Interlaken or Trieste?

Neither has sand, but Trieste is the one where swimming is part of the stay. Interlaken's lakes are only swimmable in July and August: Lake Thun is the warmer, with lidos at Neuhaus, and Lake Brienz is a glacial turquoise but colder. They are a refreshing dip after a hike rather than a reason to come.

In Trieste the Adriatic is used every day from June to September. Locals swim from Barcola's concrete platforms and ladders, from old bathing establishments near the centre, or from the pebble coves under the cliffs at Sistiana and Duino. The sea is warmer and clearer than either lake, as long as you are happy getting in off rocks.

Trieste eats far better. Interlaken's restaurants do reliable fondue, raclette and rösti for visitors, plus a run of international places, and the meals people remember come from the mountain dairies and hut terraces above Grindelwald and Mürren. Many visitors get by on supermarket picnics.

Trieste has a cuisine of its own, shaped by Italy, Austria and the Slavic world. Buffet counters carve boiled pork with horseradish, jota and sardoni appear on menus beside strudel, and the coffee comes with its own vocabulary. Up on the Karst, the osmize sell farm wine and ham. Neither city has much fine dining.

There is almost no contest here. Interlaken has a row of grand hotels and the Kursaal on the Höheweg, plus a few timber houses in Unterseen, and it expects you to take the train to Bern for museums and old architecture.

Trieste is a whole Habsburg seaport. Piazza Unità opens onto the sea, the Borgo Teresiano runs along the Canal Grande past San Spiridione, and San Giusto hill has its mosaics, castle and Roman theatre below. Add Miramare Castle, the Revoltella museum, the great synagogue and the Risiera di San Sabba memorial, and you have several full days.

Neither is a party city, but Trieste's evenings are longer and more sociable. Interlaken goes to bed early before trains and hikes. What is left is a handful of backpacker pubs and basement clubs near the hostels, the Kursaal casino and a quiet drink on the Höheweg.

Trieste revolves around the aperitivo: spritz and local white wine around Piazza Unità, along the Canal Grande and in Cavana, with student wine bars and, in summer, seafront kiosks at Barcola open late. Clubs are scarce there too, so it suits a long dinner by the sea more than dancing.

Interlaken is the stronger place for nature, and by a long way. Mountain railways climb to the Jungfraujoch above the Aletsch glacier, Lauterbrunnen's walls pour with waterfalls, and gondolas reach high trails at First, Schynige Platte and Mürren. Paragliders land in the town meadow, and in winter the Jungfrau ski areas take over. The one catch is cloud.

Trieste's landscape is limestone and sea instead. The Strada Napoleonica and the Rilke Path run along cliffs above the gulf, Val Rosandra offers gorge hiking and climbing, and the Grotta Gigante and Škocjan caves lie underground. There is also sailing and snorkelling off Miramare. It is good, but it is not on Alpine scale.

Both are excellent bases, and the difference is range. From Interlaken everything is Swiss and comes by rail or steamer: Bern's arcaded old town in under an hour, castle towns such as Thun, Spiez and Oberhofen on the lakes, Ballenberg's open-air museum and Lucerne over the Brünig Pass.

Trieste opens onto three countries. Aquileia's mosaics, star-shaped Palmanova and the Collio vineyards are in Friuli, Piran and Ljubljana are across the Slovenian border, and Venice is a long but realistic day by train. A car helps for Istria and the wine villages.

Interlaken works better with children, mainly because getting about is the fun. Rack railways and gondolas, summer toboggan runs and playgrounds at the summit stations, the St Beatus caves and Ballenberg's farm animals keep most ages busy. Wet days are the weak spot, and the highest summits can be too much for very young children.

Trieste is calm and safe, and it has the small aquarium and science centre that Interlaken lacks for rainy days. Otherwise it offers less. Swimming is off rocks, the streets above the waterfront are steep and stepped, and it suits older children who like caves and castles more than toddlers.

Interlaken is the easier of the two, because its transport is the trip itself. The flat town is a twenty-minute walk between its two stations, and beyond it the mainline trains, mountain railways, gondolas and lake steamers connect so well that you never need a car. The only drawback is crowding on the busiest summer trains.

Trieste's centre is flat and compact by the sea, but San Giusto and the districts behind it mean long flights of steps. A dense bus network and passenger boats to Muggia cover the rest. You only need a car for the Karst villages and trips over the border.

Trieste's shops have far more personality than Interlaken's tourist strip, though nobody plans a trip to either for shopping. Along the Höheweg, big watch and jewellery stores serve tour groups beside shops full of army knives, cuckoo clocks, chocolate and outdoor gear. The one local craft worth carrying home is woodcarving from Brienz.

In Trieste the clothing and shoe shops around Corso Italia are ordinary Italian high street. The antique and second-hand dealers in the old town lanes are better for an afternoon's browsing. The best souvenirs are edible: coffee from the city's roasters, Karst wine and honey, and presnitz.

This is one of the sharpest differences between them. In Interlaken, hotels, meals and drinks are at full Swiss levels, and the mountain railways that are the point of the trip, the Jungfraujoch above all, cost more than most visitors expect. Hostels and picnics help, but only a little.

Trieste is fairly priced for northern Italy. A bar coffee and a buffet plate are cheap, rooms are reasonable outside high summer and regatta time, and much of the best of the city costs nothing: the waterfront, the cathedral hill, swimming at Barcola and walks on the Karst.

Trieste has a real stage life, and Interlaken has mostly folklore. Interlaken's highlight is the summer open-air William Tell, performed by local amateurs in the woods, along with yodelling and alphorn evenings and the odd concert at the Kursaal. For a proper orchestra you go to Bern.

Trieste's Teatro Verdi runs a full season of opera and ballet on the waterfront and keeps alive an operetta tradition that is rare in Italy. The Politeama Rossetti and a Slovenian-language theatre add drama, and summer concerts move into the San Giusto castle courtyard. Small venues for live bands are thin on the ground.

Interlaken rests you through its setting, Trieste through its pace. In the Bernese Oberland that means the spas of the grand Höheweg hotels, early mornings on the lakeshore, slow steamer crossings and the quiet of Wengen and Mürren. The town centre itself is too full of coach groups and backpackers to feel restful.

Trieste slows you down with long sittings over a newspaper in its old coffee houses and a sunset walk out along the Molo Audace. Its spas are limited to hotels and a few day spas. Like Interlaken, it has no thermal baths, so anyone after a proper bathing cure will have to go elsewhere.