Lake Como or Swiss Alps?

Lake Como gives the better swimming, from lidos, pebble strips and stone jetties rather than sand. By high summer the water reaches about 24°C, and the lidos at Lenno, Bellagio and Menaggio fit easily between ferry rides, while the upper lake near Domaso has longer, more open shores.\n\nIn the Alps the lakes below the Jungfrau reach only about 20°C even in a warm August, so a dip is brisk, though the lidos are well kept and small mountain lakes such as the Caumasee are lovely. Swimmers who want water as warm as Como's have to go south to the Ticino lakes.

Both kitchens are regional and narrow, with no street food to speak of, so the difference is in kind. Lake Como cooks lake and valley food: perch in butter and sage on risotto, missoltini and polenta. It is best eaten in the crotti and trattorias of the hill villages rather than on the lakefront terraces.

The Alps are cheese country, with fondue, raclette and rösti served on hut terraces at the top of the lifts, and Zermatt and St Moritz add a layer of very expensive fine dining. For wine, Como has Valtellina Nebbiolo and the Alps have Petite Arvine and Cornalin from the Valais terraces.

Lake Como offers more satisfying sightseeing: a circuit of villas and gardens reached by boat, from the sculpture and azaleas of Villa Carlotta to Villa del Balbianello on its wooded point, plus Como's marble cathedral and Terragni's Casa del Fascio. Neither place has a major museum, but here the sights sit close together.

Alpine heritage is spread through the valleys: sgraffito houses at Guarda, the twin castles at Sion, Carolingian frescoes at Müstair and the Bernina railway itself. It rewards visitors who are already there for the mountains, but it is not a reason to come.

Neither is a place for big nights out, but the Alps at least have them in season. Winter après-ski in Verbier and Zermatt runs from terraces beside the slopes into clubs open past midnight, and St Moritz has a glossier scene of hotel bars. Out of winter the resorts are asleep by eleven.

Lake Como's evenings mean dinner by the water and a drink, with a few wine and cocktail bars in Como town. Bellagio and Varenna empty once the last ferry has gone, and the real fallback is the train to Milan.

Lake Como is a beautiful landscape, with mountains rising straight out of the water. Walkers have the Sentiero del Viandante and the Greenway, and windsurfers have the breva wind at Colico. Still, it is a lake framed by mountains, and most visitors see them from below.

The Alps are the mountains themselves: the Eiger and Jungfrau above Lauterbrunnen, the Matterhorn, the Aletsch glacier and ibex in the Swiss National Park. Trails start at cable-car stations, so high country is easy to reach. Winter brings some of the world's best skiing, which Como cannot offer.

Lake Como has the stronger day trips because Milan is about an hour away, with the Duomo, the Last Supper and La Scala. Bergamo's upper town and Lugano are just as close, and hopping between the central villages by ferry fills a day with no planning.

From the Bernese Oberland, the Alps offer Bern, Thun and Lucerne, with Gruyères and the Château de Chillon further west. These are pleasant towns rather than great cities, though there are plenty of them and each is easy to reach.

The Alps work far better with children. Ski schools at Grindelwald and Saas-Fee, summer toboggan runs, adventure playgrounds by the lifts and cogwheel trains make the days easy, and in car-free Wengen or Zermatt children can wander freely. Altitude needs some care with the very young.

Lake Como is safe and welcoming but not built for children. Bellagio and Varenna have steep stepped lanes, the shore roads lack pavements and many hotels are aimed at couples. Boats, the Brunate funicular and a lido fill some days, and the flatter upper lake near Domaso is the easiest family base.

You can manage without a car in both, but the Alps make it seamless. Trains, postbuses, lake steamers and cable cars run on connected timetables, and several resorts ban cars entirely. The limit is distance: crossing from the Oberland to the Engadine takes most of a day.

On Lake Como, the ferries across the central basin between Bellagio, Varenna and Menaggio work well, and trains run up the eastern shore. Outside that triangle travel slows down, and the narrow, tunnelled shore roads are best avoided in summer.

Neither is a place to plan a trip around the shops, and what each does offer is quite different. Lake Como has a single craft with deep roots: Como has woven silk for centuries, so a scarf or tie bought from a mill shop or outlet near the town comes with a real local story, and the Silk Museum tells it. Around that, Como's old centre has Italian labels and independent shops, and Bellagio's stepped lanes add leather and silk boutiques. It is browsing in a town rather than shopping for gear, and Milan is there for anything more ambitious.

In the Alps, the shops follow the visitors. St Moritz and Gstaad have glossy jewellery and fashion aimed at their winter guests, while Zermatt and Interlaken have watchmakers and technical climbing and hiking kit that is hard to match at home. The most rewarding finds are regional rather than retail: a wheel of alpine cheese from the dairy, wine from the Valais and a carving from Brienz. Como is better for an easy wander through shops, the Alps for buying something specific.

Lake Como is expensive in summer, above all at the villa hotels around Bellagio and Tremezzo, but there are ways round it. Como town and Lecco have ordinary hotels, Domaso and Gravedona have campsites, and ferries and trains are fairly priced.

The Alps cost a great deal more. Rooms, meals at mountain restaurants and above all the lifts and mountain railways add up fast, and self-catering and travel passes only soften the bill. On a fixed budget, Como goes noticeably further.

The Alps' strength is their summer festivals. The Verbier Festival in July and the Menuhin Festival in the churches around Gstaad bring leading soloists to mountain villages for weeks. Outside summer there is little beyond brass bands and alphorn evenings.

Lake Como has a year-round venue in Como's Teatro Sociale, a fine early nineteenth-century opera house, and summer concerts in villas and churches, but the programme is thinner overall. Its consolation is that La Scala is an easy trip away in Milan.

For rest and recovery, the Alps go much further. Taking the waters is a living tradition here, from the open-air pools of Leukerbad under the cliffs to the stone bath at Vals and the old springs of Bad Ragaz and Scuol. Car-free villages and clean mountain air do the rest.

Lake Como relaxes you through its pace, with days spent between terrace, garden and ferry, and the villa hotels near Cernobbio have fine spas with pools above the water. It has no thermal baths or public bathing, though, so how restful the stay is depends on where you book.