Interlaken or Stuttgart?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Interlaken at least has water you would want to swim in. In July and August the lidos and shingle beaches of Lake Thun, at Neuhaus and along the shore towards Spiez, are a good way to cool off after a hike. Lake Brienz is colder but a striking turquoise.

Stuttgart has no lake or river bathing at all. The Neckar is a working river and the Max-Eyth-See is for boating. Summer swimming here means outdoor pools, some of them fed by mineral springs, and Lake Constance is more than two hours away.

Stuttgart eats far better. Swabian cooking has a character of its own, from Maultaschen and Käsespätzle to Zwiebelrostbraten, and it comes with wine grown on slopes inside the city. You find it in traditional taverns, in the seasonal Besen and around the Markthalle, and there is a serious fine-dining scene as well.

Interlaken's restaurants are dependable but generic, mixing fondue, raclette and rösti with Indian and Asian menus for an international crowd. The best meals tend to happen above the town, on a hut terrace near Grindelwald or Mürren, or with Alpine cheese bought straight from a mountain dairy.

Stuttgart has far more to see. The Mercedes-Benz and Porsche museums hold car collections of international standing, the Staatsgalerie covers European painting and Le Corbusier's houses stand on the Weissenhof Estate. Add Schlossplatz, framed by the baroque Neues Schloss, and you have enough for two or three full days.

Interlaken offers a stroll past the grand hotels and the Kursaal on the Höheweg, a few old timber houses across the river in Unterseen and a small local museum. For anything more you have to take a train out of town.

Stuttgart is the better night out, though neither is a party city. Theodor-Heuss-Strasse fills with bar crowds at weekends, and clubs in basements and old industrial spaces cater to electronic music. The Cannstatter Volksfest and the late-summer wine village are the big seasonal high points.

Interlaken's evenings end early because most visitors have a morning train or hike ahead of them. A few backpacker pubs and basement clubs, the casino in the Kursaal and a drink on the Höheweg are about all there is.

Interlaken sits in some of the most dramatic mountain scenery in Europe. Trains and cable cars lift you onto high trails beneath the Eiger and Jungfrau, the Jungfraujoch at 3,454m looks out over the Aletsch glacier, and paragliding, canyoning, rafting and skiing all run from the town. The one catch is low cloud, which can hide the peaks for days.

Stuttgart's outdoors is gentler and closer to the city: vineyard trails above the Neckar, the deer forests of the Rotwildpark and Schönbuch, and the cliffs and caves of the Swabian Jura or the Black Forest ridges about an hour away. It is good walking and cycling country, but not high mountains.

Both make excellent bases, so the difference is in where you go. From Interlaken the trips are by lake and into the mountains: paddle steamers to the castles at Thun, Spiez and Oberhofen, woodcarving in Brienz, the open-air museum at Ballenberg, and Bern's arcaded old town in under an hour.

From Stuttgart the trips are to historic towns and palaces: baroque Ludwigsburg, half-timbered Esslingen, Tübingen and its punts, Heidelberg by fast train, the monastery at Maulbronn and the spire at Ulm. Strasbourg is possible as a long day out.

Interlaken has the edge for children who like being outdoors, because getting there is part of the fun. Rack railways, gondolas and steamers lead to playgrounds, cliff walks and summer toboggan runs at the summit stations, and the St Beatus caves and the farm animals at Ballenberg are reliable extras. Its weak spots are rainy days and the highest altitudes for very young children.

Stuttgart copes better with bad weather. Wilhelma's zoo and botanical gardens can fill a whole day, the car museums suit older children and Killesberg park has a narrow-gauge railway and animal enclosures. The hills make pushchair walks harder work.

Interlaken's transport is the more impressive of the two because it reaches so far beyond the town. The small, flat centre is easy to walk between the two stations. Beyond it, mainline trains, narrow-gauge railways, cog lines, gondolas and lake boats link into one system that covers the whole Jungfrau region without a car, though the most popular mountain trains get crowded in summer.

Stuttgart works well too, with a flat, walkable centre and one ticket covering the Stadtbahn, the S-Bahn, buses, a rack railway and a funicular. The catch is the steep sides of the basin, where you either ride or climb the Stäffele stairways.

Stuttgart is the real shopping city of the two. Königstrasse is a long pedestrian street of high-street brands, Breuninger covers designer fashion and the Bohnenviertel adds independent shops. The outlet town of Metzingen is half an hour away.

Interlaken's Höheweg sells watches, army knives, cuckoo clocks and chocolate to passing tour groups, plus outdoor gear. Woodcarving from Brienz is the one truly local thing worth taking home.

Neither is cheap, but Stuttgart is much easier on the budget. Hotel rates rise during trade fairs and fall at weekends, while meals in taverns and beer gardens and a public transport day ticket stay reasonable.

Interlaken charges full Swiss prices for everything. On top of rooms and meals, the mountain railways and cable cars add a heavy extra cost, the Jungfraujoch above all. Hostels, picnics and regional passes help, but there is no cheap way to do the region properly.

Stuttgart is one of Germany's serious stage cities. The Stuttgart Ballet, renowned since John Cranko's time, shares the state theatre with a bold opera company. The Liederhalle hosts orchestras and has a strong Bach tradition, and the theatres at Möhringen run big musicals.

Interlaken's highlight is the open-air William Tell, performed by amateurs in the woods each summer, plus folklore evenings of yodelling and alphorns. For a proper concert or play you need to go to Bern.

Stuttgart has a real bathing tradition that Interlaken lacks. The mineral springs of Bad Cannstatt and Berg feed public baths such as the Mineralbad Cannstatt and the Mineralbad Leuze, where warm, naturally carbonated water and saunas make for an easy, restful afternoon.

Interlaken relies on the hotel spas along the Höheweg and a public pool with a wellness area. Most of its calm comes from the setting: mornings on the lakeshore, slow steamer crossings and the quiet of Wengen or Mürren, away from the busy centre.