Interlaken or Queenstown?

Neither is a beach destination, but Interlaken's lakes are kinder to swimmers. In a good summer Lake Thun warms to about 21°C, with grassy lidos at Neuhaus and shingle shores towards Spiez, and Bönigen gives you a colder dip in turquoise Lake Brienz.

Lake Wakatipu stays near 12°C even in late summer, so in Queenstown a swim usually means a quick plunge from the bay or a jump off the town jetty. Lake Hayes and Moke Lake are the warmer choice in January and February.

Queenstown eats noticeably better. A year-round visitor trade supports smart restaurants serving lamb, venison and South Island seafood, alongside ramen bars and pie shops. Its best card is Gibbston Valley, where a long lunch among the pinot noir vines is a short drive up the Kawarau Gorge.

In Interlaken the menus run to fondue, rösti and raclette, done reliably but without much flair. The best meals happen up the mountain, with cheese from an Alpine dairy, lunch on a hut terrace above Mürren or a glass of Lake Thun white. Many visitors simply live on supermarket picnics.

Neither town is worth choosing for its sights, because both were built as bases for the landscape around them. Interlaken has its row of grand nineteenth-century hotels and the Kursaal facing the Höhematte, plus a few old timber houses in Unterseen. Queenstown's best piece of history still moves: the coal-fired TSS Earnslaw, which has crossed the lake since 1912.

The real difference lies beyond town. Interlaken can draw on the historic Swiss towns along its rail lines, while Queenstown's gold-rush past is best seen in Arrowtown.

Queenstown is far the better place for a night out. Seasonal workers, skiers and backpackers fill the bars around Shotover, Camp and Searle streets, which stay loud past midnight on a winter Saturday, and in summer the evenings move out onto lakefront terraces. It is mostly drinking and DJ bars, and two nights will cover it.

Interlaken goes to bed early because its visitors are up for the first mountain train. A few backpacker pubs, a couple of basement clubs and the Kursaal casino are about all there is.

Both are among the world's great mountain bases, but you meet the scenery in different ways. In Interlaken, trains and lifts do the climbing. The cog railway runs up to the Jungfraujoch above the Aletsch glacier, gondolas rise to Grindelwald First, a cable car goes to the Schilthorn above Mürren and a historic cog railway from Wilderswil climbs to the Schynige Platte ridge. Below them, Lauterbrunnen's waterfalls drop into the valley under the Eiger.

In Queenstown, the outdoors starts on foot or by road. You can climb Ben Lomond straight from town, walk the Routeburn Track beyond Glenorchy or ride a jet boat through the Shotover canyons. Commercial bungy jumping began here, and the ski fields are a drive away rather than a train ride.

Interlaken wins clearly, because Swiss rail puts real towns within easy reach. Bern's arcaded old town is under an hour away, Thun's castle is half an hour along the lake, paddle steamers call at Spiez and Oberhofen, and Lucerne is a scenic ride over the Brünig Pass. Ballenberg's open-air museum and the woodcarvers of Brienz add variety.

Queenstown has one excellent short outing in Arrowtown and a good second in Wanaka, over the Crown Range. After that the choice comes down to wine country and scenery, and Milford Sound takes three to four hours each way.

Both are safe, but Interlaken is the easier base with children because getting up the mountain is half the fun. Summit stations have playgrounds, cliff walks and summer toboggan runs, and the St Beatus caves and the farm animals at Ballenberg rarely fail. The main caution is altitude at the highest stops for very young children.

Queenstown's best family day is the gondola and luge on Bob's Peak, with kiwi to see at the wildlife park by the gondola base. Many of the thrills it is known for are closed to younger children, though, and long drives tire small passengers.

This is where the two differ most in practice. In Interlaken, mainline trains, narrow-gauge railways, cog railways, gondolas and steamers connect into one network, often covered by a guest transport card, so the whole Jungfrau region works without a car. The only nuisance is crowded mountain trains in summer.

Queenstown's tiny centre is easy to walk, and buses run to Frankton and Arrowtown. The wineries, Glenorchy, Wanaka and the trailheads really call for a hire car, though, and the single road into town backs up at busy times.

Nobody travels to either for shopping, though Queenstown's offer feels a little more local. It has merino and possum-wool knitwear, greenstone jewellery, galleries of landscape painting and a summer craft market by the wharf, along with serious ski and bike shops.

Interlaken's Höheweg mostly sells watches, jewellery, army knives, cuckoo clocks and chocolate to tour groups, and carved wood from Brienz is the one purchase with real local roots.

Both are expensive, but Interlaken is harder on the wallet. Full Swiss prices for rooms and meals come on top of mountain railway fares, the Jungfraujoch above all, and there is no cheap way to see the region properly.

Queenstown is pricey for New Zealand, and bungy jumps, jet boats and lift passes add up quickly. Even so, self-catering apartments, the Frankton supermarkets and free walking trails make a budget go a little further than it would in the Bernese Oberland.

Interlaken's one real stage tradition is the open-air William Tell, which local amateurs have performed in the woods each summer since the early twentieth century. Folklore evenings with yodelling and alphorns fill out the season, and Bern's orchestra and theatre are within an hour by train.

Queenstown has no tradition of that kind. Live music mostly means covers bands and acoustic sets in pubs and après-ski bars, and the winter festival adds a few days of street performances and concerts.

In Interlaken, rest comes in a grand-hotel style. Several of the old hotels on the Höheweg have large spas, a steamer crossing on either lake is slow and calm, and a few nights in car-free Wengen or Mürren take you away from the coach groups in the centre.

Queenstown's version is more rustic. You can soak in a private cedar hot tub on a hillside above the Shotover River, book a massage at a lodge spa out towards Arrowtown or spend a quiet day in Glenorchy at the head of the lake. Neither town has thermal springs, and in both the centre is busier than the edges.