Interlaken or Verona?

Neither city has a coast, so in both a swim means a lake. In Interlaken you can use the grassy lidos on Lake Thun at Neuhaus or bathe in the cold glacial turquoise of Lake Brienz at Bönigen. It is a lovely, bracing end to a mountain day, but only in high summer.

Verona does a little better because Lake Garda is warmer and has more to offer. It is about half an hour away, with lidos and sunbeds, lawns running down to the water and the flat limestone shelves at Sirmione, and the season runs from June to September. Even so, it is a day out and not a reason to stay in the city.

Interlaken feeds you without much excitement. Tourist restaurants serve fondue, raclette and rösti alongside a run of Indian and Asian places, and many visitors live on supermarket picnics. The best meals are found higher up, at hut terraces and mountain dairies.

Verona has a real regional kitchen: Amarone risotto, bigoli with duck, and bollito misto with peppery pearà, served in plain osterie around Piazza delle Erbe and in Veronetta. The vineyards of Valpolicella, Soave and Bardolino are a short drive away, so the wine on the table is far better than anything grown near Interlaken.

This is where the two cities differ most. Interlaken's sights come down to the grand nineteenth-century hotels and the Kursaal on the Höheweg, plus a few old timber houses in Unterseen. The town was built as a base for the mountains, not as a place to see.

Verona's UNESCO-listed centre layers Roman, medieval and Renaissance city on top of one another. You have the Arena on Piazza Bra, the Roman theatre below Castel San Pietro, the della Scala tombs, the bronze doors of San Zeno and Castelvecchio in its Scarpa setting, enough for two or three unhurried days on foot.

Neither city is made for late nights, but in Verona an evening goes further. Going out in Interlaken means a few backpacker pubs and basement clubs near the hostels, the casino in the Kursaal and an early night before the morning train. Verona has its aperitivo hour in Piazza delle Erbe and along Corso Porta Borsari, cheaper student wine bars in Veronetta, and in summer the opera crowd spilling out of the Arena near midnight.

Interlaken is one of the great bases in the Alps. The Jungfraujoch at 3,454m looks over the Aletsch glacier, the Lauterbrunnen valley has its waterfalls and Trümmelbach thunders inside the rock, and trails lead out from Grindelwald First, Schynige Platte and Mürren. Add paragliding, canyoning and winter skiing, and only low cloud gets in the way.

Verona's outdoors are softer and further off. There are vineyard walks in Valpolicella and the cycle route up the Adige, and Monte Baldo and the sailing winds of northern Garda are about an hour away. It is pleasant country, but nothing like the high mountains.

Both are good bases with strong rail links, but Verona offers more variety. From Interlaken the outings stay mostly within one region: Bern's arcaded old town in under an hour, paddle steamers to castle towns such as Spiez and Oberhofen, woodcarving at Brienz with Ballenberg nearby, and Lucerne over the Brünig Pass for a longer day.

From Verona, Venice, Palladio's Vicenza, Giotto's chapel in Padua and lake-ringed Mantua are all about an hour or less by train. The Garda towns and the cellars of Valpolicella and Soave are closer still, so you can mix art cities, lake harbours and wine tastings in one week.

Both work well with children, in different ways. Interlaken has a slight edge because the fun is part of every outing: rack railways, gondolas and steamers, playgrounds and summer toboggan runs at the summits, the St Beatus caves and the farm animals at Ballenberg, all reachable without a car. Its weak points are wet days and the high altitudes, which can be hard on very young children.

Verona's big attractions, Gardaland, the water parks on Garda's southern shore and the safari at Parco Natura Viva, all lie outside town and mostly need a car. The flat, largely pedestrian centre is easy with a pushchair, but hot afternoons and sights aimed at adults make the city itself less of a draw.

In Interlaken the town is small and flat, but the real advantage is the network beyond it. Mainline trains, narrow-gauge mountain lines, cog railways, gondolas and lake steamers connect neatly, so you can cover the whole Jungfrau region without a car, though the busiest mountain trains get crowded in summer.

Verona is a walking city where everything inside the Adige loop is a short stroll apart, and its trains to Venice, Milan and the lake are excellent. Away from those lines, the Valpolicella villages, the Lessinia and some Garda attractions are much easier with a car.

Interlaken's Höheweg sells watches, army knives, cuckoo clocks and chocolate to tour groups, with outdoor gear for anyone who arrived underprepared. Woodcarving from Brienz is the only local craft worth seeking out. Verona has a proper shopping street in marble-paved Via Mazzini, with smaller boutiques and jewellers along Corso Porta Borsari, and edible souvenirs worth the suitcase space: Amarone, Garda olive oil and the star-shaped pandoro.

Interlaken is a very expensive place to stay. Rooms, meals and drinks cost full Swiss rates, and the mountain railways that fill every day, the Jungfraujoch above all, add a great deal more. Hostels, passes and picnics only help so much.

Verona is much easier on the budget, though not cheap. Central hotels are dear, especially on opera nights, but the osterie in Veronetta, snacks with a glass at wine counters and a centre you can walk keep everyday spending moderate.

In Interlaken live performance means the summer open-air William Tell, played by local amateurs in the woods, folklore evenings with yodelling and alphorns, and the odd concert at the Kursaal. For a proper theatre or orchestra you go to Bern.

Verona has something worth building a trip around: grand opera in the Roman Arena on most summer evenings. On top of that come Shakespeare, dance and jazz in the Roman theatre and a cooler-season programme at the Teatro Filarmonico.

Interlaken has no bathing culture of its own and relies on hotel spas along the Höheweg and the town's public wellness area. The calm comes from lakeshore mornings, slow steamer crossings and the mountain villages above, because the centre itself is busy and geared to activity.

Verona has no baths of its own either, but warm springs lie close by: the thermal pools at Sirmione facing Lake Garda, the spring-fed lake near Lazise and the springs at Caldiero, used since Roman times. Long lunches and an evening passeggiata by the river slow the pace further.