Interlaken or Venice?

Venice has the better beach option because it has the sea: the Lido's long sands face the Adriatic, with shallow, warm water in high summer and quieter stretches on Pellestrina. Interlaken's swimming is in lakes, mostly from grassy lidos and small shingle beaches on Lake Thun, and the glacial turquoise water of Lake Brienz is colder still.

In neither place is the beach the reason to go. In Interlaken it is a cool dip after a mountain day. In Venice it is one hot afternoon off from the sights.

Venice eats far better. Its bacari around the Rialto and in Cannaregio serve salt cod, sarde in saor and small glasses of wine at the counter, and the Rialto market supplies lagoon cooking such as black cuttlefish risotto. You do have to steer clear of the picture-menu places around San Marco.

Interlaken offers dependable fondue, rösti and an international spread for visitors, but nothing worth planning a meal around. Its best food is up in the hills: cheese from mountain dairies, lunch on a hut terrace and a white wine from Lake Thun.

This is the widest gap between the two cities. Venice is one continuous historic sight, from the gold mosaics of San Marco to the palazzi on the Grand Canal. Its art runs from the Accademia's Venetian masters to the Guggenheim, with the Biennale on top.

Interlaken has the grand hotels along the Höheweg, the Kursaal and a small old quarter in Unterseen, and that is about all. Culture there means taking the train to Bern or Thun.

Neither city stays up late, but Venice has the nicer evening. The aperitivo crowds fill the Fondamenta della Misericordia and the Rialto bacari, and students keep Campo Santa Margherita busy for a while longer. Interlaken's after-dark life is a few backpacker pubs, basement clubs and the Kursaal casino, with everyone in bed early for the morning trains. In both, a proper night out means leaving town.

Interlaken is one of Europe's great mountain bases. The Lauterbrunnen valley, Trümmelbach's falls inside the rock, the Jungfraujoch above the Aletsch glacier and trails from Grindelwald First and Mürren are all reached by train or cable car. Paragliding, rafting, lake paddling and winter skiing are run straight from town.

Venice's outdoors is quieter and flat. It offers birdwatching among the salt marshes near Torcello, kayaking or rowing standing up on the lagoon, and cycling along the sea walls of Pellestrina. The Dolomites are too far for an easy day.

Both are good bases, but Venice has the deeper list. Padua, Vicenza and Verona each have major art and architecture within a short fast-train ride, and the Brenta villas and Prosecco hills are close too. Murano, Burano and Torcello on the lagoon add a day out with no train needed.

Interlaken's outings are smaller in scale and more scenic. Bern's arcaded old town is under an hour away, paddle steamers call at castle towns such as Spiez and Oberhofen, and Ballenberg and Lucerne are within reach.

Interlaken is easier with children. The transport itself is half the fun, and summit stations have playgrounds, cliff walks and summer toboggan runs, with the St Beatus caves and Ballenberg as reliable extras. Rainy days and high altitude for toddlers are the weak spots.

Venice thrills children at first, with boats for buses and no cars. In practice, stepped bridges, summer crowds and humidity, and very few parks or playgrounds, make it best for a short stay with older children.

Interlaken comes out ahead because its network reaches so far. Mainline trains, narrow-gauge mountain railways, cog lines, gondolas and lake steamers connect smoothly, so the whole Jungfrau region works without a car, and the town itself is small and flat.

Venice is on foot or by water. Distances are short, but the alleys are a maze, the vaporetti are slow and crowded, and every bridge has steps, which you will feel with a suitcase or pushchair.

Venice is the better place to shop, as long as you buy craft. Murano glass, Burano lace, papier-mâché masks, marbled paper and furlane slippers are still made in workshops in Dorsoduro and Castello, and the fashion names line the Mercerie. Beware the imported copies on the main routes.

Interlaken's Höheweg sells watches, army knives, chocolate and cuckoo clocks to tour groups, plus outdoor gear. Brienz woodcarving is the one local craft worth bringing home.

Both are costly, and Interlaken is the harder on the wallet. Swiss prices apply to everything, and the mountain railways and cable cars at the heart of any stay add up fast. Picnics and passes help only so much.

Venice is expensive by Italian standards, especially central hotels and water transport. Eating cicchetti at the bar, staying in Mestre and visiting in late autumn or winter bring the cost down more than any trick in the Alps.

Venice has a real stage culture. La Fenice and the Teatro Malibran run opera, ballet and symphonic seasons, the Goldoni stages drama, and Vivaldi is played in churches most evenings.

Interlaken's highlight is the amateur open-air William Tell performed in the woods each summer, plus folklore evenings with yodelling and alphorns. For an orchestra you go to Bern.

The two are evenly matched and similar in setup: neither has its own bathing tradition, and both depend on hotel spas. What differs is where calm comes from. In Interlaken it is lakeshore mornings, slow steamer crossings and nights up in Wengen or Mürren. In Venice it is the car-free hush of Castello or Giudecca at dawn, with the Euganean thermal towns about an hour away.