Lausanne or Lugano?

Neither city has a beach in the usual sense. Both swim in their lake from about June to early September, and the water is similarly warm. Lausanne's bathing happens on lawns, piers and pebble shores from Vidy to Lutry, with the historic Bellerive lido as the classic afternoon.

Lugano's swimming is more organised around lidos with wooden decks, pools and ladders, the main one at the mouth of the Cassarate. It also has small lake baths in villages reached by boat, which makes a swim easy to combine with a day on the water.

Lausanne eats better, mostly because of its wine and its top restaurants. Lavaux Chasselas tasted in village caveaux, lake perch, papet vaudois and the Saturday market at Riponne give it a clear local identity, and some of Switzerland's most celebrated restaurants are in and around the city.

Lugano's strength is narrower but more atmospheric: the grotto, where polenta, braised meats and salumi come to granite tables under chestnut trees, with Ticino Merlot. Beyond that the range is thin, and many visitors save their serious meals for Italy.

Lausanne has much more to see. The cathedral of Notre-Dame, with its painted portal and the night watchman still calling the hours, anchors a steep old town. The Olympic Museum at Ouchy, Plateforme 10 beside the station and the Collection de l'Art Brut give it real depth.

Lugano is pleasant rather than substantial: the Lombard arcades around Piazza della Riforma, San Lorenzo above them, and Luini's Passion fresco in Santa Maria degli Angioli as the single great work. One day covers it, where Lausanne needs two or three.

Lausanne is the livelier of the two after dark, thanks to its university and EPFL students. The Flon's warehouse clubs and late bars fill on Friday and Saturday nights, and summer evenings spill onto the waterfront at Ouchy.

Lugano's evenings are an aperitivo and a long dinner, with a few lounge bars by the water and hardly any clubs. The town is usually quiet before midnight, and young locals head to Milan to go out.

Both cities are set in outstanding scenery, but it is different in kind. Lausanne looks across Lake Geneva to the French Alps, has the Lavaux vineyard terraces for walking, and puts the high mountains of the Vaud Alps within an hour, with skiing at Villars and Les Diablerets and a glacier at Glacier 3000. The Jura adds long hikes and cross-country skiing.

Lugano's mountains begin at the edge of town. Funiculars climb Monte Brè and San Salvatore, a rack railway goes up Monte Generoso, and the Gandria lakeside path and the Lema to Tamaro ridge are classic walks. It is better for walking in spring and autumn than for snow, since the high Alps are further off.

Both are excellent bases, but they point in different directions. From Lausanne, trains reach Montreux and the Château de Chillon, Geneva, Bern, Fribourg and Gruyères, and boats cross to Évian, so the trips stay mostly within Swiss towns and villages.

Lugano's day trips cross a border. Milan with The Last Supper is just over an hour away, Como half an hour, and Bergamo is within reach. On the Swiss side are the castles of Bellinzona and Lake Maggiore with the Borromean Islands, which gives Lugano the better choice for anyone who wants Italian cities in the mix.

Lausanne has more aimed directly at children. The Olympic Museum is interactive, the aquarium-vivarium shows freshwater life, and Sauvabelin combines an animal park, pedal boats and a wooden tower to climb, with paddle steamers and the Bellerive pools for summer.

Lugano is just as safe and calm, but it relies on the lake and the mountain railways. Boat trips, lido slides and the Swissminiatur park at Melide suit small children well, but there is no zoo, aquarium or science museum for older ones. Both cities are steep work with a pushchair.

Getting around is equally easy in both, and in both the obstacle is the slope rather than distance. Lausanne solves it with the m2 metro, which climbs more than 300m from Ouchy through the station and the Flon to the upper town, so a day can be planned largely around one line.

Lugano is more of a walking town along its flat lakefront promenade, with a short funicular from the high station down to the old town and buses for the hillsides. Its funiculars and rack railways also carry you straight up the surrounding mountains, so getting about doubles as sightseeing. Anyone tempted to drive should know that parking in town is scarce and the valley roads are narrow.

Shopping is a side activity in both, with similar strengths: Swiss watches, jewellery and food to take home. Lausanne spreads it across Rue de Bourg, Saint-François and the Flon, and its best buys are chocolate and Lavaux wine.

Lugano concentrates everything in arcaded Via Nassa, which leans more towards Italian fashion and a wealthy clientele, with delicatessens in the lanes around it. It also has the large designer outlet at Mendrisio near the border and Milan within easy reach for serious shopping.

Both are among the most expensive places in Europe to spend a vacation, and neither has a cheap way to stay. In Lausanne the savings come from supermarket picnics, free lakeside promenades and a glass of Chasselas in a village caveau.

Lugano has slightly more ways to cut costs. Grotti and set lunches are reasonable ways to eat well, hotel stays usually include free regional transport, and lunch in an Italian lakeside town on a day trip costs far less.

Lausanne has the richer stage life, unusually so for its size. The Béjart Ballet and the Prix de Lausanne make it a dance city, the lakeside Théâtre de Vidy is known across Europe for contemporary work, and the opera and the chamber orchestra run full seasons. The Montreux Jazz Festival is a short train ride away in July.

Lugano concentrates almost everything at LAC, where the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana plays in a concert hall with fine acoustics. Much of the theatre is in Italian, and the summer high point is free open-air jazz at Estival Jazz on Piazza della Riforma.

Neither city has a bathing tradition of its own, and both rely on grand lakeside hotel spas. The difference is what lies nearby. From Lausanne, real thermal water is a short train ride away at Yverdon-les-Bains and at Lavey-les-Bains, the hottest springs in Switzerland, while the Lavaux vineyard paths offer quiet walking.

Lugano's calm comes from its climate and pace: palm-lined promenades, Parco Ciani and long grotto lunches. For pools and saunas there is an indoor complex near Rivera.