Interlaken or Rothenburg ob der Tauber?

Neither is a beach destination, but Interlaken at least gives you water worth swimming in. In July and August the grassy lidos and shingle shores of Lake Thun reach swimmable temperatures, and Lake Brienz offers a colder glacial dip with snow peaks behind.

Rothenburg sits on a hilltop far inland. Swimming means the town pool or a drive of about an hour to the artificial lakes of the Franconian lake district.

Both are places to eat well enough rather than to travel for food, and the difference is mostly in kind. Interlaken mixes fondue, raclette and rösti with Indian and Asian kitchens for its international visitors, and its best meals happen higher up, on hut terraces above Grindelwald or Mürren, or with cheese bought straight from a mountain dairy.

Rothenburg sticks firmly to Franconia: Schäufele, bratwurst and dumplings in timbered inns, with Silvaner from a Bocksbeutel or a regional beer. It has a slightly stronger local identity, especially in the family guesthouses and Tauber valley wine taverns away from the Marktplatz.

This is where Rothenburg pulls far ahead. The whole town inside the walls is the sight: the rampart walkway, the Plönlein between its gate towers, the view from the Rathaus tower, Riemenschneider's Holy Blood Altar in St Jakob's and the Medieval Crime Museum.

Interlaken offers a stroll past the belle époque hotels and the Kursaal on the Höheweg and a look at Unterseen's few timber houses. For real architecture you have to take the train to Bern or Thun.

Both towns go quiet early, but Interlaken has a bit more going on. Its backpacker pubs, sports bars and a couple of basement clubs fill up in summer and the ski season, and the Kursaal has a casino.

In Rothenburg the evening is a glass of Franconian wine in an inn and the night watchman's lantern-lit tour. Anyone wanting more has to drive to Würzburg or Nuremberg.

Interlaken is one of the great mountain bases in Europe. Within an hour by rail are the Jungfraujoch above the Aletsch glacier, the waterfalls of the Lauterbrunnen valley and ridge trails from Schynige Platte and Grindelwald First, with paragliding, canyoning and winter skiing on top.

Rothenburg's outdoors is small in scale and gentle: paths dropping from the walls to the mills and meadows of the Tauber, a family cycle route through vineyards and the rolling Frankenhöhe. It makes a lovely afternoon but not the reason for a trip.

Both make good bases, and Interlaken is slightly ahead because trains and paddle steamers do the work. Bern's arcaded old town, Thun's castle, the lakeside castles at Spiez and Oberhofen, Ballenberg's open-air museum and Lucerne are all reachable without a car.

Rothenburg's surroundings are just as rich in history: Dinkelsbühl, crater-ringed Nördlingen, Würzburg's Residenz and Nuremberg are all within about an hour. The catch is the branch-line railway, so you will want a car.

Interlaken is the better family choice. Cog railways, gondolas and lake steamers are an adventure in themselves, and the summit stations add playgrounds, cliff walks and summer toboggan runs, with the St Beatus caves and Ballenberg's farm animals for variety. Wet days and high altitude with toddlers are the weak points.

Rothenburg charms children for a day or two with its ramparts, its tower climb and the night watchman, and older ones love the torture devices in the crime museum. After that it runs short of things to do, and the cobbles are tough on pushchairs.

Both centres are small enough to walk, but beyond them the gap is wide. From Interlaken, mainline trains, Bernese Oberland railways, cable cars and steamers connect smoothly, so the whole Jungfrau region works without a car, and many hotels include a regional transport card. Only the summer crush on popular mountain trains spoils it.

In Rothenburg the old town takes about fifteen minutes to cross on foot, and cars are kept outside the gates. Leaving it is harder: rail trips usually need a change at Steinach and rural buses are sparse, so a car makes far more sense.

Neither town is a place to shop, and both sell mostly to people passing through, so the difference lies in what is on the shelves. Interlaken leans on Swiss luxury and keepsakes: watches and jewellery for the coach parties, then army knives, chocolate and cuckoo clocks, with outdoor shops for a forgotten rain jacket. Woodcarving from Brienz, along the lake, is the one thing made locally that is worth taking home.

Rothenburg has the slight edge because it has a speciality. Christmas decorations are on sale all year, from glass baubles to nutcrackers and Erzgebirge smoking men, alongside teddy bears and pewter in the Herrngasse and Schmiedgasse. In December the market fills the Marktplatz inside the medieval walls. In both towns, fashion and everyday shopping barely exist.

Rothenburg is much easier on the wallet. It has small-town German prices with a tourist premium on top, and you can save by staying outside the walls, drinking local wine and beer and walking everywhere for free.

Interlaken is expensive at every turn. Hotels and meals are at full Swiss levels, and the mountain railways that are the reason to come, the Jungfraujoch above all, cost more than most visitors expect. Picnics and passes help, but only a little.

Both towns keep their stage life seasonal and rooted in local legend, so neither offers much. Interlaken's amateur open-air William Tell in the woods is its signature, with folklore evenings of yodelling and alphorns, and Bern's theatre and orchestra are under an hour away.

Rothenburg answers with the costumed Meistertrunk play and its processions, summer open-air theatre and organ and choral concerts in St Jakob's.

Interlaken keeps its spas inside its grand hotels, while Rothenburg sends you out to real thermal baths. In Interlaken, the big Höheweg hotels and the town's public pool and wellness area are where you go to be pampered. Beyond that, rest comes from the setting: an early hour on the lakeshore, a slow steamer crossing, or a room up in car-free Wengen or Mürren, away from the coach groups and backpackers in the centre.

Rothenburg's hotel spas are small, but within about an hour's drive you can float in the salt-water pool at Bad Windsheim or soak in the old spa town of Bad Mergentheim. In town, the calm comes at dawn and after the day visitors leave, when the walls and the paths down into the Tauber valley are almost empty.