the Piazza delle Vettovaglie market serve ribollita, game and salt cod at student-friendly prices. The menus to skip are the ones near the tower, and the seafood is better out on the coast.

This is the widest gap between the two. In Interlaken the sights are a row of grand hotels, the Kursaal and a few timber houses in Unterseen. Anything more means a train to Bern or Thun.

Pisa has one of Italy's great architectural ensembles in the Piazza dei Miracoli, where the tower, cathedral, baptistery and Camposanto stand together on one lawn. Beyond it lies a quieter second layer: Piazza dei Cavalieri, Santa Maria della Spina on the Arno, and the medieval collections of San Matteo.

Neither is a place to go out, but Pisa has more of an evening. Interlaken's nights end early, with a few backpacker pubs and basement clubs near the hostels and the Kursaal casino for a change. In Pisa, students fill the squares around the old market during term, Borgo Stretto and the riverbanks draw an aperitivo crowd, and in summer the action moves to the beach bars.

Interlaken is in a different league here. The Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau and the waterfalls of the Lauterbrunnen valley are all within an hour by rail. A full day's excursion on the cog railway reaches the Jungfraujoch, which looks out over the Aletsch glacier. The town is also a centre for paragliding, canyoning and rafting, with skiing in winter.

Pisa's outdoors are softer. There are deer in the pine woods and dunes of San Rossore, olive-terrace paths on the Monte Pisano and birdwatching at Massaciuccoli. For real mountain hiking you have to travel further, to the Apuan Alps or the cliff paths of the Cinque Terre.

Interlaken is a well-connected base. Trains and lake steamers reach Bern's arcaded old town, Thun's castle, the shore castles of Spiez and Oberhofen and the Ballenberg open-air museum, with Lucerne a longer scenic ride over the Brünig Pass. Many of its other outings are mountain villages, much like the scenery on its doorstep.

Pisa's range is wider and more varied. Florence is about an hour away and Lucca under half an hour, and the Cinque Terre, Volterra, San Gimignano and Siena each make a full day. Each of these feels quite different from Pisa itself.

Interlaken is the stronger choice with children, because getting about is part of the fun. There are rack railways, gondolas and lake steamers, summit playgrounds, summer toboggan runs, the St Beatus caves and the farm animals at Ballenberg. Wet days and the high altitudes, which can trouble toddlers, are the catches.

Pisa is flat and compact, and the tower photo always goes down well, but little else is designed for children, and younger ones cannot climb the tower. The best family days are on the shallow beaches of Tirrenia or cycling in San Rossore.

Both are easy without a car, but in different ways. Interlaken's own streets matter little. Its strength is the network of mainline trains, cog railways, gondolas and steamers across the Jungfrau region, though the popular trains get crowded in summer. Pisa is first a city you walk, with the airport a shuttle ride from the station and frequent trains across western Tuscany, though a car helps for the inland hill towns.

Pisa has ordinary Italian shopping, while Interlaken has mostly souvenirs. The Höheweg sells watches, army knives, cuckoo clocks and chocolate to tour groups, and Brienz woodcarving is the one local craft worth seeking out. Pisa has mid-range fashion on Corso Italia, smarter shoes and old pastry shops under the arcades of Borgo Stretto, and a monthly antiques market along the river.

Pisa is far easier on the wallet. Interlaken charges full Swiss prices for rooms, meals and drinks. On top of that come the mountain railways that are the point of the stay, the Jungfraujoch above all, and picnics and transport passes only soften the bill.

Pisa is moderately priced for a famous Italian city, with student trattorias, mid-range rooms and a centre you can cover on foot for free. The main extras are the tower climb and summer beach loungers.

Pisa has more on stage. The Teatro Verdi, a 19th-century horseshoe-shaped house, runs opera, concerts, ballet and drama from autumn to spring, and the university and the churches add chamber music and recitals. Interlaken's highlight is the amateur open-air William Tell, staged in the woods each summer, along with folklore evenings of yodelling and alphorns. These are charming but slight, and Bern's theatre and orchestra are under an hour away.

Neither has a bathing culture in town, and in both the calm comes mostly from the setting. Interlaken relies on grand hotel spas, a public wellness area, slow steamer crossings and the quiet of Wengen or Mürren, above a busy centre geared to activity. Pisa has real thermal water nearby, at the Roman-era springs of San Giuliano Terme and the larger pool at Casciana Terme, and its old town has an easy, small-scale pace away from the cathedral square.